Bootie’s from director Milana Vayntrub is a fun as hell short film comedy. Full of empowerment in sex work, lead and writer Grace Canaan shows us that you can have a whale of a time doing something you love.

Overworked assistant Emmy (Grace Canaan) also moonlights at a lap dance party club. One night, her shift is thrown off kilter when her daytime boss, Jason (Ashley Zuckerman), comes in. Stuck in the awkward position of having to entertain him while trying to ensure she keeps her job. What better way to do that than to switch the roles of who is actually in charge?

Anyone who has a second job and suddenly has to interact with a work colleague or boss has felt such a cold surge of embarrassment that hits you. For us, we can laugh it off, but in Milana Vayntrub’s delightful short film Bootie’s, Emmy has a choice to make. Either let her boss ruin her daytime career or make him truly understand her situation.

In between all of the comedy within Bootie’s, there is quite an interesting narrative thread. When asked why she works at the club, Emmy doesn’t state that it’s solely for the money (though the $200 an hour doesn’t hurt); she says it is because not only does she enjoy what she does, but she is given the rightful respect she deserves when she clocks out for the night. She is done with work. She has agency, her power in this role and isn’t some lackey who is at the whim of a person who doesn’t deem it proper even to give her a decent thank you.

Jason tries to shame Emmy for her job, but in this day and age, does earning good money in the way that Emmy does really qualify as a humiliating last resort? Especially when she is empowered by what she does whilst having some fun? Instead of allowing even a comedy to criticise the lap dance party experience, we have a gentle but firm lightness to Bootie’s. There is no dark underbelly here. The girls who work there have fun, bond, and, importantly, feel safe.

What Canaan’s writing does so well is not let the audience fully know where Booties is going until it hits you with that fantastic scene where everyone, including the viewer, is feeling the flow. The fact that the film could go down multiple avenues yet, that is the choice that won out, is great and leaves you with a sincere and wide smile on your face.

Bootie’s is a smartly delivered eleven-minute short that keeps its audience engaged with plenty of laughs, while the overarching story impresses, considering its brief runtime. Catch this short wherever you can; it won’t disappoint.

Booties is currently showing at the HollyShorts Film Festival 2025.

★★★★

Support Us

I am but a small website in this big wide world. As much as I would love to make this website a big and wonderful entity. That would bring in more costs. So, for now, all I hope is to make Upcoming On Screen self-sufficient. Well, enough to make any website fees less of a worry for me in the future. You can support the website below…

Patreon

You can support us in a variety of ways (other than that wonderful word of mouth) and those lovely follows. If you are so inclined to help us out then you can support us via Patreon, find our link here!. We don’t want to ask you much, so for now, we have limited our tiers to £1.50 and £3.50. These will, of course, grow the more we plan to do here at Upcoming On Screen.

Social Media

You can also support us via Twitter and Facebook Instagram and Blue Sky! by giving us a follow and a like. Every single one helps!

Thanks for reading; every view helps us out more than you would think (we have fragile egos). Until next time.