“Are you here for the boat or the tooth?”
And with that sentence, writer/director Olivia Accardo welcomes us into the bizarre reality of Baby Tooth, a wild five minute short film screening as part of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival; it’s set to play before the feature The Trainer, as well as being included in the Shorts: Pick N Mix selection alongside 6 other works.
When we meet Marina (Dakota Bouher), she makes quite the first impression. Sitting on a deckchair, adorned in a hot pink jumpsuit, headphones on and twirling a piece of string evidently tied around one of her teeth, she asks the aforementioned question to a man (Keith Roy Chrismon, credited as simply “The Man”, and who the film is dedicated to following his passing) as he arrives at an open field where she sits, seemingly awaiting customers interested in the boat she’s selling or the tooth she hopes to have yanked out of her mouth.
So much of the joy of Baby Tooth is that Accardo gives us the smallest of exposition, but tells us exactly what we need to. Clearly a tooth that hasn’t grown to the size Marina desires, the brazen lass is simply asking for someone to do her the kindest of favours. The Man isn’t as convinced, and despite rolling with a certain sense of machismo – he asks what it will take for Marina to join him on his hopeful boat purchase and her conditions centre around pulling her tooth out – he’s suddenly less confident when confronted with the ultimatum.
It’s a testament to Accardo that so much of Baby Tooth works in spite of its minimal running time. There’s a distinct world created here, and Bouher effortlessly sells such a temperament with a wonderful turn that predominantly runs on her ability to, well, sell a boat. When The Man asks about the purchase, Marina goes into full spokesmodel mode, draping herself across each aspect of the vehicle in question, and Bouher’s delivery of such lines as it’s “Like, near-pristine condition”, that it’s great for “Sitting, vibing and sipping”, and that the motor is “Designed to be replaced, in case anything gets fucked up,” speak to her innate comedic sensibility.
A bizarre offering that showcases promising talent in both Accardo and Bouher, Baby Tooth may be over too quickly for devotees of absurd comedy, but, just like Marina and her boat, what is being sold is extremely enticing that we’ll want to buy what’s coming next.
FOUR STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Baby Tooth is screening as part of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, running between June 4th and 15th, 2025. For more information, head to the official site here.
