Schatts Last Shot (1985)

Solondzs 1985 student short film Schatts Last Shot provides an ideal entry point to his unflinching universe of dark comic despair A young Solondz stars in the 10minute short as geeky high schooler Ezra Schatt a neurotic primitive headcase of the young Woody Allen variety Buried under thick unseemly glasses and an endlessly dazed expression Ezras worst enemy is basketball Unable to make a single basket under the brutal pressures of his vulgar gym teacher Youre shit Schatt Ezra also fails at both impressing the cheerleader of his dreams and realizing his aspirations of attending MIT