There comes a moment about halfway through Sam and David Cutler-Kreutz’s “Trapped” where you kind of wish it would end. This is not meant as a criticism, but a natural response when watching the film. Our protagonist, Joaquin (Javier Molina), is forced into a situation that tests his pride and humility, but he just might come out the winner. If the film had ended at the seven-and-a-half minute mark, it would have been one of those incredibly economical short films that lead to a satisfying conclusion that makes you cheer inside.
“Trapped” is after bigger game, though, and continues to up the ante for Joaquin’s plight, one that probably has become a nightly struggle for him as a parent. He’s a janitor at a prep school during the week of homecoming. He has his young son in tow during his shift, which could get him in big trouble if his boss sees him. He can’t get his ex-wife to come and pick the boy up, but Joaquin tries to convince her on the phone that he’s in a tough spot.
Then, he enters the gymnasium and finds five high school seniors making a mess, getting drunk, and having their own little party. Joaquin notices mousetraps scattered all over the floor. It’s a senior prank, and the boys try to convince him to leave them alone, but Joaquin knows this could also get him fired. The boys have no sympathy. They flaunt their money and privilege in front of Joaquin and offer him five hundred dollars to keep quiet and help them spread the mousetraps all over the gym floor. He reluctantly agrees. I won’t spoil what happens next.
I wrote about the Cutler-Kreutz’s Oscar-nominated film “A Lien” last year in this column, which was about a family going through the final steps of the green card process, only to be detained by I.C.E. agents. That was a tightly-wound thriller about desperate people having to succumb to the situation in which they found themselves and are damn near powerless to stop it. “Trapped” has that same quality and is just as suspenseful. Joaquin’s story parallels the one in “A Lien” in that he’s trying to follow the rules and make a living in a place that does not respect him. He must make rash decisions on the spot in order to save himself and his family.
That’s what makes watching “Trapped” so thrilling and painful. We want Joaquin to get the upper hand and to walk away from this mess unscathed, but that will come at a price, one that will test his resolve and likely, in the end, keep him up nights. Molina’s performance is masterful as Joaquin weighs his options throughout and realizes he has to do both the right and the wrong thing in the same moment.
The Cutler-Kreutz brothers have made a strong pair of films here that mirror each other, but “Trapped” also shares a theme with their first film, “Flounder,” which also depicts moronic bros pranking and/or hazing one another with disastrous results. All three films showcase major talent for suspense, tight storytelling, and unpredictable endings that don’t let the viewer off easy. Their filmmaking is political and personal, sometimes in the same breath, and elevates it beyond tension for tension’s sake. Instead, we leave the films wondering, where are these characters today?
Q&A with co-writer-director Sam Cutler-Kreutz
How did this come about?
The film began with a simple line, “A man is in the dark, what does he find?” And we built the entire film from that one concept. We were really wrestling with the idea of senior pranks – who do they prank? Why do they exist? And we found a gravitational pull in this story towards what became the final piece.
Where did you find Javier Molina?
We went in two directions in our casting process for “Trapped.” We worked with casting director Matthew Glasner to find Javier Molina, and we handled the rest of the casting ourselves. It felt like such a gift getting to work with Matthew; he has such a fantastic eye for talent and is so thoughtful in his approach to casting (which can be such a challenging component of making a short film).
At the end of the day, it was just obvious that Javier was right for the part; he popped off the screen in his tapes, and then his delicate performance in “Trapped” really grounds the entire piece. We had seen Keith in “Uncut Gems” and knew he would be perfect for our film if we could convince him to join us, and thankfully, he did, bringing so much talent and color to the piece. I could go on about all our actors, so much talent, from the boys to Brad, we felt so incredibly lucky to work with everyone. They really make the piece come alive, better than we ever could have imagined it.
The film shares a common theme with your first short film, “Flounder”: privileged males tempting fate and trying to pull off stunts that backfire. Do you have experience in those environments?
The film speaks to the cycles of inequality throughout the US that begin in certain private schools, to how we choose to raise our children, and to the ways wealth and privilege affect kids. We were interested in looking at how privilege affects growing up and the choices you make. We are the children of teachers, and the complex balance among students, faculty, and administrators was a constant dinner-table conversation throughout our childhood.
In this film, we try to unpack the questions surrounding generational privilege, which feel integral to the story of Americans and the idea of the American dream. The idea of a “senior prank” is one of those points where questions come to light around “who are the people we are really pranking?” and “whose life does this really affect?” As the wealth gap widens in the US and the generationally privileged dominate our political and business leadership, we think it’s paramount to press on the issue, making this country more equitable for all its citizens.
In our last Q&A, you said you spend about a year on pre-production for your films, even though they’re short. Was that the case here? Was there anything that changed dramatically within the script during that process?
The story started in a very simple place, and over time, as we fleshed everything out, many things changed. The prank changed multiple times, and the ending changed quite a few times as well to try and really nail the film’s core themes in one shot or moment. Many pieces also changed during the edit. The opening and the midpoint differ from what we wrote. In the middle of the film, the main character makes a very complicated and impactful choice and is confronted about it.
Who drew the short straw to set all the mouse traps for some of those wide shots?
This was the trickiest scene to figure out. In the original script, we had the character making the decision in one direction, but after a year of editing, we found it just wasn’t giving any energy to the back half of the script, so through a lot of iteration, we realized we needed to have the character make the complete opposite decision. This required a ton of work in the edit to essentially re-write this scene, but it was quite successful and really helps propel the back end of the film’s action set pieces.
Figuring out the rat traps was the most challenging component of the film. We spent months ahead of filming doing camera tests to figure out the depth of field for viewing objects in the background—basically, at what point can you stop placing rat traps on the ground and instead place something else. Then we spent weeks trying to figure out what that something else would be.
We didn’t have the budget to just buy rat traps to cover the gym (nor the moving capacity – that many rat traps would have weighed over a ton), so we instead had the image of a rat trap, and the wood sides, custom printed and die cut onto thick paper. We then folded the papers into little paper boxes that looked like rat traps from all sides. At some point in filming, every single person, from actors to PAs to producers, was on their hands and knees, placing fake rat traps (and real ones) for some of the wide shots.
What’s next for you?
We’re in the process of attaching producers to our first feature! We’re also in the process of writing a few others.
