With Whip Thinks You Totes Need to Try a Unicorn Frappe

With Whip, directed by Aviv Rubenstein and written by Lianne O’Shea, follows Kelly (Sophia Cacciola) who is out getting a cup of coffee with her friend, played by O’Shea who is credited only as The Head Basic. She commits her first faux pas by ordering a plain cup of black coffee instead of the pumpkin spice latte with whip that has been chosen for her. What follows is a sort of Dark Mirror lite, as a band of basic bitches descend upon her from the shadows like a flock of narcissistic harpies, molding and distorting her mind to suit their devilish plan.

With Whip is a fun little short that doesn’t waste any time creating a creepy, surreal atmosphere. The strange lighting and composition choices give everything a sinister edge, even if the focus is on the comedy and the score is appropriately melodramatic to really push the absurdism. It’s a single-joke pony and that pony has been dead and beaten for some time now, but while even my grandmother has made a pumpkin spice latte joke (and she’s been dead for years), I’ll take a well-made tired joke over a fresh bad one any day. And what about those hoverboards, amirite?