Unfaithful! (2025)

-Written by Kyle Bain. 

Back in the year 2000 (which interestingly feels like forever ago) a television series called Cheaters aired for the first time. This show in which a team of professionals (maybe) track down a cheating wife, boyfriend, or partner and exposed their dirty deeds on air took the world by storm and entertained audiences for years. Unfaithful! is a sort of spoof of this groundbreaking series. However, when the host of Unfaithful!, the in-film series, becomes too invested in the subject matter, things are sure to get sticky. 

Short, sweet, and to the point, Unfaithful! is quick to the punch, leaving very little to the imagination, if only because there isn’t time to do so. There’s certainly some attempted mystery present in the first act of the film as show host Shaun Johnson (Ronald Auguste) interviews the subject of the episode, Mark Cabelo (Jack D. Fleischer), for the first time. There’s something lurking beneath the surface, but I feel that by the time viewers have a chance to mull over each of the possibilities, the ending arrives and expresses to viewers the truth of it all. Don’t take these comments as criticism, as I appreciate the fast-paced nature of the short film–but for those viewers who are looking for a bit more mystery, looking for more of a chance to play along with Unfaithful!, you likely won’t be afforded that opportunity. 

What Unfaithful! does incredibly well, and will likely resonate with all viewers, is the use of tight shots to frame Shaun, allowing him to remain front and center throughout. While he’s ultimately the liaison for Mark’s story, it’s clear through the cinematography that Shaun truly is the focus of Unfaithful!, and this helps the film become more immersive as a result. 

Unfaithful! remains linear and steady throughout, presenting a cohesive and accessible story from the start, even if there is a bit of mystery woven into the narrative from the start (and part of the reason why the film remains accessible stems from the fact that the mystery is so quickly solved). It often feels as if Writer-Director Seri DeYoung and Co-Writer Otha Cole had hoped to develop something more existentially tantalizing, but I feel that the film doesn’t quite harness the full power of its potential existentialism–leaving very little to the imagination and very little for viewers to mull over after its conclusion. In no way does this fact ruin Unfaithful!, but it’s hard to ignore the fact there seems to be something deeper lurking just beneath the surface, something that ultimately never comes to fruition. 

I feel that Unfaithful! is a film that effectively touches on the nostalgia that comes with television shows of this nature. It also manages to effectively develop emotion from characters that don’t initially seem to be the focal point of the film–allowing viewers to find nuggets of intensity and emotion within different pockets of the film throughout. I do wish that Unfaithful! had been more effective in developing Shaun’s storyline further–though, I believe that the film’s conclusion leaves the door open for a feature-length narrative (a film that I’d certainly watch). With limited time, it’s challenging to fully develop certain stories, but I still wish I had gotten more out of certain characters. 

Directed by Seri DeYoung. 

Written by Otha Cole & Seri DeYoung. 

Starring Ronald Auguste, Jack D. Fleischer, Aimee McGuire, Alexa Sutherland, Andrew Joseph Perez, etc. 

7.5/10 = WORTH RENTING OR BUYING