Apocalypse Now Now is a proof-of-concept of rare quality and pedigree directed by Michael Matthews. Based off a celebrated series by author Charlie Human, this short is a brief introduction to the world of Baxter Zevcenko (Garion Dowds). A snarky, monster-porn-dealing teen, Baxter might be a serial killer. His girlfriend, Esme, is missing, and he’s the prime suspect. To clear his name, he’ll turn to Cape Town’s grizzliest, drunkest bounty hunter, Jackson ‘Jackie’ Ronin (Louw Venter), a supernatural warrior who helps unlock a conspiracy across time and space. The goal for the Apocalypse Now Now team is to build a groundswell of support for a feature version of the story, and, as is so often the case with these kind of teasers, the short is simplistic on a narrative level. It develops only a single representative scene of Human’s work, though the use of narration by Baxter early in the film does a large amount of expository heavy-lifting to set the context. If you dig these kind of speculative works however, you’ll find a ton to like about Apocalypse Now Now.
