Parasocial (film)

Parasocial is a 2022 American comedy short film co-written, produced, and directed by Joseph Jeavons. It stars Joseph Jeavons as the protagonist alongside Sam Teague, Beckett Nichols, and Jordan Mook. The story sees an innocent and kindhearted college student, Ricky, becoming an accomplice to his roommate, Dylan's, illegal horse meat operation.

This film premiered at the North Andover Film Festival in North Andover, Massachusetts on August 13, 2022, followed by its screening at the Houston Comedy Film Festival that following November.

Plot
Two police officers, Detective Calhoun, and Detective Charles Black, are on the verge of solving the case of "Masked Horse Meat Bandit," and they have narrowed their search down to a handful of suspects, one of which, is Ricky. Dylan, Ricky's roommate, is aware of the heat on the tail of his illegal meat operation and decides to lay low while convincing his idiotic roommate to do his bidding for him. On his way home from L.A.R.P. in the Park, Ricky is intercepted by the two investigating police officers. They escort him to an interrogation room and gather as much intel as they can on what Ricky knows. Completely oblivious to the situation, Ricky tells them exactly what they need to hear and is then released from holding.

Detective Charles Black goes undercover to further investigate the two roommates and eventually infiltrates their apartment. Dylan meets with Ricky in his car and tricks him into tagging along to an alleyway where Dylan is supposed to deliver the horse meat. To their surprise, Detective Charles Black is there too, and the situation escalates into a shootout. Ricky is shot in the shoulder twice and experiences a dream-like sequence of events that are later revealed to have been a result of his blood loss. Dylan deserts Ricky and chases after Detective Black.

Cast

 * Joseph Jeavons as Ricky, an innocent, happy-go-lucky college student.
 * Sam Teague as Dylan, an amateur criminal who doesn't value relationships.
 * Beckett Nichols as Detective Charles Black, a perverted officer of the law.
 * Jordan Mook as Detective Calhoun, a dedicated officer of the law.
 * Bellavia Giannoni as The Reporter
 * Cathal Mayfield as The L.A.R.P. Faction Leader

Production
The film began development in May 2022, with a writing team composed of Jeavons, Owen Swift, and Bala Brown. Parasocial was awarded the Houston Comedy Film Festival Fall 2022's Best Student Film Award on November 12, 2022. In an interview with Mikel Fair, Director of Houston Comedy Film Festival, Fair stated that the judges looked past the inexperienced camera work and production quality, and instead saw a comedic script accompanied by a group of dedicated teens working hard and having fun putting together this passion project.

Reception
With Parasocial becoming available to the public on January 3, 2023, it received an average rating of 7.1/10 on IMDb. Richard Propes of The Independent Critic wrote, "Jeavons shows quite a bit of promise with his storytelling and obviously is able to get his cast to have fun with this 17-minute comedy short film."