OKLAHOMA CITY – If you know filmmaking in OKC, then you probably know Mickey Reece, and if you know Mickey, then you probably know what to expect from each new offering that crawls out of his brain.
It’s bound to be exceedingly and compellingly strange. It’s likely to feature some shocking, unexpected bouts of violence and some far left-field moments of comedy as riotously funny as they are cringingly uncomfortable. And, maybe above everything else, it’s probably going to be nigh on impossible to easily describe or explain to your friends (or, god forbid, your family.)
But as Reece’s profile has continued to grow among deep-underground and outsider film circles, it’s clear that his orbit has continued to collect more and more collaborators that really “get” what he’s going for, and that seem perfectly primed to help better translate and interpret his unique brand of oddity.
And his latest outing – 2025’s zeitgeist-skewering tech-noir comedy “Every Heavy Thing” – brings together his most game and most “getting it” cast of collaborators yet, delivering what could be his most effectively fun and most unexpectedly pointed film ever.
After premiering almost a full year ago at Montreal’s Fantasia Festival before an exhaustive festival circuit run around the country and the world, “Every Heavy Thing” is finally coming home to the city in which it was filmed when it hits OKC for a pair of screenings at next month’s deadCenter Film Festival.
On its face, it’s a street-level neo-noir, following Tulsa-native Josh Fadem as Joe, a hapless ad salesman for a failing alt-weekly in Hightown City (portrayed with gusto by OKC.)
The city’s seen a recent rash of disappearances – always young women – that no one seems to care much about beyond fodder for gossip and insufferable radio chatter. After a bloody, chance run-in with the man responsible, Joe finds himself descending into paranoid insomnia, crumbling under the treat that he’ll die if he tells anyone what he knows.
But it becomes increasingly difficult to stay quiet when the man behind the disappearances turns out to be a super-rich tech tycoon, and when the intrepid gossip columnist that works in Joe’s office finds herself getting closer to the truth.
Taken on that premise alone, “Every Heavy Thing” could just as easily unfold as a classically gritty or Hitchcockian paranoia thriller.
But with Reece’s sensibilities (specifically his oddball humor) driving the drama, it turns pretty quickly into a genre-mashing romp that’s as much an absurdist comedy of errors as it is a chilling tech-noir, exploring everything from the farcical misunderstandings of a relationship to the outer limits of sci-fi mind games.
And even with all of that combined, it still ends up being surprisingly pointed and prescient about the state of hyper-modern, Big Tech-driven discourse.
“Every Heavy Thing” actually has a lot to say about the way that overtly woman-hating manchild tech titans are corrupting the minds of countless unwitting men in America, and even about the thinly veiled and poorly denied homoeroticism that feels obvious to everyone else.
It’s just that Reece is never one to lean too heavily on a statement or an easy read, preferring instead to crank up the vibes and the general disorientation, well-achieved here through some seriously glitchy, jumpy, retro-cyberspace interstitials that leave you never quite sure if they’re part of the story or not.
If you’re uninitiated in the films of Mickey Reece, all this probably sounds insane so far, and, well, you’re not exactly wrong.
It’s a trip, to be sure, but while a lot of his prior offerings committed to a more surreal and uncomfortable pacing full of awkwardness and space, “Every Heavy Thing” has an electricity coursing through it that not only keeps up the energy and the tension, but elevates the comedy.
That’s a testament as much to the cast as to Reece’s own continually evolving skills.
Fadem feels like a perfect match to Reece’s style and dialogue, with a kind of exasperated goofiness that develops so well and so easily into a broken, paranoid mess. And indie legend James Urbaniak plays the murderous, misogynist tech mogul William Shaffer with such teeth and venom that he’s able to turn the too-common figure of the lanky, uber-rich dork into something genuinely scary, or at least believably unhinged.
But the easy revelations are stalwart comedic actress Tipper Newton as Joe’s spiraling longtime girlfriend, Lux, carrying much of the comedy and stealing some of the biggest laughs, and OKC’s own Kaylene Snarsky as Cheyenne, the shockingly adept gossip columnist that might uncover everything. She crackles with a level of confidence and propulsively watchable drive that more than earns her “introducing” credit here.
Along with some Reece regulars and a seriously evocative, synthwavey score from frequent Reece collaborator Nick Poss, “Every Heavy Thing” feels like maybe the most finely tuned and fully realized film yet for the director. It might even be his most accessible work, in fact, not because it goes easy on the audience or sands down any of his sharper edges or tougher tendencies, but just because it carries them all so well and so naturally.
Reece makes movies that feel like you discovered them on cable when you’re half-awake in the middle of the night or like you found them on VHS on a thrift store shelf and let curiosity get the better of you.
But while sometimes that results in the kind of film that seems like a half-remembered fever dream later on, “Every Heavy Thing” might just get in your head and stay there.
Whatever your dance card is looking like for this year’s deadCenter, you’re going to want to take a chance on this one.
At the very least, I can pretty well guarantee it won’t be like anything else you see there.
For showtimes and the full deadCenter 2026 lineup, visit deadcenterfilm.org.
Catch Brett Fieldcamp’s film column weekly for information and insights into the world of film in the Oklahoma City metro and Oklahoma. | Brought to you by the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.
Brett Fieldcamp is the owner and Editor in Chief of Oklahoma City Free Press. He has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly two decades and served as Arts & Entertainment Editor before purchasing the company from founder Brett Dickerson in 2026.
He is also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
