Serendipitously, Coppola protégé Akshay Bhatia has made a short film about an offer that can’t be refused in the sophisticated and splendid cautionary tale The Preakness (A). One drunken night, a down-on-his-luck ranch owner and horse trainer (Jeffrey Pierce) receives a visit from a mysterious and insistent lobbyist (Gena Shaw) with a proposition that could change his personal destiny and possibly history. The movie begins with a soliloquy about slaughterhouses with enough extraordinary exposition to fill a meatpacking district; it’s fascinating stuff that transcends the two-hander form. Soon a deal with a devil is on the proverbial table. There is rich subtext in the dialogue between the hunter and the prey, and both Pierce and Shaw give masterclass performances imbued with mounting tension. Bhatia stages the hard-hitting chess moves of his compelling narrative with impeccable precision, set to the syncopation and paranoid pounding of Dan Deacon’s brilliant score. The literary luster of the work is evocative of “The Cask of Amontillado” or “Everything That Rises Must Converge” with cunning cataloguing of history, lyrical flashbacks and flash-forwards and searing consequences. The movie’s directing, writing, acting and crafts are top-notch and promise to intrigue and fascinate audiences in its grip. Topical themes and pop psychology collide in this spellbinding work.

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