Tatiana Maslany is the highest profile actress appearing in one of this year’s Inside Out’s short film program. The program is called Call Your Girlfriend. It features five shorts portraying the adventures of lesbian life. Maslany is excellent in Ben Lewis’ Apart from Everything, playing a woman out of rehab. Her performance, however, can’t elevate this short. It feels incomplete, like a short that should lead to a feature length film. I just wanted more.

My favourite ones in the bunch are Jessica Fuh’s Us and Yun Joo Chang’s Momo. Both take advantage of the short film as a compact art form. They jump us deep into their worlds since it has to time for spoon fed details. We learn about Becca’s (Amanda Miller) work crush’s name, Mallory (Christine Weatherup) before we know who Becca is. We also get to see how this new relationship shakes up the one she has with her roommate.

Momo is more mysterious yet strangely immersive. I can’t believe I’m using the latter in describing a short film about a custody battle. And this is no ordinary custody battle because it’s between three women and a cat. It all wraps up neatly in its short third act. It’s a touching one where Sohee’s (Han Hae-ee) new girlfriend learns how to deal with her new pet.

Sam Icklow’s Untitled, L.A. is in the middle of the pack but it still makes us feel. It also makes us ask questions about its characters. We wonder about Amy’s (Sarah Greyson) strange relationship with a subject in her thesis, Mike (Robert L. Greene). There are both wry humour and subtle, cagey moments here. Amy and Mike’s few encounters show our real, complicated fears. Her story, like the ones in the other shorts, are compelling enough in this format.