Dustie Carter’s documentary on Lew Blink, Dumpster Archaeology captures its subject’s lighthearted whimsy through its comedic, stylised design—leaving the job of showcasing Blink’s earnestness about his pursuits to him. His excitement is infectious (potentially so is his work, in less fun ways) as Blink dives into dumpster after smelly dumpster in the middle of summer,… Continue reading Dumpster Archaeology: The Art of Rediscovering in Jazzy Docu on Dumpster Diving
Category: Reviews
Zerno (The Seed): A Walkabout Through Genres and Eras
Ksenia Bugrimova’s 23-minute Zerno chronicles a woman’s experiment to find lasting love within an alternate universe that came into the 21st century without quite leaving the last one behind. The best of both worlds, as they say, but here it is also the modestly weird of both worlds. The unnamed woman (a pitch-perfect Olga Grishina)… Continue reading Zerno (The Seed): A Walkabout Through Genres and Eras
Paracosm: Visions of Ecstasy Blend into Bloody Deceit
Adam Van Dyke’s Paracosm, a ten-minute chamber horror, is nothing if not compact. The plot, of course, but especially its driver: a drug dealer with a doorstep delivery (and pickup) service who says little and does exactly as much as necessary. The luminescent, futuristic capsule that the shabby Mak (Paige Henderson) buys from her must… Continue reading Paracosm: Visions of Ecstasy Blend into Bloody Deceit
Aroma: An Everyday Cafe Comedy-Drama
Oliver Ward’s Aroma is a 10-minute short set in a modern North London cafe but has the flavour of post-war European cinema (with the barest hint of Fleabag). A man—a comically exacting one where his order is concerned—waits for his date to arrive, a young couple plays scrabble while discussing sexual possibilities, and a tired… Continue reading Aroma: An Everyday Cafe Comedy-Drama
Trouble: Faces in the Crowd of a Century-Old Story
Jonathan Shaw’s Trouble, an Irish Civil War drama through the eyes of a bereaved family, is brimming with an oppressive air that can be hard to sit with. With their father still in an unburied coffin and the brother only recently returned from being a prisoner of war, three siblings reckon with the new, uneasy… Continue reading Trouble: Faces in the Crowd of a Century-Old Story
Locked In: The Fresh Adventures of the Latest Dumb and Dumber
Ethan Koester and Jhye Smith’s Locked In is a 35-minute action-comedy that delights in its theatricality on every level. Are all the actors hilariously cast against their character ages? Yes. Are they all working with an exaggerated plot that makes sense only with fun on everyone’s minds? Nothing could be truer. Co-written by Justin McCleskey… Continue reading Locked In: The Fresh Adventures of the Latest Dumb and Dumber
I Know There’s Something Here for You: Pursuit of Relief in Sci-Fi Drama
Sean Robert Kelly’s I Know There’s Something Here for You is a heartfelt drama (with undertones of comedy) about a man’s attempts to die or disappear—anything to lighten the weight of existence. And there’s the extraterrestrial life too. The film features a heavily contrasted pair of siblings—the sister responsible and grounded, the brother ambitious and… Continue reading I Know There’s Something Here for You: Pursuit of Relief in Sci-Fi Drama
The Purpose: Failing Youth and Crises All Around in Drama on Ambition
A morbidly comical drama about two young women with dreams in the time of plague and war, Dimitri Nasennik’s The Purpose lets its heroines be two sides of the same coin of ambition held up in limbo. Its star is Kristel (Natalia Shevchenko), a less lethal take on Killing Eve’s Villanelle. The sociopathy is casual,… Continue reading The Purpose: Failing Youth and Crises All Around in Drama on Ambition
Hamdardi: Recognition and Compassion Under the State’s Nose
Stefan Fairlamb and Ashley Tabatabai’s Hamdardi, a retrospective look at Trump’s Muslim ban seven years ago, splits the narrative between an immigration officer and two stranded Iranian siblings in the eye of the storm—a US airport. At twenty-seven minutes, the film takes its time to map out its similarities to and differences from 2004’s The… Continue reading Hamdardi: Recognition and Compassion Under the State’s Nose
Foretoken: A Tale of Oppression and Fury
Tamas Levardi’s Foretoken – Omen of the Outsiders, a 22-minute Roman-era costume drama, is the origin story of its protagonist, the warrior Enna. Introduced at her most desperate, the film follows the character through a matter of hours as she repeatedly loses kin at the behest of the Roman empire. Narrated in voiceover by the… Continue reading Foretoken: A Tale of Oppression and Fury