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
Tag: Private
Love is a Fire: Body Horror Through Everyday Things
Sofie Somoroff’s Love is a Fire deals with the horrific body. Following a couple who has just moved into a new place, the film takes great pleasure in using body horror to illustrate larger, overarching problems that plague the two. Olivia (Celina Bernstein) develops a yeast infection just after the two make the move. Parallely,… Continue reading Love is a Fire: Body Horror Through Everyday Things
Grounded: Escaping a Secure Place that is no Longer Secure
Jesse Richards’ Grounded, written by Josephine Croft, is a claustrophobic thriller following a woman who wakes up to find the aeroplane deserted and herself locked in. The question is, is she truly alone? And which is worse? A number of factors are responsible for Anne’s (played by Croft) current predicament. She fell into a deep… Continue reading Grounded: Escaping a Secure Place that is no Longer Secure
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
Unbridaled: Post-Bachelorette Party Disasters in Vermont
Chelsea B. Lockie’s Unbridaled (written by Thom Harp) is the quintessential slapstick comedy. Centred around two best friends and stepsisters, the film follows as they try to figure out what happened at the previous night’s bachelorette party and how to get to the wedding in time. Along the way, tensions surface and their friendship is… Continue reading Unbridaled: Post-Bachelorette Party Disasters in Vermont
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
Barbarian God: The Thrills of a Medieval Viking Vampire
David McGuff’s Barbarian God, based on Daniel Prillaman’s play, explores what happens when a Viking vampire confronts a nun’s faith—right after killing a priest with the nun secretly watching. The film swaps out the play’s young boy for the young nun, changing the dynamics of the encounter. An undercurrent of homoeroticism runs through the film… Continue reading Barbarian God: The Thrills of a Medieval Viking Vampire