Faulty Roots, an 11-minute feel-good drama about Lola, a teenager with clinical depression, whose life is changed just that much for the better because of a rekindled friendship, hits all the conventional beats of its subgenre but manages to get its central character just right. Directed and starring Ella Greenwood as Lola, the film is… Continue reading Faulty Roots: Teens, Friendships and Morbidities
Author: Sristi Gayen
Everything I Learned Came From The Television: Harnessing The Potential Of Sci-Fi For A Simple Message
A sci-fi, Everything I Learned Came From The Television (EILCFTT) ensures its metaphorical nature is not lost on the audience. Jeremy Stewart’s 15-minute film focuses heavily on building on the idea of TVs and, by extension, media consumption being corruptive influences that can gain mastery over your intellectual autonomy. Perhaps because of this, the film’s… Continue reading Everything I Learned Came From The Television: Harnessing The Potential Of Sci-Fi For A Simple Message
Biggest Things: Serenity Of The Little Moments
Writer-director Micah Henry and co-writer Cassidy Waring make a concerted effort to drive forward their 12-minute Biggest Things with dialogue, and to their credit, the dialogues do take the audience by surprise with its thoughtfulness. But Biggest Things remains, nonetheless, a mixed bag of ambitious ideas that work just as often as they don’t. There… Continue reading Biggest Things: Serenity Of The Little Moments
Tsunami Falls: Acceptance In The Face Of Inevitability
Tsunami Falls emphasizes the tragedy of its story by utilising the dichotomy between personal regret and a natural disaster. Indeed, flashbacks of a life dotted with unhappiness while a calamitous wave takes shape in the background is the recipe of panic-inducing, breathtaking spectacle. And while the production values of Tsunami Falls are practically flawless, the… Continue reading Tsunami Falls: Acceptance In The Face Of Inevitability
Kendall’s Dream: The Toxicity Of Pageantry
Victoria Hagni’s 7-minute fantasy Kendall’s Dream works as a metaphor to demonstrate the terror of being exposed for an unforgiving world’s judgement and ridicule over beauty and whether one meets the arbitrary standards set for it. Hagni’s film is additionally striking for its young protagonist; Kendall (played by Kendall Langley), barely 12, and already grappling… Continue reading Kendall’s Dream: The Toxicity Of Pageantry
La Petite Folie: Celebration As Defiance
La Petite Folie. Roughly translating to a little madness, Massimo Zannoni’s 12-minute period drama demonstrates a facet of resistance in the face of oppressive forces. It is 1943 and the Nazis are occupying Paris. For a mismatched band of comrades, resistance means celebrating the very lives that the Nazis have condemned. An alluring woman, Sandrine… Continue reading La Petite Folie: Celebration As Defiance
Dig Ophelia Dig: Righting Past Wrongs, Not Quite Legally
At its best, Kyran Davies’ Dig Ophelia Dig surprises its viewers with what feels like effortless originality, but if anything, Davies proves originality is anything but effortless to reproduce for the entertainment of others. Dig Ophelia Dig starts strong. An old woman, sitting by an old grave, admits to a priest that the grave is… Continue reading Dig Ophelia Dig: Righting Past Wrongs, Not Quite Legally
Gage Oxley’s A Series Of Light: Exclusive To Amazon Prime
Gage Oxley headed A Series Of Light, an anthology series focused on LGBTQ+ stories, is exclusively available on Amazon Prime. Oxley and his team developed the series with the aim to explore the darkest sides of humanity, through technology, connection, intimacy and heartbreak. What’s most telling of the series is its underlying theme; the common… Continue reading Gage Oxley’s A Series Of Light: Exclusive To Amazon Prime
Keeper: Jam-Packed Action That Does Not Exhaust Its Audience
Packed with action, Anna Remus’s drama about rescuing a sister, Keeper offers a story with moving moments that serve as exposition and respite in an arena of unfair odds. Unfair enough that in answer to multiple men with multiple guns, Missy (Anna Rizzo) can only afford a nail gun with which to get her vulnerable… Continue reading Keeper: Jam-Packed Action That Does Not Exhaust Its Audience
Hell’s Kitchen: Crime Drama, Fun Sized
For Steve Young’s mobster drama Hell’s Kitchen, it becomes a point of crucial importance that it consists of a cast of four. Centred on the question of who has turned double-crosser, the film is a direct derivative of its genre, and over twelve minutes, it evolves from a more theatrical tone to tense drama. The… Continue reading Hell’s Kitchen: Crime Drama, Fun Sized