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From its opening moments, GOOD VIBES ONLY announces itself as something more than another AI cautionary tale. It\u2019s sly, funny, and just a little bit unnerving \u2013 a short that understands both the seductive pull of technology and the very human anxieties underneath it.<\/p>\n
For entertainment lawyer turned writer\/director\/producer, SARAH D\u2019AMBROSIO, GOOD VIBES ONLY the film is not just a calling card. It\u2019s a statement of intent. Though this is her freshman outing as a writer\/director, the work carries the confidence of a seasoned storyteller with clean, unfussy compositions, a sharply controlled tone, and a precise understanding of how color, pacing, and performance can turn a 13-minute short into a complete emotional experience, or a perfectly composed trial brief.<\/p>\n
When D\u2019Ambrosio first conceived GOOD VIBES ONLY, AI was nowhere near the omnipresence it is today. The film now plays like a piece of speculative fiction that accidentally caught up with reality.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the time that I wrote it, the way that we are using AI today was not the reality,\u201d<\/p>\n
Sarah explains. \u201cA lot of the conversations that we were having on set early on were actually like, what is AI? What could it look like in our lives? So it was really kind of a thought experiment on what place it could have in our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
The seed came from something incredibly mundane \u2013 lunch with friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was like a natural lull in the conversation. And as we do in the modern world, everyone grabbed for their phones because they were uncomfortable with silence\u2026 I was just very curious about that modern reality, that pull that we have to fill discomfort with something. And I was just as curious about how AI could play into all of that\u201d.<\/p>\n
That simple, recognizable moment \u2013 the need to fill silence, to mute discomfort \u2013 becomes the emotional backbone of GOOD VIBES ONLY. The film\u2019s AI assistant, Margaret, doesn\u2019t feel like sci-fi so much as a logical next step from meditation apps, wellness platforms, and algorithmic self optimization.<\/p>\n
Coming from a background as a producer, D\u2019Ambrosio approached directing with both reverence and fear.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of directing, I was truly terrified to do it,\u201d she admits. \u201cI have such reverence for actors, the emotional spaces that they go to, and I was really\u2026 nervous about what that would look like.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her solution was to lead not with authority, but with vulnerability:<\/p>\n
\u201cI really just led with vulnerability.\u201d Open to her cast and crew about this being her first time directing, and writing, she \u201ckind of tried to create a space.”<\/p>\n
That actor-centric approach shows in the film\u2019s central performance. As Eva, Hannah Emily Anderson navigates confusion, panic, and dependence with a face that feels like its own special effect. You can see every moment of doubt, every tiny panic spiral, every desperate reliance on her umbilically tethered smartphone AI conscience, Margaret.<\/p>\n
Eva\u2019s relationship with her phone \u2013 and with Margaret \u2013 becomes almost physical, something D\u2019Ambrosio and her team leaned into visually.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe spend so much of our modern life looking at our phones. But for a film, a lot of the conversations that we had were like, how do we make it still interesting to be looking at the screen? It informs so much of these characters\u2019 lives and our own lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Visually, GOOD VIBES ONLY is striking in its restraint. The frames are clean and unfettered. The blocking is precise. There\u2019s a confidence in the work of cinematographer Alice Stephens and the way the camera moves \u2013 or doesn\u2019t \u2013 that feels entirely intentional.<\/p>\n
D\u2019Ambrosio knew what she wanted to see, but she also knew she wanted collaborators who could push it further.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was more confident, certainly, about what I was visually inspired by. I felt quite secure in that. I reached out to people that I really admired\u201d, describing production designer Shauna Eve and cinematographer Alice Stephens as \u201c insanely talented. Relaying her vision to them, \u201cthey kind of just took it to new heights.\u201d<\/p>\n
