What’s Left Unsaid Hits the Hardest

Read Time:4 Minute, 33 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Before You
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Genre: Drama, Thriller, Short
Year Released: 2025
Runtime: 15m
Director(s): Lauren Melinda
Writer(s): Lauren Melinda
Cast: Adam Rodriguez, Tala Ashe
Where to Watch: Shown at the 2025 Cleveland International Film Festival

RAVING REVIEW: Sometimes, a film will stay with you for the long term. BEFORE YOU does exactly that with its emotionally packed, grounded story and focused voice. The film explores a deeply personal topic without ever feeling inaccessible. It’s the kind of film that doesn’t need to scream to be heard. It speaks in cautious gestures, with a direct, empathetic, and artfully restrained tone — a rare combination that makes its 15-minute runtime feel impressively complete. Directed, written, and produced by Lauren Melinda, BEFORE YOU draws from lived experience to examine the ripple effect of a life-altering decision, all while reflecting on womanhood, loss, and the very idea of moving forward.

Instead of following a standard chronological format, the story is fragmented and reflective — mirroring how our memories revisit us: not as neatly ordered timelines, but as disjointed snapshots. This nonlinear structure isn’t just a stylistic decision. It forms the backbone of the story’s logic, where each transition from past to present feels less like a cut and more like a thought breaking through. It’s a creative decision that fits the film’s emotion perfectly. Rather than hand-holding the audience, the film trusts them to follow along and make connections, which gives the material a striking authenticity.

The story revolves around a couple — portrayed with love and tension by Tala Ashe and Adam Rodriguez — who face an unthinkable medical choice. While the details are never fully explained, the film evokes the grief and unsteadiness of a choice made not out of convenience but necessity. This isn’t a story about recklessness or regret, but about reconciliation — not with others, but with oneself. Ashe’s performance anchors the story, capturing a quiet unraveling that never turns melodramatic. More than any line of dialogue, her expressions carry the weight of what’s gone unsaid. Meanwhile, Rodriguez portrays his character without ever disappearing into the background and never overshadowing the core, and their shared scenes feel intimate without being overly dramatized.

The sound design and score also play a subtle but vital role. Instead of overwhelming the scenes with swelling music cues, the audio here is more atmospheric, blending ambient sounds and shifting tones that echo the internal chaos of the characters. It’s part of what helps the film feel grounded, even in its more stylized moments. There's a level of restraint at play — not just visually or structurally, but mentally — that lets the audience feel the weight of what's happening rather than being told how to think about it.

The film tells a story at a time when bodily autonomy is constantly threatened across the United States; BEFORE YOU feels particularly resonant. But it never tries to make a political argument. Instead, it creates space for viewers to consider the emotional dimensions of reproductive healthcare — often erased or reduced in the larger debate.

That kind of quiet radicalism is part of what makes the film work. It doesn’t plead for empathy; it expects it. It doesn’t treat the audience as jurors to be convinced. Rather, it lays out a story — grounded in experience — and trusts that viewers can engage with intricacy. That trust pays off. By the end of the short, we don’t have a complete picture of the protagonist’s life, nor do we need one. Instead, we’re left with a strong imprint — a lingering sense of someone trying to hold their past and present in the same breath.

This isn’t just an example of how personal storytelling can intersect with filmmaking — it’s a reminder that short films can hit just as hard as their feature-length counterparts when crafted with vision, control, and genuine care. BEFORE YOU doesn’t try to answer every question. But it asks the right ones — and it does so with clarity, courage, and grace.

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[photo courtesy of SIMBELLE PRODUCTIONS, DRIVEN EQUATION]

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