• Home
  • About Us
  • Submit Article
  • Write for Us
  • Contact Us
Indie Shorts Mag
  • Home
  • Premieres
  • Interviews
  • Marketing
  • News
    • Film Festival News
    • Short Film News
  • Reviews
    • Short Film
    • Documentary
    • Web Series
  • Tutorials
    • Pre-Production
    • Post-Production
  • Submit Short Film
No Result
View All Result
Indie Shorts Mag
  • Home
  • Premieres
  • Interviews
  • Marketing
  • News
    • Film Festival News
    • Short Film News
  • Reviews
    • Short Film
    • Documentary
    • Web Series
  • Tutorials
    • Pre-Production
    • Post-Production
  • Submit Short Film
No Result
View All Result
Indie Shorts Mag
No Result
View All Result

First Mistake: Chemistry So Good, You Don’t Need Conversation To Fall In Love

Sristi Gayen by Sristi Gayen
27 Oct 2019
in Reviews
0
First Mistake - Short Film Review - Indie Shorts Mag

There are love stories. Then there are rom-coms. And then there are terrible rom-coms. First Mistake languishes woefully in that last category. This is a film that has a one-night stand at its crux. In other films centred around the same theme, the story will usually have the decency to portray its characters with normal human characteristics. Things like, say, not falling hopelessly in love with the person you had drunken sex with one time—minutes after meeting them in a bar.

Written and directed by DC Brandon, the film explains this away by portraying both its central characters, Jeff (Lee Lopez) and Mimi (Juhi Gupta) as almost pathologically needy people who cannot keep themselves away from bad relationships. One of them has had three bad relationships, each lasting three years since he was 16. The other has had two bad relationships, each lasting four years since she was 15. All things said and done, at least they are a well-suited pair.

First Mistake - Short Film Review - Indie Shorts Mag

At an unbearable 37-minute runtime, First Mistake also comes with the insufferable commentary by the quintessential wingman-dudebro, Jeff’s co-worker and friend, Jake (Rohit Kataria). Written to function as a contrast to the relatively sweeter, more respectable Jeff, Jake is obnoxious. Their counterparts, Mimi and Krista (Natalie Marie), have basically the same conversation when the film begins. Both Mimi and Jeff have gotten out of yet another bad relationship and both are being given the pep talk by their friends Krista and Jake to have mindless hook-ups as a way to flush their systems. But wouldn’t you know it, they find each other. The viewer then spends the rest of the film watching a middling plot try to hook in their attention with a laughably contrived will-they-won’t-they situation.

Both characters give each other a fascinating run for their money to be the most whining person in the film. Krista, at least, is less annoying than Jake, although the character is underwritten and serves to be a prop while Marie’s portrayal is flat. She serves only to give the final push Mimi needs to go get her one true love. Jake gets far more opportunities to keep his friend’s morale up and the character does not grow on you. Daphne Chen’s visualisation is the only halfway decent thing First Mistake has going for itself. Chen plays with soft and mood lighting to create the air the plot tries to build up. The background score features a slew of pop songs to appeal to the viewer’s senses, but with a soupy plot such as this, pop songs can hardly save the film.

First Mistake - Short Film Review - Indie Shorts Mag

There is nothing wrong with flawed characters. They are absorbing and they are viscerally human. That is, when there is a strong story to back them up. First Mistake takes two characters who are so deeply scared of being alone that they are incapable of having one meal by themselves and pits them as the most romantic thing since Casablanca. There is near zero character development. They began as clingy and whiny and ended as the same, now with each other’s company to fill their voids. 

