Joe Acierno’s I Love Who You Are takes a minimalist approach to explore a man’s heartbreak in this 5-minute drama. With no stylistic flourishes to further dramatise its narrative, the film asks its viewers to focus their entire attention on its protagonist as he tries to understand and verbalise a complex structure of grief. The… Continue reading I Love Who You Are: Heartbreak and Questions that Evade Us
Tag: Drama Short Film Review
Later Gator: Pulling a Dead Friendship Out by the Roots
Kevin Quinn’s Later Gator is a comedy-drama that knows how to balance tension with humour, stemming from the same source: its resentful protagonist, Baird, himself unable to put words to his feelings. The story of a friendship coming apart, it understands that friendships can be stunting, sometimes through no one’s fault. Noah (Cameron Burton) is… Continue reading Later Gator: Pulling a Dead Friendship Out by the Roots
The Other: A Powerful Work on the Conditions of Historical Womanhood
Maria D. Rapicavoli ends her 20-minute The Other on a note of exhaustion: “The story keeps on getting written.” The film’s subtitle describes the film as a familiar story, and it is, indeed. The compelling style, however, renders it unforgettable. The story of the Sicilian protagonist is specific to post-war Italy and yet effortlessly resonates… Continue reading The Other: A Powerful Work on the Conditions of Historical Womanhood
LIFE Happens: Taking Account at the End of It All
James Dubbeldam’s LIFE Happens chronicles four key moments in a man’s life as a sum of its worth. Eight minutes long, the film is wordless in the present, weighed down into introspective silence. This introspection requires a fair amount of vulnerability and the concomitant risk of mortification, but then, delving into memory offers its own brand of… Continue reading LIFE Happens: Taking Account at the End of It All
Care & Repair: A Burdensome Brother and a Job Gone Wrong in Tense Dramedy
Michael Cooke’s Care & Repair is a comedy-drama that entertains from the first shot to the last. The adventures of three young men, instigated by only one of them, take the film on a smooth, and thoroughly claustrophobic, ride through its nineteen-minute runtime. Neil (Hunter Bishop) and Stevie (Cooke), repairmen, are a well-matched pair of colleagues in their quiet… Continue reading Care & Repair: A Burdensome Brother and a Job Gone Wrong in Tense Dramedy
Ghost Town: A Friendly Road Trip Into Supernatural Territory
Molly Muse’s Ghost Town, in which she appears with her co-writer Britt Harris, is a 15-minute horror-comedy with a smattering of movie references. Set in Bodie, the largest ghost town in the US, it charts the journey of two friends who must make their way through the desolate landscape. Their aim: undo a curse before it… Continue reading Ghost Town: A Friendly Road Trip Into Supernatural Territory
Yard Kings: Make-Believe Dreams and Their Makeshift Realisation
Vasco Alexandre’s Yard Kings weaves a tale of fantasy through the barbs of an impoverished, abuse-laden life that its 9-year-old protagonist navigates along with her friend. A story (writing credits shared between Alexandre, Billy King and Justin Scher-Smith) about the two finding triumphant joy in their path away from a dismal home, the film is as much… Continue reading Yard Kings: Make-Believe Dreams and Their Makeshift Realisation
Catharsis: A #metoo Era Tale of Liberation from Old Wounds
Kayla Fyfe’s Catharsis is a familiar account by now. The 11-minute film tells the story of a young woman faced with the prospect of bringing her abuser to justice. The decision is more complex and less instantaneous than one would perhaps have assumed some years ago, the film is an account of the in-between period… Continue reading Catharsis: A #metoo Era Tale of Liberation from Old Wounds
Little Cuts: Friendship Sours into Wounded Rage
Maia Henkin’s Little Cuts is a harrowing psychological horror about hierarchy and abuse in female friendships. The 16-minute film follows Jo and Pam through a vacation in which they want to fix their estranged friendship only for it to go wrong in nightmarish ways. Jo, played by Henkin, is the queen bee that Pam (Elise… Continue reading Little Cuts: Friendship Sours into Wounded Rage
Everyone Writes Memoir: Exploring Truth and Certainty Through a Dying Relationship
Alexander Campbell and Mark Solter’s Everyone Writes Memoir is a 37-minute examination of a relationship on its final legs. Beginning with a prologue, the narrative rewinds the story back to the day of the breakup between Mia and Daniel, digitally networked but in the physical world, cracks seem to have widened into chasms. As the… Continue reading Everyone Writes Memoir: Exploring Truth and Certainty Through a Dying Relationship