SXSW '25: Bunny’s Beautifully Crafted Chaos Thrills

Bunny (Mo Stark, also co-writer), the titular lead of the dramedy Bunny, which premiered at SXSW 2025, is the sort of guy you’d want for a neighbor. He’s a bit of a hustler, but he’s out to get through the day, not rip people off. He’s a sex worker and jack-of-all-trades who knows everyone in his building, from his wife Bobbie (Liza Colby) and best friend Dino (Ben Jacobson, also director and writer) to landlady Linda (Linda Rong Mei Chen) to the girls throwing a party a floor below to those two golfing jerks in popped collars. He and Bobbie are good hosts to their anxious, Orthodox Jewish AirB&B guest Happy Chana (Genevieve Hudson-Price), and he will, without fail, help a neighbor with a bad arm carry his cart up and down their apartment’s New-York-steep staircase. It’s a wild life, but Bunny’s generally pretty happy. It’s his birthday, and it should be a good day on paper. 

There’s just the matter of the professional goon Bunny killed in self-defense. And Bobbie’s estranged dad, Loren (Anthony Drazan), popping in unexpectedly. And a mysterious stench from an apartment a few floors above Linda wants him to look into. Oh, and the two cops (Liz Carribel Sierra and Ajay Naidu) who keep swinging by the building to ask for food recommendations. It will be a long day and probably an even longer night.

Bunny is my favorite film of SXSW, and as of this writing, my favorite film of 2025. It’s a screamingly funny character study rich with capital-I Incidents. It approaches the heavier aspects of its story—Bunny escaping a sexual assault before the film begins, Bobbie and Loren’s estrangement, and Happy Chana’s enduring loneliness and desperation for connection, among others—with care. It skillfully balances familiar frustrations (the apartment’s awful staircase, which is both narrow and steep) with the absurd (the corpse and everything that comes with it). It makes time for stillness and quiet amidst raucousness, creating space for its characters to breathe and take in a bonkers day.

Bunny owes its success to its excellent character work, particularly how the ensemble plays off the title character. After a brief flashforward that opens the film, Stark introduces Bunny on the run, slightly panicked but trying to keep his eyes on the ball. He’s processing trauma while life continues to tick forward. But, as overwhelmed, exasperated, and flummoxed as Bunny gets, he’s got himself together enough to serve as a rock for his zanier friends and acquaintances. Bobbie’s similarly grounded, but Loren’s sudden appearance has thrown her off her game. Dino’s a great friend but also a perpetually stoned ditz. Loren wants to try and make things right with Bobbie, but it’s been decades, and trying to make contact is decidedly stressful. Linda would like to know why one of her apartments reeks. The cops are amiable enough, but they’re law enforcement, and Bunny’s killed a goon.

Stark sets Bunny’s tone and keeps it grounded. His reactions always ring true, regardless of the film's register. His steady work binds the movie together at its bleakest and zaniest, ensuring it is always coherent even as it moves between tones and moods. He works well with his castmates, especially Colby and Jacobson. Together, Bunny’s ensemble builds a crew whose connections and points of tension both read as genuine and frequently lead to hilarity, be it a chuckle over Dino’s excitement over gifting Bunny a Basketball Diaries tank top for his birthday so that they can match outfits or a very bitter laugh over everyone being pleasantly surprised by the tasteful decor in an apartment where something terrible has happened to the screaming cackles that come with trying to stuff a body in a suitcase and then trying to get rid of that suitcase.

Bunny successfully balances its many comedy styles with striking drama. For all that it relentlessly charges forward, Jacobson and his creative team know when to ease off the gas and let their movie breathe. Stark’s a dynamic, likable lead, and the ensemble matches him beat for beat. Put simply, I adored Bunny. I can’t wait for more folks to get a chance to see it.

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