In The Date, awkwardness that could’ve been played for laughs—the owners of show cats making small talk as the yowls and growls of mating felines alarm an inexperienced chaperone—instead becomes a very human moment of anxiety (then comforted over a smoking break). Whiplash, built around the debut of a member in a school jazz orchestra, elevates the intensity as a teacher terrorizes his players like a drill sergeant in Full Metal Jacket.
These two films, beginning a collection of eight shorts from the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, sneak up on you—not for any surprise ending or high-concept twist, but for the transformation of simple ideas and choice moments into fully realized little stories.