If you could change one choice you’ve made in the past, would you? That’s the central question posed by “Welcome to Happiness,” a whimsy and visual fantasy film that looks at how we deal with regrets.

The film follows Woody (Kyle Gallner), a children’s book author and gatekeeper to a one-way door in his closet that transports strangers to an unknown place. In the opening scene we see a woman named Leah arrive at Woody’s apartment, unsure of why she’s there. To determine whether she can enter, Woody conducts a brief interview with questions sent through a typewriter set up by his landlord, Moses (Nick Offerman). He shows her to the door, which will open only if she meets unspecified standards. While at first Woody seems content being the gatekeeper to a mystery passageway, that calm is shattered when he runs into Leah again on the street a few weeks later and asks her where the door leads. She tells him that on the other side you’re given the opportunity to undo a mistake you’ve made in the past. The information, and his new relationship with his neighbor, Trudy (Olivia Thirlby) triggers a downward spiral, one which leaves Woody obsessing over why he hasn’t been allowed to pass through. He has his regrets and surely he was a better person than many who were allowed in.

As the film continues Woody’s story intertwines with two other characters, Nyles (Brendan Sexton III) and Ripley (Josh Brener). Nyles is a suicidal artist who discovers his dad’s baseball memorabilia might be worth something, and Ripley is a lonely collector. All three men are struggling to move on from the turns their lives have taken, until chance encounters –that are kind of pushed together by Moses and Procter, played by Keegan-Michael Key, cause their paths to cross in the way of the mysterious closet. When the place beyond the door is finally revealed, the characters are able to make peace with their circumstances and the decisions they’ve made.

“Welcome to Happiness” leaves audiences with a simple message –perhaps the path to happiness is as simple (or as difficult) as accepting what life has thrown your way. Writer and director Oliver Thompson navigates the Wes-Anderson style film with ease. Where the film could have taken a cheesy sugarcoat, Thompson was able to deliver a quirky upbeat film, with intrinsic dark tones that are present in everyday life.

The art direction in the film is exceptional. Each set is so beautifully composed you’ll wish the camera panned longer on certain shots so you could take all the details in, but Woody’s apartment is where the production design really shines. The mural gracing Woody’s living room wall functions almost as a secondary character, seeming to react and change in relation to the events of the film and adding to the air of magic surrounding the apartment.

Welcome to Happiness premiered in Los Angeles at the Dances With Films Festival on June 7, 2015

Written & Directed By Oliver Thompson

Starring: Kyle Gallner, Brendan Sexton III, Josh Brener

Grade: A

Edd Benda’s directorial debut “Superior” follows Derek and Charlie, two best friends and cousins set on taking one last adventure before their lives begin in the summer of 1969.

The opening scene quickly establishes the dynamic between the two friends; Derek, played by Paul Stanko, is riding in a hang glider attached to Charlie’s truck. Charlie, played by Thatcher Robinson, is driving. Their personalities are further reflected in the paths set before them. Both just graduated high school, but while Charlie is slated to register at Michigan Tech at the end of the summer, Derek’s path leads to the Army recruitment office to await the draft. While they both share an obvious bond and sense of adventure, Derek is the risk-taker—the embodiment of the invincible teenager who fears nothing. Charlie is more pragmatic and realistic, as he says later in the film “There’s a reason why you’re the one in the hang glider.” The difference in mindset doesn’t interfere with their bond, however. From the film’s opening moments the friendship is clear despite their obvious differences.

With the crossroads looming before them, Derek and Charlie embark on a trip around the perimeter of Lake Superior on bike after the hang gliding fiasco removes Charlie’s truck from the equation. As the trip takes the two to new places and introduces them to new people, it becomes clear that Derek’s path will diverge even further from Charlie’s than expected. Cinematographer Alex Bell captures the Michigan landscape beautifully, with repeated shots of diverging roads that emphasize the constant opportunity to take the road less traveled.

Death is omnipresent in the film, in the reclusive man Derek and Charlie meet in the woods who drops dead in front of them, in the mortician they meet who takes them in for the night (a night the pair spend sleeping in coffins), and in the shadow of the Vietnam War that hangs over the country. The inescapable air of death surrounding the characters serves as a reminder of the fate that awaits us all, but more importantly, that adventure must be seized in the present.

“Superior” debuted at Dances with Films Festival on June 5, 2015.

Written & Directed by Edd Benda

Starring: Paul Stanko & Thatcher Robinson

Grade: B