James Franco is back producing more films.
This time, he's invested in a short film helmed by rising director Mark Columbus with "Modern Family" star Rico Rodriguez as a kid dealing with problems in school and at home.
Known as a smart yet odd kid in the Emmy Award-winning comedy, Rodriguez is "astoundingly sober" in "Guests," according to Paper Magazine.
He plays Charlie, a boy who not only gets bullied at the school he recently transferred to, he also has to deal with the gloom that his father's cancer is shrouding him with. The short film is reportedly based on a series of vignettes by Robert Boswell set in the 1970's.
"When Charlie (Modern Family's Rico Rodriguez) and his family move to a warmer climate for the sake of his father's (Matthew Modine) illness, he finds himself between losing his father - and a conflict with a vicious bully at school," the synopsis about "Guests" in Short Of The Week said.
Reviewer Ivan Kander called it a "rare film that actually manages to capture the horror of being bullied."
He added that director "Columbus' portrayal of the film's two central horrors-an unrelenting disease and an unrelenting bully-are nightmarish, but there is a restraint and nuance to his cinematic style that only makes the film all the more powerful."
"The way I imagine everything in my memory is always washed out and sun-dried, with details on the weirdest things," Columbus reportedly told Dazed about the short movie. "Such as the little crevices on concrete walls, or dust particles floating in a still room."
The said "orange-ish grade," "unnerving, ethereal feel" can be seen in "Guests" which could be seen as "a reflection of past events that are as horrific as they are formative."
Watch "Modern Family" star Rico Rodriguez deal with problems in school and at home in "Guests" below.
