Jacob Isaiah Kelly’s Gutted examines what it means to be a good man, a good boyfriend and an ideal supporter when put to the test by a time of crisis. At the ironical centre of the story is Jack, a man trying to be his best for his girlfriend who was assaulted mere days ago. … Continue reading Gutted: A Performance of Masculinity and the Price of it
Tag: Drama Short Film Review
The Other Woman: Questions of Morality Around Lust, and Questioning Domesticity
Cameron Lee Horace’s The Other Woman chronicles the life of a septuagenarian woman in a nursing home in 2004, her life narrated by her snarky younger self. Twenty-two minutes long, the film follows as Margaret recounts the pleasures of her life, that ‘Maisie’ now seems completely separated from. Rescued from her third floor apartment, no… Continue reading The Other Woman: Questions of Morality Around Lust, and Questioning Domesticity
The Pearl: Greed, Necessity, and Disasters Before and After
Terji Mohr’s The Pearl is a Faroese film that swiftly unfolds the effects of greed clashing with poverty, with the 1992 financial crisis serving as backdrop. Two men on a boat demonstrate this tension and conflict with disastrous results that extend well beyond them. The stage is set with the radio news announcing statistics of… Continue reading The Pearl: Greed, Necessity, and Disasters Before and After
Through the Stars: Leaving Homes that are Not
Ariel Danziger’s sci-fi Through the Stars, written by Ryan Marth, is a teenager’s act of self-preservation in the face of a steadily diminishing scope to hold on to her early childhood or live freely in the present. So when Casey begins to slice through time and space, it is in pursuit of the freedom no… Continue reading Through the Stars: Leaving Homes that are Not
Hypodermic: The Literal and Metaphorical United Under the Skin
Aaron Van Maanen’s Hypodermic takes grief down to a physical level. A character who literally carries it within his body begins to lose his grip on his immediate reality, becoming increasingly enveloped in a reality of his own. The trick that makes the film is turning its abstractions concrete. Isaiah’s (Lakin Mims) personal reality is… Continue reading Hypodermic: The Literal and Metaphorical United Under the Skin
Balloon: Conventions of Violence and Their By-Products
Through the superhero myth, Jeremy Merrifield’s Balloon, co-written with Dave Testa, explores the destructive forces that come into being in reaction to evil. Sam, a middle-schooler, finds out just what this means when he is relentlessly bullied by a classmate. But as the film shows, it is not one individual only that leads Sam to… Continue reading Balloon: Conventions of Violence and Their By-Products
What we say, What we mean: Meanings, Perspectives, and Interpretations
Abigail Parmenter’s What we say, What we mean plays with reality to present alternative realities of a couple who are breaking up after their final fight. Four minutes long, the film takes a no-frills approach to illustrate its argument about a particular tendency of words. The narrative intercuts between two scenes, forming one single sequence… Continue reading What we say, What we mean: Meanings, Perspectives, and Interpretations
Finale: An Answer to Languishing in a Pandemic
Anthony Vander’s Finale is a bid to portray COVID-19, not as stats and facts, but as the suspended limbo of unceasing fear that it is. Centred on two sisters, one a violinist and the other a ballerina, the 15-minute film keeps it as isolated and overwrought as the real thing. Empty spaces occupy a significant… Continue reading Finale: An Answer to Languishing in a Pandemic
Paintless: The Second Coming and a Young Artist’s Doom
Konstantin Pivovar’s 23-minute Paintless explores the world of Christians after the Second Coming. For one artist, it is a bleak one and has spelled doom for her work. The film follows the unnamed woman through a fraught interview with the priest in charge of approving suicides. Trouble is, he knows she is lying. The film… Continue reading Paintless: The Second Coming and a Young Artist’s Doom
New Shoes: Childhood Abuse and Unconditional Love
Thommy Kane’s New Shoes sees the bleak world that a young boy occupies, with his mother at the centre of it, and he on the periphery waiting. Always waiting, with a brick ready at hand. Twenty-two minutes long, the film explores Tristan’s threadbare life until it sways right on the edge of falling apart. Tristan… Continue reading New Shoes: Childhood Abuse and Unconditional Love