Dave Made a Maze (2017): He Thought of Everything but a Way Out

Supertobertacular continues as Beth and Michelle enter the beautifully constructed cardboard labyrinth of Dave Made a Maze. What begins as another unfinished project occupying an apartment living room expands into an impossible world of origami creatures, changing rules, deadly traps, documentary exploitation, a Minotaur, and one dangerously hypnotic paper vagina. Beneath its handmade spectacle is a painfully relatable story about creative paralysis. Dave can begin anything but struggles to finish, leaving his girlfriend Annie exhausted by his lack of communication and direction. Inside the maze, she finally sees the fear, shame, and desperate need to create that he has been unable to explain. Escaping requires more than defeating a monster: Dave must accept help, communicate honestly, and complete something alongside the people who care about him. The film narrowly passes the Castellini Test, with Annie, Jane, and Brynn meeting its requirements, though its broader representation remains limited. Inventive, funny, unexpectedly gory, and emotionally sincere, Dave Made a Maze turns cardboard into a metaphor for the elaborate prisons people construct when they feel lost and the empathy required to find a way out.