A complex chick deals with a vanilla beau, a shitty brunch, and a dead coyote all in a Los Angeles day. There’s batshit crazy and then there’s good crazy…she fits somewhere in between.

A Comedy Drama Short film “Good Crazy” picks of the weeks by Staff Pick Premiere on @vimeo.

Director: Rosa Salazar

Screenplay: Rosa Salazar

Music director: Kevin Blumenfeld

Producer: Tobias Louie

Cast: Rosa Salazar, Jacob Wysocki, Graham Mackie, Matt Chute, Turen Robinson

It’s a word that flies out of our mouths in zillion different ways: CRAZY. There’s restraining-order crazy, elaborate-prom-posals crazy, a-trillion-views-on-Facebook crazy, grandma-just-got-a-sleeve-tattoo crazy, etc. In today’s vernacular, it’s kind of the every word and it’s often used to describe women, as the residue of ancient gender stereotypes still prevails in modern culture. Men should be the risk-takers, while women idly stand by and take care of a man should he fail. When a woman steps outside of these boundaries, it’s easy (and lazy) to label her as one of the “crazy” ones. In the case of this week’s Staff Pick Premiere “Good Crazy,” the behavior that a boyfriend perceives as exhaustingly excessive is his girlfriend’s perceived duty as a law-abiding, public-space-respecting, animal-loving human.

While partaking in very normal weekend activities with her average (read: vanilla/nice but boring) partner, Rosa goes above and beyond to make any disconcerting circumstance better even if she may appear to be outdoing herself. Ultimately, this Sundance 2017 short is about considering the intentions of those who go out of their way to turn a negative into a positive, no matter the results. About the main character’s particular brand of crazy in “Good Crazy,” director, writer, and star Rosa Salazar explain: “It’s about being a person who has an interesting code if you will. You see, there’s CRAZY crazy someone who is completely irrational and lacks the awareness to be a functional member of society. And then there’s GOOD crazy a person who fights the everyday injustices, a social crusader, often misunderstood and thus intimidating to others due to a severe case of ‘wokeness.’ Because women are by nature intuitive creatures, we possess that ‘wokeness’ and are unfortunately susceptible to being lumped in with the crazy crazies.”

I’m sure you’ve been there before standing on one end of the crazy spectrum, while, oblivious to you, a witness to your behavior thinks you’ve taken a one-way ticket to crazy-town. If so, you may identify with the sweet, harmless motives of Rosa in “Good Crazy,” and the comical train wreck that ensues.

Teen Andrea uses a male stripper to gain the respect and admiration of cool girl Daphne. Hot Seat, which is based on a true story, explores coming-of-age sexuality and the complexities of relationships between teen girls.

Director: Anna Kerrigan

Writer: Anna Kerrigan

Stars: Jess Gabor, Carmela Zumbado, Byron Quiros

Screenplay: Anna Kerrigan

Producers: Ashley Springer, Kati Rediger, Anna Kerrigan

Ask anyone you know about their first sexual experience and you’re bound to get a broad range of answers that, in different measure, include some confusion, awkwardness, and hilarity. Throw in high school insecurities and teenage friendships, and you get the tried-and-true recipe for countless Hollywood films. These coming-of-age stories are so ubiquitous that we can usually spot them from a mile away. Most often, they are about a young boy and a defining sexual experience that suddenly jolts him into manhood. And, let’s be real, they are most likely directed by men.

Which brings us to Anna Kerrigan’s “Hot Seat,” a refreshing and authentic take on burgeoning sexuality and female friendships, as it unfolds at an unusual 18th birthday party. Andrea, a shy wallflower, shows up at the party with a handmade friendship bracelet for Daphne, the cool birthday girl whose approval she is desperate to get. But the innocent party Andrea thought she was attending quickly escalates when the hired male stripper, Jonny Ca$h, shows up, pumping adrenaline into the room and testing the fragile teen ecosystem. Excited to push the boundaries of this new experience, the girls insist that Jonny Ca$h work overtime. But when his offer for a one-on-one performance on is met with reticence, it’s Andrea who seizes the moment to prove her friendship and sits on the “hot seat” with a captive audience.

Played by Jess Gabor in a breakout performance, Andrea is transformed into the queen of the party when a shocking event turns into a hilarious bonding experience. By placing a platonic relationship at the center of a sex-filled room, Kerrigan (creator of Staff Picked series The Impossibilities) draws from her own experiences and subverts expectations, allowing Andrea to feel empowered rather than victimized. “When you’re a teenager,” says Kerrigan, “you look to your peers to tell you how to feel about a moment.” Navigating these insecurities and knowing how to feel can be tricky for anyone, male or female, and “you don’t realize until later that the peers you idolized had no idea what they were doing either.” Based on her own true story, Kerrigan says she wanted to “capture the specific feeling of joyful, teen girl camaraderie and also to convey that it wasn’t really about the stripper’s relationship with us, it was about the relationships between us girls. He was really just a pawn.”

Mutants is a Canadian short drama film, directed by Alexandre Dostie and released in 2016. The film stars Joseph DeLorey as Keven, a teenager who, after being injured at baseball practice, is sent on an unexpected emotional journey of discovery.

In the summer of 1996, life throws a curveball in the face of Keven Guénette; and it strikes. Guided by his paraplegic baseball coach, Keven discovers the mutation, sex, and love.

The film’s cast also includes Francis La Haye and Sandrine Bisson. This short film is picks of weeks on @vimeo Staff Pick Premieres.

Awards: At TIFF, the film won the award for Best Canadian Short Film. At the 5th Canadian Screen Awards in 2017, the film won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Live Action Short Drama, and at the 19th Prix Iris in 2017, the film won the award for Best Short Film. Canadian Screen Award for Best Live Action Short Drama.

Director: Alexandre Dostie

Screenplay: Alexandre Dostie

Cast: Sandrine Bisson, Francis La Haye, Tanya Quirion, Jérémy Labonté, Joseph Delorey

Producers: Hany Ouichou, Gabrielle Tougas- Fréchette