Color became one of the key storytelling tools. The film\u2019s palette is cool, alluring, and deliberately contradictory.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThe color aspect was really important to me. I wanted the world to feel like this sort of calming, meditative space that\u2019s quite beautiful and alluring, but also to feel very cold at the same time, which is why we went for these really cool tones\u201d.<\/p>\n
That creates a purposeful visual dissonance. Everything looks designed to soothe you, yet something in the temperature of the image keeps you on edge. The infamous purple suit worn by Eva because Margaret told her that \u201cpurple is a power color\u201d, becomes part of that commodified, packaged \u201cwellness\u201d aesthetic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just so interested in the way that things are commodified for women, packaged. Things that are completely random, like purple powering, doesn\u2019t mean anything, but when it\u2019s sold in a specific way, it\u2019s targeted towards women. So I was really curious about that culturally.\u201d<\/p>\n
The contrast extends into the spaces Eva inhabits. The cooler, paler interior worlds, the office with its sharp green pops, and then the warm return to nature when she lands on a park bench. The outside world isn\u2019t idyllic, but it is palpably more alive \u2013 a subtle reminder that the \u201cgood vibes\u201d we\u2019re being sold inside might be anything but.<\/p>\n
One of the film\u2019s most effective choices is treating Margaret \u2013 the AI in Eva\u2019s phone \u2013 as a full character. The phone is photographed as if it were a scene partner. Tilted in nervous, almsot sweaty hands, left alone on a counter, clutched like an umbilical cord that can\u2019t be cut.<\/p>\n
That choice came with a practical challenge. How do you make a screen and a disembodied voice cinematic?<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the conversations that we had were like, \u2018How do we make it still interesting to belooking at the screen?\u2019, because it\u2019s just not as interesting as the rest of the world. But it informs so much of these characters\u2019 lives. The color piece was kind of the big discussion and how to make it look sort of like these meditative apps that are really alluring and pretty in some ways and unsuspecting.\u201d<\/p>\n
The other half of Margaret is vocal – a perfectly modulated voice performance by Maddie Foley, who sounds almost too much like an AI system.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaddie is actually one of my very good friends, and I was very familiar with her voice acting, so I knew from the start when I wrote it that I really wanted her to play that part\u201d.<\/p>\n
To keep Eva and Margaret\u2019s dialog organic on set, Maddie wasn\u2019t just a post-production element. She was physically there, hidden on location.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWe had Maddie on set with us to help keep the dialog organic between Eva and Margaret. So Maddie was sort of in the spaces, but she was hiding behind a door, underneath a desk, just so you would just hear the voice and to aid Hannah\u2019s performance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Laughingly, Sarah recalls \u201cWhen we first started shooting, everyone in the crew was looking around being like, \u2018Is that an AI recording?\u2019. It was so creepy how much it sounded like a robot. But she\u2019s phenomenal.\u201d<\/p>\n
The result is two fully realized characters \u2013 one on-screen, one only heard \u2013 locked in an intimate, increasingly fraught relationship that feels all too recognizable.<\/p>\n
For a film that runs roughly 13 minutes, GOOD VIBES ONLY covers a surprising amount of tonal ground. Satire, unease, genuine emotional breakdown. That balancing act was forged in the edit with editor Becky Swanick.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecky is incredible. She has such a great comedic instinct, and I really trusted her to kind of guide, especially in that realm when there are these sort of satirical jokes.<\/p>\n
The challenge was pacing \u2013 not just comedy, but the fusion of dark satire and sci fi.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI was trying to find the right pacing for a dark satire with a sci-fi mix. So that was, I think, the biggest challenge.”<\/p>\n
It may have been the most challenging, but also the most rewarding.\u00a0 “I feel like I learned so much as a director through the edit because the story can change so much and you don\u2019t realize that when you\u2019re on the page with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
On set, the film stayed close to the script, especially in the AI inflected dialog that borrows from online \u201ccringe\u201d and social media speech.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe dialog was pretty close to the script because so much of the dialog was inspired by kind of the internet cringe, things that we see on social media that don\u2019t really mean anything outside of what the internet tells us they mean\u201d.<\/p>\n
