Terry is everything that’s wrong with the world. Funny enough, it’s the least of his concerns.

The wannabe filmmaker from Iowa has booked an Airbnb for a week to shoot a low-budget apocalyptic sci-fi movie about a “space meteor”—as opposed to non-space meteors—he hopes the streamers will buy for boocoo bucks. He’s also falling for his lead actress, much to the chagrin of his far-too-understanding pregnant wife. She’s in the movie, too; in a role so maligned that Terry might as well scream divorce in her face. She knows what’s going on. Everyone working on the movie knows what’s going on. Everyone, that is, except Terry.

Micro Budget is a riot. Written by Patrick Noth (who plays Terry) and Morgan Evans (who directs), Micro Budget is a knowing send-up of moviemaking dreams gone off the rails while managing to feel fresh. In addition to Noth and Emilea Wilson as Terry’s wife, Nichole Sakura, Brandon Michael Hall, and Jordan Rock play the poor actors who signed up for Terry’s crap, while Nate Fernald, Jon Gabrus, Don Fanelli, and Carla Jimenez suffer as Terry’s crew. Everyone is top-notch. I get the feeling they’ve all done their fair share of these troubled shoots in real life. That time it was a tragedy. Now they get to play as farce.

I’ve seen many movies similar to Terry’s sci-fi apocalypse—complete with low-rent visual effects—and they’re all terrible. Some have the benefit of comedy, but many are a slog. How perfect then for Terry to invite his cousin (Evans) to document everything for a behind-the-scenes special feature for a home video release that will never come.

Terry—a man who enjoys combining plaid shirts and striped ties—is the reason the project is doomed from day one. He’s so self-absorbed that he invests in a Nazi-backed Crypto Ponzi scheme, Swasticoin, with first ignorance, then indifference. Phil (Rock) doubles down on the joke by pointing out that blue-eyed, blond-haired Terry with the bad haircut looks like a poster child for the Hitler Youth. Phil, by the way, was cast in Terry’s movie because he’s Black and gay, which Terry tells Phil, framing it like a positive. “I’m also a veteran,” Phil adds, incredulous that he’s somehow found himself in this moment, this conversation. Even better, in Terry’s eyes. “They love diversity.”

The “they” Terry obliquely refers to are those living in big mansions in the Hollywood Hills who buy little crappy movies like his, dump them onto streamers for no one, and make millionaires out of nobodies. It’s that particular brand of cynicism, and the truth it’s rooted in, that makes you want to tear your hair out.

Micro Budget is the type of movie working professionals ought to buy on Blu-ray to give to movie-mad film students intent on getting into the business. “Just so you know,” they’ll say as they hand over the disc, “This is what you’re getting into.” It’ll deter the weak, sure, but it’ll just make the strong resilient. And for those who watch Micro Budget and decide the seventh art is not for them, they’ll have something really funny to watch and the appreciation of learning in 80 minutes what it takes others decades to admit.

Micro Budget (2025)
Directed by Morgan Evans
Written by Morgan Evans, Patrick North
Produced by Puloma Basu, Morgan Evans, Rob Hatch-Miller, Patrick Noth, Emilea Wilson
Starring: Patrick Noth, Emilea Wilson, Brandon Michael Hall, Jordan Rock, Carla Jimenez, Jon Gabrus, Bobby Moynihan, Chris Parnell, Maria Bamford, Hal Linden
Factory 25, Not rated, Running time 88 minutes, Premiered Aug. 24, 2024, at the Sidewalk Film Festival in Birmingham, Alabama

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