You Are the Film is screening as part of the 2026 Fantasia International Film Festival.

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Madoka (Marika Ito) is going to see a film. It is not a popular title, and it is playing at a tiny theater attended by no one but herself. But it is a film shot locally, so she decides to give it a try. In the film, Kazuma (Kai Inowaki) is going to see a film. What he sees on that cinema screen is Madoka. Madoka is a playwright for a small theatre troupe, Kazuma is the frontman of a fledgling rock band that’s going nowhere. Their lives not only share similarities, but they are seemingly operating in direct parallel—a parallel they are able to physically see through the apparatus of the cinema screen. They see each other through the screen and can communicate to one another, and both want the other to leave the theater so something interesting can happen in their respective film.

Madoka, upset to hear from the synopsis of the “film” in which she is starring that some of her actors want to drop out of her new production, is the first to leave the auditorium. Kazuma watches as, in fact, two actors promptly inform Madoka that they will not be acting for her any longer. When Madoka returns to the theater demanding Kazuma tell her how her story will end, he is rushed out of the theater for a scene of his own.

The premise for You Are the Film is inventive, something to be expected from screenwriter Makoto Ueda, whose previous two scripts (River and Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes) also played with form and narrative in looping, reflexive ways. Ueda also directs here, and he mainly employs mobile handheld shots following the characters as they move about the space. There isn’t a particularly elaborate aesthetic, and the mobile shots feel more functional than stylish. But this works just fine, as the visuals are in service of the paralleling of the two stories. Madoka exits the theater, glides into another scene, then returns to the theater. Then, Kazuma does something similar, and the smooth camerawork makes it feel connected and fluid.

The dual stories that are told in You Are the Film are not complicated or overly thrilling; what makes them engaging is how the two characters use their rudimentary understanding of cinematic language to inform each other about what is going on in scenes when they exit. Kazuma explains to Madoka that he saw the camera push in on another character’s action, which causes him to think that this character is hiding something from Madoka. It is how the films within this film are presented that help move the story in interesting directions.

Then, the film introduces a riff on genres that is light and, for a time, fun. The whole thing is not very deep; it is purely concept-driven. That said, it is playful and enjoyable. If anything, there could have been more going on with the ancillary characters and the genre parodies they inhabit to flesh out the brief film and indulge more heavily in the comedy. But as it is, You Are the Film is clever, and its levity makes it brisk and easily digestible.

You Are the Film: B

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As always, thanks for reading!

—Alex Brannan (Letterboxd)