First Mistake: Chemistry So Good, You Don’t Need Conversation To Fall In Love
2.8 / 5 Stars
Direction
Cinematography
Screenplay
Editing
Music

Watch First Mistake Short Film

https://vimeo.com/355740625
Tags: ReviewShort Film Reviews
Previous Post

Leslie’s Gift: Finding Salvation Within

Next Post

Safely to Shore: Using Supernatural Elements To Weave Two Tales Of Abuse

Sristi Gayen

Sristi Gayen

Related Posts

Fish Out of Water - Short Film Review - Indie Shorts Mag
Reviews

Fish Out Of Water: Mellow Look Into A Child’s Inner World

20th January 2021
2125 - Short Film Review - Indie Shorts Mag
Reviews

2125: A Quarantine Much Worse

19th January 2021
Next Post
Safely to Shore - Short Film Review - Indie Shorts Mag

Safely to Shore: Using Supernatural Elements To Weave Two Tales Of Abuse

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

From Editor’s Desk

Editor’s Picks: 2020’s Flashback In One Go!

Editor’s Picks: 2020’s Flashback In One Go!

Sponsored

  • Recent Reviews
Facebook Twitter Instagram

About Indie Shorts Mag

Indie Shorts Mag is a publishing agency that works within the ‘short film circuit’. We review short films, documentaries, music videos and web series, amongst others. We stand out amongst the short film review sites for being multi-diverse & global in our platform and reach.
Our team works tirelessly to help promote, publicize and market your short films that deserve the shout-out! Besides reviews, we host film festival news as it’s a known fact that the film festival buzz is unmissable and we ensure you aren’t left behind!
We aspire to form a niche for ourselves as the ‘short film magazine’ that remains the hub for filmmakers & their audience.

Popular Topics

  • Announcements
  • Articles
  • Crowdfunding
  • Editorial
  • Film Festival News
  • Film Festivals
  • India Edition
  • Interviews
  • Marketing
  • Marketing
  • News
  • Online Premiere
  • Post-Production
  • Pre-Production
  • Reviews
  • Short Film
  • Short Film Competition
  • Short Film News
  • Tutorials
  • Web Series

Indie Shorts Mag on Instagram

Follow Us On Instagram

  • #ShortFilmTrailer: Miss Freelance: A Week Of Searching For Meaning⠀
⠀
Read our review and watch the film short film, link in bio. ⠀
⠀
@matthewkylelevine⠀
#ShortFilm #ShortFilmReview #ShortFilms #SupportIndieFilm
  • #ShortFilmReview: Fish Out Of Water: There
  • #ShortFilmReview: Nene: Her life was summed up in one canvas. Read our review. Link in bio.⠀
⠀
⠀
@kinglouiefilms⠀
⠀
#ShortFilm #Review #IndieFilmReview #FilmReview #SupportIndieFilm
  • #ShortFilmReview: La Jaula: Can you get yourself out of the network? Read our review and watch the short film. Link in bio.⠀
⠀
⠀
@umbra_directors⠀
⠀
#ShortFilm #Review #IndieFilmReview #FilmReview #SupportIndieFilm
  • #ShortFilmReview: Anna: The promise to a better life passes through hell. Read our review. Link in bio.⠀
⠀
⠀
@annafilm19⠀
⠀
#ShortFilm #Review #IndieFilmReview #FilmReview #SupportIndieFilm
  • #ShortFilmReview: The Invitation (Die Einladung): Dinner could change everything. Read our review. Link in bio.⠀
⠀
⠀
@thorsten7319⠀
⠀
#ShortFilm #Review #IndieFilmReview #FilmReview #SupportIndieFilm
  • #ShortFilmReview: Yearbook: All of mankind
  • #ShortFilmReview: Comfort Zone: Free your voice. Join the movement. Read our review and watch the short film. Link in bio.⠀
⠀
⠀
@jordanblady⠀
⠀
#DocumentaryFilm #Review #IndieFilmReview #FilmReview #SupportindieFilm
  • #ShortFilmReview: Dreamers: The system might be rigged, but you aren

© 2015-2021 Indie Shorts Mag

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Premieres
  • Interviews
  • Marketing
  • News
    • Film Festival News
    • Short Film News
  • Reviews
    • Short Film
    • Documentary
    • Web Series
  • Tutorials
    • Pre-Production
    • Post-Production
  • Submit Short Film

© 2015-2021 Indie Shorts Mag