The abusive father figure. The characterization, depending on the creator’s skill, carries with it the power to deeply impact a viewer. Perhaps it has to do with reality. After all, this figure is drawn from reality, most often from the creator’s own experience. Fathers, stepfathers, uncles – anyone can end up with a bad one… Continue reading Bitter Sky: Confronting Bad Fathers
Category: Reviews
We Choose To Go: A Contemplation Of Choice
We Choose To Go shares its premise with Passengers and faintly echoes the emotional depth of Interstellar. With only 14 minutes to tell its story, the focus is kept on the terrifying question of acceptance rather than a more bravado-filled tale of triumphing insurmountable odds. Writer-Director Marlene Emilia Rios centres the narrative on newly awoken… Continue reading We Choose To Go: A Contemplation Of Choice
Li’l Chit Chat: Every Pet Owner’s Monologue
Writer-Director Colin Thomas Jennings’s Li’l Chit Chat is a 9:23 minutes long romantic comedy – but hold your reigns, it isn’t the romance you presume it to be. It’s even better. It involves a furry little companion with a wagging tail. That dogs make best friends because they wag their tails and not tongues is… Continue reading Li’l Chit Chat: Every Pet Owner’s Monologue
Where We Fit: A Chance Vs Destiny Tangle
Existential dread is a heavy cloud that hangs over the characters in ‘Where We Fit’, directed by Keith Macri. As much a drama as a comedy, Macri’s 14-minute film teases at enticing answers without venturing forward to resolve them. The opening scene takes place in heaven. The future of three kids is decided upon. Cut… Continue reading Where We Fit: A Chance Vs Destiny Tangle
SeaSapien: Fantasy And Comedy Make Great Bedfellows
SeaSapien is as much a comedy as it is a fantasy. In fact, writer-director Sascha Karner uses fantasy only as a platter on which to serve the comedic treatment of an unabashedly eccentric plot that, even aside from comedy, is a fantastic premise filled with potential. The unnamed hero cop hates the ocean, and with… Continue reading SeaSapien: Fantasy And Comedy Make Great Bedfellows
A Home for Curiosities: An Imaginative Story Arguably Saved By Enthusiastic Performances
The last time a film about strange-curious-people and houses were made, albeit delightful when it finally kickstarted itself into motion, it suffered from needless weight of setting and establishment. Ben Tobin’s A Home for Curiosities echoes the fantasy of Tim Burton’s Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children but with much less flair. Tobin’s screenplay starts… Continue reading A Home for Curiosities: An Imaginative Story Arguably Saved By Enthusiastic Performances
Cactus Boy: That One Imaginary Friend We Have All Had
Chris Brake’s Cactus Boy is delicate, touching and quite literally a tribute: to one’s childhood, one’s best friend and to nostalgia. The story of a boy and his imaginary friend, Cactus Boy is a coming-of-age tale and at 17:04 minutes, a brief one at that. Colin Ford plays Winston Prickle, the quiet, reserved boy. (And,… Continue reading Cactus Boy: That One Imaginary Friend We Have All Had
Mojave Shadows: The Past Casts Shadows Even On Endless Deserts
The guilt and grief that Susan daily contended with were unmistakable. After all, she had come out into the Mojave Desert to, if not forget, make peace with the grief of her little boy’s death. In Jaime Torres’ Mojave Shadows – a film that focuses on the immediacy of a rattlesnake bite– it is grief that… Continue reading Mojave Shadows: The Past Casts Shadows Even On Endless Deserts
Ida: The Consuming World Of A Frightened Child
Writer-Director Parminder Singh’s Ida is the story of an 8-year old and the nightmares she endures, even during daytime. Living with an alcoholic parent can never be easy. But, to see it, particularly through the eyes of an 8-year old can be painful. Kerstin Jannerup Gjesing plays the eponymous character. And, we see her world,… Continue reading Ida: The Consuming World Of A Frightened Child
Debris (Desecho): Dark Reality Of Human Labour Trafficking
What’s the price one pays for a better life? What’s the limit to pushing oneself for it? What’s the price of one’s life, anyway? Apparently very little, especially if you fall in the category of an illegal, migrant labourer. Director Julio O. Ramos’s Debris(Desecho) is developed from his own story, while co-written with Lucas Mireles.… Continue reading Debris (Desecho): Dark Reality Of Human Labour Trafficking