There are movies in this world that are a must see for some audiences, movies that can change your way of thinking and the way you see and perceive the world. Alex Merkin did all of these in less than twenty minutes in a short drama that really blows you away.

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As simple as it is, this story is way more than the eye can catch. One guy tries to sell his guitar only to make money to pay the room at the cheap motel he lives in with his wife. The dialogue with the person from the pawn shop is pretty brutal in terms of emotions and truth be told, his monologue is the best we’ve witnessed in our festival so far. Also, the flashbacks of the good times and the bad times from his marriage are exceptionally constructed and came as a perfect overlay on the main story.

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The acting is insanely beautiful – the main character does a great role, maintaining all over the movie the face of a broken man that knows he did something wrong but it is very hard for him to acknowledge the deed.

There were some scenes that really caught our attention in 'This Modern Man is Beat': when the guy returns from the pawn shop, he enters the motel only to steal some coffee milk for a cat we can’t see in the short but we hear at some point. Also, the movie begins with a certain scene where the main character puts an ice pack over the back of his head, and we can understand from here that there was a bruise or a scar that ignited the action of the movie.