Out for Delivery @SXSW 2025

We live in such a different time where everyone wants to be represented but is easily offended. It is a fragile time where it is difficult for filmmakers to take chances. But some of those chances that some filmmakers took on classics like Trainspotting, A Fish Called Wanda, The War of the Roses, and Very Bad Things are what made it groundbreaking. Director Chelsea Christer is not tip-toeing around the content she pushes to audiences.

She dove right in with her film Out for Delivery which premiered recently at SXSW. The short film stars Deanna Rooney who plays Joanna who is at the last chapter of her life. She is battling cancer and the doctors have already told her that her last days will be painful.

Fortunately for Joanna, she can make this a seamless process by prescribing an end-of-life medication called Death With Dignity which can be delivered right to the comfort of your front door. However, on this rare occasion, Joanna faces some big mishaps trying to get this delivered to her which makes the process frustrating. She ends up meeting Mark (played by Martin Starr) whom she hopes to put the final nail in her coffin.

Out for Delivery shows that witty, post-COVID humour that Chelsea Christer brings to the table. (No pun intended) That Norm McDonald’s “Oh well, everyone is going to die anyway” mentality with a smile is the pure tone of Out for Delivery with a topping of “sorry not sorry”. This ethos is what makes this film hilarious and Christer captures this with the audience

Both Denna Rooney and Martin Starr have amazing chemistry together on film and you’re hoping that the film doesn’t stop. But they say all good things come to an end. Perhaps one day we will see the both of them back together again on the silver screen. But it is the intelligence of director Chelse Christer who creates these two characters who represent the outlook of Generation X or for most of us for that matter.

Having them bask in a world where receiving goods should be much easier than normal and to experience the exact opposite is irony at its best. This is what makes Out for Delivery so true to its tone because if you are going to go then you should go out with a good attitude. It is less painful for others.

FERNTV says this was the hidden gem of SXSW.