When Satire Flirts With Reality

Read Time:6 Minute, 5 Second

MOVIE REVIEWS
Six Stars
–

Genre: Action, Thriller, Short
Year Released: 2025, 2026
Runtime: 7m
Director(s): Todd Wiseman Jr.
Writer(s): Todd Wiseman Jr.
Cast: Milo Machado-Graner, Abigail London, Ayla Apple
Where to Watch: available now, watch here: www.youtube.com

RAVING REVIEW: SIX STARS wastes no time asking your permission. It begins in motion and stays there, operating with the confidence of something that knows exactly what it wants to confront and refuses to soften the blow. At seven minutes, it doesn’t have the luxury of easing you in, and it doesn’t try. Todd Wiseman Jr. builds the film like a controlled detonation, one idea, one trajectory, no exits. The result is a short that doesn’t feel abbreviated so much as compressed, dense with intent and stripped of anything that might dilute its focus.

The premise follows a teenager drifting through public spaces while committing increasingly brazen acts of violence, presented with a detached, almost mechanical confidence that turns brutality into routine. That structure is instantly clear, which is precisely the point. The film depends on the viewer recognizing the rules without having them explained. There’s escalation, rewards, impulse, and the unspoken understanding that everything happening is being measured against an invisible scoreboard. The title itself functions as a knowing wink, an acknowledgment of how cruelty gets quantified, rated, and shared.

What separates SIX STARS is its refusal to analyze the central figure. Milo Machado-Graner plays the teenager not as a victim of trauma or an overdetermined symbol, but as a vessel. His performance is controlled, almost hollow, and that restraint is crucial. This isn’t a traditional character study. The film isn’t asking why he does what he does. It’s asking how easily a body can be slotted into a role once the rules are familiar and the rewards are implied.

Machado-Graner’s physical presence does most of the work. His movements are purposeful, his expression largely unreadable, and his stillness between bursts of action is as unsettling as the violence itself. He never overplays menace. Instead, he carries himself with the casual entitlement of someone who believes the space belongs to him. That choice keeps the film from slipping into a caricature. The horror here isn’t rage or desperation, it’s comfort.

Wiseman’s direction is disciplined to the point of severity. Every shot exists to advance the idea, not to decorate it. The camera moves with confidence but never indulgence, tracking the protagonist through sunlit streets and public environments that feel disturbingly neutral. There’s no visual attempt to make the violence feel exceptional or hidden. It unfolds in places that look familiar, even pleasant, which forces the viewer to sit with the contradiction. This isn’t a nightmare version of America. It’s the bar, the expectations, and while it’s a live-action realization, it’s something deeper.

That choice extends to the film’s use of sound and pacing. The score pushes forward without romanticizing the action, functioning less as emotional guidance and more as bracing. The cadence never allows the viewer to settle into reflection mid-scene. By the time you register what’s happening, the film has already moved on. This motion mirrors the logic of the world it’s critiquing, where impact matters more than aftermath, and attention is the only currency that counts.

SIX STARS is at its sharpest when it implicates passive participation. The film isn’t content to point at the person committing harm. It keeps glancing outward, toward the invisible audience that gives the act meaning. Violence here is framed as content first, consequence second. Each escalation feels calibrated for visibility, as if the protagonist is responding to an unseen metric of approval. The absence of explicit commentary makes this even more effective. The film trusts the viewer to recognize the feedback loop without spelling it out.

There’s a specific unease in how the short handles masculinity. It presents aggression not as a personal failing but as a packaged identity, something learned and reinforced through repetition. The teenager isn’t discovering power; he’s rehearsing it. The behaviors on display feel borrowed, almost performative, which raises uncomfortable questions about where those scenarios come from and how easily they’re adopted. Wiseman doesn’t position this as an isolated pathology. It’s a cultural product, one that circulates freely and rewards compliance.

At seven minutes, SIX STARS ends abruptly, but not incompletely. There’s no attempt at closure, no moral punctuation. The cut to black doesn’t feel like a conclusion so much as a deliberate pause, a moment when the film chooses not to follow the violence further. You’re left with the residue of what you’ve seen and the uneasy awareness of how quickly it all felt legible. That lingering discomfort is the film’s real success. It doesn’t offer catharsis or resolution. It offers recognition.

SIX STARS is a tightly controlled provocation that understands its own tools and the dangers of using them. It may not escape every contradiction it raises, but it confronts them head-on, which is more than most shorts of this length attempt. In seven minutes, it manages to be confrontational, unsettling, and observed, a compact but potent reminder of how thin the line can be between playacting and harm once the rules are already written.

This is a live-action reimagining of GRAND THEFT AUTO, a translation of that familiar structure into the physical world. The influence is obvious in the movement, pacing, and escalation, but keeping that framework mostly unspoken throughout the review is intentional. What matters more than the reference point is the discomfort it creates, the way the film mirrors how easily exhibition, firearms, and cruelty become normalized when repetition dulls consequence. By grounding those impulses in reality rather than abstraction, the film forces an uneasy recognition of how close that fantasy already sits to the world outside the screen.

Please visit https://linktr.ee/overlyhonestr for more reviews.

You can follow me on Letterboxd, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. My social media accounts can also be found on most platforms by searching for 'Overly Honest Reviews'.

I’m always happy to hear from my readers; please don't hesitate to say hello or send me any questions about movies.

[photo courtesy of SHORT FRAME]

DISCLAIMER:
At Overly Honest Movie Reviews, we value honesty and transparency. Occasionally, we receive complimentary items for review, including DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs, Vinyl Records, Books, and more. We assure you that these arrangements do not influence our reviews, as we are committed to providing unbiased and sincere evaluations. We aim to help you make informed entertainment choices regardless of our relationship with distributors or producers.

Amazon Affiliate Links:
Additionally, this site contains Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, we may receive a commission. This affiliate arrangement does not affect our commitment to honest reviews and helps support our site. We appreciate your trust and support as you navigate these links.