Few films capture the ephemeral nature of childhood with accuracy — the restlessness, uncertainty, and fleeting elation of being a kid evades even the best of filmmakers. Enter Writer/Director Sam Benenati’s Tyler, a poetic ballad about brotherhood, young love, and growing pains.

“You like getting in trouble, don’t you?'”

The official plot-line for Tyler reads: “A young boy falls in love with his older brother’s girlfriend,” but Benenati’s short film is so much more than that. Even though its narrative leans more towards experimental than traditional (asking the audience to put a lot of the pieces together themselves), Tyler packs quite a bit into its tight running time of just four minutes, and Benenati took quite a unique approach when it came to the writing process: “The idea stemmed more from the process [than] the content at first,” he said. “I had just finished a short film that took a year to complete. It was an ambitious project that had its share of bad luck (rain, money, locations, reshoots, etc). We had a large crew, we had every shot planned, we had very little improvisation, and I pretended that I knew exactly what I was doing. Although I’m proud of the final outcome, I felt constrained during the entire process.” Wanting something different, Benenati decided to take a different approach. “I wanted to create something that embraced [the elements]…I wanted to create something that gave me room to experiment and collaborate with the actors…At first, it started as an experimental piece about this family who had just lost their father. But the more I worked it out, the more I realized the story centered around Tyler and his relationship with his brother’s girlfriend.”

Tyler stands as an assured showcase for Benenati — who proves himself an accomplished student of Malick and Dominik. He also shows to have a knack for directing children without making them feel precocious or “child actor”-y. It comes as no surprise, then, that casting the role of “Tyler” proved to be the most difficult part of the process for Benenati: “It was very challenging to find a LA child actor with a keen sense of wonder and spontaneity,” Benenati said. “I kept postponing the film [because I couldn’t find an actor].” But then he asked the Adderly Youth Theater Company in Santa Barbara (Benenati’s hometown) for a recommendation. “They sent me one name: Dakota Allbecker. I asked him, ‘If it’s not too embarrassing’, would he dance a bit for the audition. He replied, ‘Why would that be embarrassing?’ He proved to be the most talented child actor I’ve ever worked with.” In just four short minutes, Dakota Allbecker brings a wide array of emotions and depth to the eponymous role of “Tyler”, no small task for any actor, but even more impressive given the boy’s age.

Benenati said he wanted his film “to feel like a memory”, and in that regard, he has excelled. Scenes jump cut back and forth in time, dialogue bleeds together between cuts, and characters (like Tyler’s mother) enter and exit the narrative like ethereal beings, saying their peace and then moving on. It doesn’t hurt that DP David Richardson captures absolute beauty on the RED Epic, complementing the poetic nature of Benenati’s narrative with slow-motion dance moves, hand-held naturalism, and a warm color palette.

We look forward to seeing a lot of more of Benenati’s work in the future — as we can only hope there’s a lot more water in the well from where Tyler came.