Sundance Film Festival 2024 Review –  The symbiotic relationship between art and love is playfully explored in the short BYE BYE, BOWSER. While this is a story as old as time writer Lorenz Uhl injects the story with a few nice twists and director Jasmin Baumgartner maintains a light, playful tone that is charming.

You see, Luna (Luna Jordan) lives in her concrete cubicle of an apartment toiling away on her hard-edged punk rock music. Despite the abrasive veneer, she is human. Staring out her bedroom window she spots construction worker Laugo (Laurence Hadschieff) who is hard at work building another apartment building across the way. Luna is smitten and becomes inspired to write a song about her unnamed object of curious desire.

Inviting rounds of rowdy friends over to her place Luna plays her new tune, Bye, Bye Bowser and it becomes an underground hit. All the while the man across the way has no clue that he has inspired art. It was at this point that I thought what a joy it might be to be Luna’s neighbor and shuddered. I digress. Soon enough Luna is driven to connect with her beau and a sweet romance begins.

Of course, the two are from very different worlds. Luna is a punk rock badass who plays hard and parties harder. Laugo is a softspoken worker bee who is captivated by her world but is even more blinded by the raw intensity of his new interest. What really resonated for me was how Uhl’s script kept a clear division between exterior relationships and the more sincere interior moments shared between those with genuine connections. At the beginning of the film, as her apartment is swarming with friends and partiers, Luna sits in a closet with her friend talking about how she wants everyone to leave so she can sleep.

BYE BYE, BOWSER is a well made if not entirely inventive look at the folly of art, youth, and doomed love. Some very sweet moments of honesty work well enough here to remind us of when we were madly in love with no clear direction.

6 Out of 10