Jonathan Scott’s Lemon is a 7-minute comedy about two brothers in the aftermath of breaking their third brother out of hospital. Thrown in the trunk, mummy-bandaged, and possibly concussed—Crane is likely feeling his brothers’ love a little too intensely this evening, but it will be a while yet before the brothers notice. Until then, it… Continue reading Lemon: A Getaway Comedy of Balls, Butts, and Bad Brothers
Tag: Private
Kotsuage: Bitterness, Hope, and Profundity at the Close of the Day
Alex K. E. Ching and Devan Yukio Fujinaka’s Kotsuage, written by Fujinaka, is beautiful in a way that almost instantly draws out sorrow from within you before it even begins to narrate or justify a cause. A brief, fragmentary glimpse into a man’s childhood, it picks through the confounding years for its most significant pieces. … Continue reading Kotsuage: Bitterness, Hope, and Profundity at the Close of the Day
The PAntry: Haunted House and Paranormal Horror in Bite-Sized Short
Ervis Zika’s The PAntry is a seven-minute paranormal horror film that follows a dark chapter in a woman’s relationship with her home. Working with the most minimal setup—an actor, a mask, some lights, and one location—the film is noteworthy for its building tropes of dread with so little. Sina-Valeska Jung plays Emily, a woman alone… Continue reading The PAntry: Haunted House and Paranormal Horror in Bite-Sized Short
The Chasers of Tornado Alley: Bare Terror and Awe in Thrilling Tornado Docu
Martin Lisius’ 48-minute documentary The Chasers of Tornado Alley: Touching the Sky offers stunning views of tornadoes across the plains of America as well as the destruction they leave in their wake. Divided into seven chapters, the narrative illustrates the work of storm chasers, the difficulties they face, the full scale of dangers of tornadoes,… Continue reading The Chasers of Tornado Alley: Bare Terror and Awe in Thrilling Tornado Docu
Anemoia: Sci-Fi Drama on Nostalgic Yearning and Imagining the Unreachable
Zachary Karem’s sci-fi Anemoia explores nostalgia for times other than these, theirs, ours. A true example of the allure of greener grass, the film illustrates just how romantic everything we do not have can look. But to think of it as finger wagging in that direction would be to miss recognizing the loneliness of being… Continue reading Anemoia: Sci-Fi Drama on Nostalgic Yearning and Imagining the Unreachable
The Super Exciting Gang: Unsettling Comedy of Vanities, Erasure, and Racial Appropriation
Ricardo Lorenzo’s dark comedy The Super Exciting Gang comes with fantastic graphics and a plot so absurd it starts to feel like horror of the kind that sneaks in sorrow. All of this makes sense when you take in its list of influences: Being John Malkovich, Living in Oblivion, and in particular, Sorry To Bother… Continue reading The Super Exciting Gang: Unsettling Comedy of Vanities, Erasure, and Racial Appropriation
My David: A Taut Thriller That Begs You to Not Like Its Leads
Kama Sood’s 11-minute My David, a thriller drama, mixes pity and suspicion into an uncanny hour of socialising between a young delivery man and an old woman alone at home. Sood does not attempt with any particular zealousness to veil that the man may be overstating the urgency—or legitimacy, for that matter—of paying “overdue shipment… Continue reading My David: A Taut Thriller That Begs You to Not Like Its Leads
King Ed: Co-Dependence and Coming of Age in Surreal Comedy
Nick Fascitelli’s comedy King Ed is trippy and touching and funny in that self-conscious, meta way we all love and hate. The 23-minute film follows Edward in his quest to find his one true love, but first he must get over his bad boyfriend who has swooningly good taste in music and sickeningly bad taste… Continue reading King Ed: Co-Dependence and Coming of Age in Surreal Comedy
Lost All Care: Despair and Stagnancy of Mental Illness in Emde Music Video
Chris Wu, the director and cinematographer behind Emde’s Lost All Care music video, adds the right kind of stylisation to the lyrics’ despair with slick, glossy visuals featuring Emde as a young woman in the middle of a crisis. A blend of hip hop and soul, the song articulates a cry for help. The shots,… Continue reading Lost All Care: Despair and Stagnancy of Mental Illness in Emde Music Video
Dear Imelda: A Dramedy That Will Tug At Your Heart
Perhaps one of the finest shorts to come out this year, Director/editor Arón Holden’s Dear Imelda set in a bucolic countryside of Ireland, explores the relationship between the eponymous Imelda (Rosemary Henderson) and her unwelcome grandson Ciaran (Declan Curran). That he is unwelcome becomes evident right from the opening scene, but the hilarity of the… Continue reading Dear Imelda: A Dramedy That Will Tug At Your Heart