La Bruja Is the Best Kind of Therapy

Featured Funny Video: La Bruja

Written by and starring Problem Areas and The Daily Show vet Eliza Cossio, directed by Cossio and Hayley Kosan, and produced by Lexi Tannenholtz, La Bruja makes fantastic use of some of New York’s most talented indie comedic performers in a story that’s not, upon a closer look, very funny at all. Of course, that’s precisely why it’s so great.

What begins as a typical, albeit well-performed Brooklyn breakup scene takes a sharp left when we realize that our lead’s struggle isn’t really about her ex calling it quits on her birthday, but about her refusal to deal with the recent death of her father. When a witch requests tears, a chicken head, and a liiiiittle bit of cocaine to help her through these difficult times, Cossio embarks on a bilingual quest to check the boxes for La Bruja in hopes that she’ll start feeling a helluva lot less like melting into herself.

Cossio’s writing is strong throughout, and especially noteworthy performances from Anthony Oberbeck and Ronny Chieng give way to some of the best use of fantasy sequences I’ve seen in a short — narratively purposeful and impressively produced.

In the end, a simple twist speaks volumes about our collective human need to avoid all the real problems upon which we layer the smaller ones and about how, sometimes, breaking down is the only way to build back up.

Luke is executive producer and head of development at Big Breakfast and a watcher of many web videos. Send him yours @LKellyClyne.