BUNNY
(directo r/writer: Ben Jacobson; screenwriter: Mo Stark, Stefan Marolachakis; cinematographer: Jackson Hunt; editor: James LeSage; music: Hamilton Leithauser; cast: Mo Stark (Bunny), Ben Jacobson (Dino), Liza Colby (Bobbie), Tony Drazan (Loren), Genevieve Hudson-Price (Happy Chana), Linda Rong Mei Chen (Linda), Ajay Naidu (Officer Cellestino), Liz Caribel Sierra (Officer Nadov), Eleonore Hendricks (Daphne), Yaz Perea (Yaz), Kia Warren (Ciel), Richard Price (Ian), Eric Roth (Franklin); Runtime: 87; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Sarah Sarandos, Scott Dougan, Ben Jacobson, Stefan Marolachakis, Mo Stark; Vertical; 2025)
“A watchable but nutty stoner flick.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Ben Jacobson makes his feature film debut in this incredulous stoner comedy thriller that takes place over a period of 12 hours. Ben co-writes it with co-star Mo Stark and Stefan Marolachakis.
At noon, on a summer day, at a run-down tenement building in NYC’s East Village, the street hustler Bunny (Mo Stark), named because he’s so energetic, is celebrating his birthday hoping to enjoy the gifts of recreational drugs and a threesome with Daphne (Eleonore Hendricks) that his wife Bobbie (Liza Colby) got for him. But he first needs to dump a dead body in his apartment and asks his dimwitted loyal stoner pal and fellow building tenant Dino (Ben Jacobson) to help so the cops don’t blame him even if he was the one who strangled his attacker.
The corpse is there because the hustler Bunny’s gigolo gig went wrong and this led to further incidents. The stoner not only has to dump the body but must deal with Bobbie’s estranged obnoxious father (Tony Danza), who shows up unannounced wanting to reconcile with her after abandoning her as a child; their nervy landlady (Linda Rong Mei Chen) finding another dead body in the building; a demanding visitor from California, the neurotic and disagreeable Orthodox Jewish woman Happy Chana (Genevieve Hudson-Price), Bunny’s house-guest for a day; and two pestle foodie talking beat cops (Ajay Naidu & Caribel Sierra) hanging around the outside of the building.
The comedy stumbles at the midpoint, as the premise runs dry and the comical antics grow repetitive and tiresome. But the quirky comedy still has enough of an edge to make it a watchable but nutty stoner flick.
It played at the SXSW Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 11/27/2025 GRADE: B
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