Max Hechtman and Christonikos Tsalikis’s Abigail, written by Jason K. Allen, Max Hechtman, and Meryl Hechtman, is a view into the swirling, disorienting mass of grief that has woven itself into the life of an aged man without his wife. Instead of a chronological order, the structure sandwiches the good days within the bad to… Continue reading Abigail: A Powerhouse Performance in Drama About End of Life and Heartbreak
Tag: Drama
Conscript: Atomic Tests Drama Bolstering Truth with Fiction
Daniel Everitt-Lock’s Conscript is a 13-minute drama about the night before a young man leaves for his conscription and is doomed. With the ghost of nuclear war embedded into his family, Alex’s last evening at home becomes a little break in time that is like nothing before or after that day. The draft brings old… Continue reading Conscript: Atomic Tests Drama Bolstering Truth with Fiction
In the Shadow of the Cypress: An All-Around Triumph
At Berlinale, Ethan Hawke called all artistic effort a compassion engine. He must have had Hossein Molayemi and Shirin Sohani’s In the Shadow of the Cypress in mind. It is a film that closes its impassioned fingers around your aorta and strums feeling right into your bones. The story of a father, daughter, and trauma… Continue reading In the Shadow of the Cypress: An All-Around Triumph
The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent: A Stunningly Astute Massacre Drama
In truth, Nebojsa Slijepcevic’s The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent (Croatian: Covjek koji nije mogao sutjeti) is—and to great effect—more about the terrible effect he has on the man who could not speak up. An incredibly tense drama whether or not you are familiar with the Štrpci massacre thirty-two years ago, it uses its… Continue reading The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent: A Stunningly Astute Massacre Drama
A Lien: Shattering Drama on US immigration and the Home that is No More
Sam and David Cutler-Kreutz’s nimbly titled A Lien lets itself be cut up to pieces by the narrative of a family taken apart by the machinations of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A drama of near-misses, near-saves, and the ordeals in between, the story has already moved past any notions of peace or even… Continue reading A Lien: Shattering Drama on US immigration and the Home that is No More
Anuja: Poverty, Family, and a Girl Just Starting to Come of Age
The cast of Adam J. Graves’ Anuja carries the film. The story of a Delhi factory worker girl negotiating with the chance to go to a decent school—and escape the same poverty that is also grinding down her older sister, it is a concoction of familiar and comfortable elements of a rags-to-riches narrative. The film… Continue reading Anuja: Poverty, Family, and a Girl Just Starting to Come of Age
1 Degré de Séparation: Big Family Drama and A Wedding
5pm Productions’ first short film 1 Degré de Séparation (directed by Sonia Rossier) is a drama that at least half of its characters would call denial, and at least some of the other half would insist is of devotion. Nonetheless, it is a drama following Victoria on her wedding day with her family ranging from… Continue reading 1 Degré de Séparation: Big Family Drama and A Wedding
The Takeover: Two Wrongs, (Second Amendment) Rights, and a few Stages of Grief
Adrian Jules’ The Takeover pits one kind of villainy against another, and beneath this canopy devises a 13-minute psychological torture thriller about some of the ideas that torment the American psyche. It follows a father turned potential school shooter as he uses his second amendment rights to avenge his son’s suicide, or more truthfully, grieve… Continue reading The Takeover: Two Wrongs, (Second Amendment) Rights, and a few Stages of Grief
Millie’s Care Free Day: Painstaking Quest for Things Better than Apathy and Exhaustion
Michael Licisyn’s 9-minute Millie’s Care Free Day is the film equivalent of a severed limb (no horror intended). Surely there was more to this story, but the crux of the original disaster is contained within the consequences themselves. And so, we watch a film that kicks off with a super summarised montage before being swept… Continue reading Millie’s Care Free Day: Painstaking Quest for Things Better than Apathy and Exhaustion
Muted: Psychological Drama on Coming Temporarily Undone
Chris Zou’s Muted is a frenzied six-minute study session that at once should be familiar to (too) many and feels gratifyingly revelatory. It follows Jessica, daughter of Chinese immigrants, on the cusp of exploding or imploding, whichever can come and make it quicker. The pressure to excel academically and professionally seems to follow similar infinite… Continue reading Muted: Psychological Drama on Coming Temporarily Undone