A woman, a cockroach, and an existential crisis walk into a gas station.
Freshly out of a relationship and questioning her future as an actress, Clare sets off alone on a late-night desert drive from Los Angeles back home to Tucson. When she stops for gas at dusk, an uninvited passenger quietly climbs aboard — a large cockroach with nowhere better to be. What starts as a panic-inducing nightmare slowly transforms into something unexpected: an unlikely companionship that forces Clare to confront her loneliness, her grief, and the messy, uncontrollable nature of life itself.
Acting
McNulty's face acting opposite a literal insect.
Direction
McNulty turns 12 minutes into a whole emotional journey.
Writing
Dialogue with a roach that somehow lands.
Director
Clare McNulty
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Eric Wright is credited as 'The Roach' — yes, they named the cockroach. Animal talent Jules Sylvester has wrangled creatures for Tarantino films.
The 12-minute runtime places this in festival darling territory; McNulty self-directed after her own breakup, allegedly with a real roach encounter as genesis.
US
