As much as this is a showcase of the despair of hitting thirty – and hitting thirty as a struggling artist – Marcelo Mayen’s The Sleeping Life Of Sofia operates with the knowledge of life’s malleability, as a sea of possibilities. The protagonist, thirty-year-old surrealist painter Sofia, for all that she is depressed, falling apart,… Continue reading The Sleeping Life Of Sofia: Optimism On Being An Adult, Struggling Artist
Author: Sristi Gayen
Monitored: Horror And Mystery With A Side Of Comedy
Daniel Florio’s 10-minute mystery thriller Monitored takes game night a few notches higher. Centred around two couples and a baby, the plot sets the stage for horror when the baby is apparently kidnapped, the kidnapper playing with his victims through the baby monitor. The setup is fairly straightforward: Erik (Eddie Egan) and Mary (Jessica Ritacco)… Continue reading Monitored: Horror And Mystery With A Side Of Comedy
Who The F*ck is Jeffrey Gurian?: Energetic Documentary On A Colourful Personality
As much as Derek Brown’s documentary Who The F*ck is Jeffrey Gurian? is about the regrets of dashed hopes, it is brimming with optimism, accumulated over more than two decades by its subject: comedy writer and former dentist, Jeffrey Gurian. If Gurian’s energy is unhesitatingly lively, Brown’s editing spreads and blends that into the documentary… Continue reading Who The F*ck is Jeffrey Gurian?: Energetic Documentary On A Colourful Personality
Young, Young Men: Teen Boys Have Rarely Been Seen As Well
Youth, and even teenage for that matter, are rather umbrella terms; great for convenience, but they come up rather short in encompassing the many explosions of development that make up these years. Noah Stratton-Twine’s sublime drama Young, Young Men examines with finesse and refreshing empathy that effervescent period of high school, putting the focus on… Continue reading Young, Young Men: Teen Boys Have Rarely Been Seen As Well
Silent: The True Cost Of Poverty And Inequality
There is a lot writer-director Valentyn Korotkevych leaves ambiguous and open to interpretation in his 8-minute film Silent, a film about a homeless boy, his life explored and understood through the influence of music. And the kindness of a stranger. In the total absence of dialogue, Korotkevych demonstrates the life this little boy could have… Continue reading Silent: The True Cost Of Poverty And Inequality
Colourblind: On The Inability To Distinguish Love From Abuse
CW: Contains discussion on domestic abuse and violence. Natasha Rose Mills has written and stars in Kyle and Liam Bashford’s film on domestic abuse, Colourblind, encompassing both physical and emotional abuse. Shot in a single 7-minute long take, the narrative adopts a theatrical style: the central character, Amber walks the audience, literally, through her life… Continue reading Colourblind: On The Inability To Distinguish Love From Abuse
A Momentary Yearning: Chasing Lost Time In Lieu Of Living The Present
Farhaz Husain Rahman’s A Momentary Yearning is wistful and nostalgic, the premise dwelling on years gone by, and all that was lost with it. By including the element of war into the plot (Francis, the protagonist, is a weary war correspondent), it takes on added expectations of depth, which it does not ultimately deliver on.… Continue reading A Momentary Yearning: Chasing Lost Time In Lieu Of Living The Present
Boris in the Forest: When A Fan Met His Hero
A second viewing of Robert Hackett’s horror-comedy Boris in the Forest brings not only a fuller understanding of the plot, but a complete understanding of just how many jokes were slid into seemingly innocuous lines (screenplay by Mike Goldfarb), impossible to distinguish in a single watch. Its performances complement the writing. Mac McDonald as the… Continue reading Boris in the Forest: When A Fan Met His Hero
Campfire Alpha: A Lesson On Toxic Masculinity
Alex Breaux’s wrathful stare as Case, one of four friends out on a trip with his childhood friends, is terrifying. It is a character we are all familiar with: the male character swinging between passive-aggressive joking and outright, brutal violence, the latter coming just as easily as the former. Campfire Alpha, also written and directed… Continue reading Campfire Alpha: A Lesson On Toxic Masculinity
Last Dance: The Horror Of Suspense
Based on an urban legend, Danny Gibbons and Alex Scott’s Last Dance relies heavily on its audience’s experience with horror films and the expectations that spring from that. Subverting expectations, although it lives in a certain infamy now, works for Last Dance because of its intelligent writing and intuitive grasp on what evokes fear for… Continue reading Last Dance: The Horror Of Suspense