But when it mattered, D\u2019Ambrosio allowed the film to breathe. The key breakdown between Eva and Margaret became a space for improvisation and emotional risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest moment of improvisation was really Hannah\u2019s scene, a final breakdown with Margaret near the end. We really operated like a closed set. It really was Alice tracking Hannah and where she wanted to go with it. And then also in that case, we had Maddie in that room.\u201d<\/p>\n
For all of its big ideas, GOOD VIBES ONLY is anchored in small, specific, human details. Chief among them, oat bars, a chuckle inducing running bit that becomes unexpectedly emotional connective tissue between characters.<\/p>\n
The way Eva spirals into a nervous, rapid fire monologue about oat bars, an ex-boyfriend, and the impossibility of reclaiming a shared space is one of the short\u2019s comedic high points. It\u2019s the kind of scene that feels discovered rather than manufactured, sprung from the character\u2019s own anxiety and need to connect over something, anything.<\/p>\n
D\u2019Ambrosio clearly delights in how those little, almost throwaway details can come to define us \u2013 and, in this case, expose just how much we\u2019re grasping for simple human connection in a world of carefully packaged \u201cgood vibes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Behind the camera, GOOD VIBES ONLY is driven by women at almost every level. The heads of department \u2013 from cinematography and production design to editing, casting, art direction, and sound \u2013 are predominantly female.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cIt was predominantly female, and all of the production heads of department were women,\u201d Sarah confirms.<\/p>\n
For her, this wasn\u2019t an incidental outcome; it was a deliberate response to ongoing imbalance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel that representation in our industry is really lagging for women, and I know so many female artists in my life that are so incredibly talented.\u201d<\/p>\n
As writer and director of GOOD VIBES ONLY, D\u2019Ambrosio was able to help shift the tide with not only the female-centric gaze of a story and her directorial vision, but through every level of production, \u201cparticularly for a story where we\u2019re talking about and looking at female rage and ways in which women feel that they don\u2019t [or] can\u2019t express themselves. . .I really just wanted a forum to celebrate the talents of all of these different women.<\/p>\n
That ethos comes through in the film\u2019s focus on female experience and in its refusal to reduce Eva\u2019s journey to a simple \u201ctech is bad\u201d parable. Instead, it\u2019s about a woman navigating pressure, expectation, commodified wellness, and the lure of something that promises to manage it all for her \u2013 at a cost.<\/p>\n
If GOOD VIBES ONLY feels like a calling card, that\u2019s because it is \u2013 and an impressively polished one at that. D\u2019Ambrosio\u2019s command of performance, visual language, and tonal balance points toward a career that\u2019s just getting started.<\/p>\n
She already has her eyes on what comes next.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m certainly working on writing a few pieces. I do have a feature that I\u2019m writing, co-writing with a friend. It\u2019s a horror feature, and I am hoping to shoot another short film this year. But I have been playing around with ways to kind of extend GOOD VIBES ONLY, so hopefully that\u2019ll be in the future as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whatever form it takes, be it an expanded version of GOOD VIBES ONLY or something entirely new, the voice on display here is clear, confident, and deeply attuned to the way we live now – tethered to devices, chasing calm, and aching for something real underneath all the \u201cgood vibes.\u201d<\/p>\n
by debbie elias, exclusive interview 07\/14\/2026<\/p>\n
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GOOD VIBES ONLY is currently on the festival circuit.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “I feel like I learned so much as a director through the edit because the story can change so much and you don\u2019t realize that when you\u2019re on the page with it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42778,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3626],"tags":[172,320,1489,12575,12576,8204,266,2761],"class_list":["post-42776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview-exclusives","tag-comedy","tag-director","tag-exclusive-interview","tag-good-vibes-only","tag-sarah-dambrosio","tag-satire","tag-short-film","tag-writer"],"yoast_head":"\n