How to describe Kurt Kuenne’s short film, Validation? It’s a tiny little masterpiece of score and scope and vision, and it’s remarkably simple, turning on the premise: what if one guy “validated” your parking and also “validated” your existence? (It’s such an Amelie-like crowd-pleaser of a fable that it’s hard to reconcile that it’s done by the same director who did last year’s devastating, excellent, must-see documentary, Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father.)

Once the initial sweep of drums cues up and the likable, gentle Hugh Newman (Bones’s T.J. Thyne) starts “validating” a “customer,” you’re hooked: “You’ve got powerful features, man, anyone ever tell you that? Listen, you look a little down... someday people are going to see you for who you really are. You. Are. Great.” The story, of course, happens when Newman meets a woman who he can’t make smile.

You’re so smart, gentle reader. You have great taste in websites. Staggering taste in film. I bet we could split some popcorn and watch this and it would be delicious. (This paragraph will make more sense once you see the flick, of course.)

Have any suggestions for our Super Shorts series? Add them in the comments section below!