Am I a Bad Person? (directed by Alanna Longo)

By: Dave Hughes

Interventions are a crucible for any family. From those presenting their views to the individual at the center of the crisis, the emotional fallout challenges every bond. Director Alanna Longo(The Walking Dead) tackles this fraught territory in her Tribeca short film Am I A Bad Person?. Built on intense personal dynamics and anchored by a likable, if deeply troubled, protagonist, the film says a great deal about a difficult subject without ever over-glorifying its premise.

For a directorial debut, Alanna Longo displays a remarkably nuanced understanding of familial addiction. Rather than delivering a one-sided lecture, she deftly walks the line between the protagonist's destructive behavior and the underlying hypocrisy of the family members staging the intervention. Longo also pulls double duty by starring as Claire, the flawed but deeply likable eye of the addictive storm. Claire's sharp-tongued retorts weaponize the hypocrisy of her family’s statements towards her in a way that feels entirely authentic, eliciting uncomfortable chuckles from the audience even as her underlying hopelessness proves heartbreaking. The emotional core of Am I a Bad Person? is anchored by Claire’s relationship with her brother, played by Longo’s real-life sibling Justin Masterson, offering a lived-in dynamic that many viewers will instantly recognize.

Longo displays remarkable promise as a young filmmaker. She refuses to shy away from dark humor when the scene calls for it, yet she never loses sight of the heavy toll addiction takes on a family. Her directorial control is evident in the film’s opening sequence, where the camera follows Claire into a room, forcing the audience to track the family's anxious reactions to her presence. Their nervous hesitation hangs heavy in the air. Once the curtain is pulled back to reveal that this gathering is an intervention rather than a party, the family's initial apprehension makes perfect, devastating sense.

Target Score 8/10 - Alanna Longo’s debut short film showcases a deeply personal story about addiction and its collateral damage. At its core, however, is a profound sense of love shared between family members. It is this unbreakable bond that grounds the chaos and ultimately makes Am I A Bad Person such a memorable short. 

Am I a Bad Person? was reviewed as part of Movie Archer's coverage of the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival.