Matt René’s What We Did Yesterday splits the narrative into three parts, each led by one of its three characters. The film uses visual cues and continuous movement than dialogue to develop individual narratives as the truth of the previous night waits to be seen. Opening on a coffee table cluttered with the remnants of… Continue reading What We Did Yesterday: Replacing Vacuous Broad Strokes with Intricate Groundwork
Tag: Private
Trinou: A Quest for Life’s Vibrancy
Nejib Kthiri’s Trinou explores the inner life of a withdrawn, wheelchair-bound teenager in the Tunisian countryside, limited first by his body and then by his tense home life. With all walls closing in on him, dreams seem to be the breadth of possibilities for the boy. Over the course of the 15-minute film, Omar makes… Continue reading Trinou: A Quest for Life’s Vibrancy
Dictionary: Graphing Love in Seven Stages
Elena Viklova’s Dictionary is a brief, diagrammatic account of a relationship viewed as a progression through the seven stages of love, a Sufi concept. The protagonist, an unnamed everywoman, narrates her journey with a partner from attraction, attachment, love, reverence, worship, madness and finally, death. The partner in question is never shown on screen, the… Continue reading Dictionary: Graphing Love in Seven Stages
Chipper: A Chipper Protagonist Chips Away at Rotten Men
The protagonist of Chipper, Caroline,is Elle Woods meets Margot Robbie’s Barbie. Directed by MK Kopp, it is a proof-of-concept horror-comedy that comes at an opportune moment, for obvious reasons. A sorority queen with all her possessions pink, bedazzled, and labelled, Caroline has taken on a new challenge: to study murder methods and find the most… Continue reading Chipper: A Chipper Protagonist Chips Away at Rotten Men
Lambing: Parents, and the Baby They Must Choose
When going into Katie McNeice’s Lambing one does not (but perhaps should) expect to be momentarily devastated by the fate of a lamb. An 18-minute drama about the birth of an intersex child to parents expecting a boy (the first such film in Ireland), Lambing explores the agony that parents are unnecessarily put through and… Continue reading Lambing: Parents, and the Baby They Must Choose
Cairn: The Ancestral Home as the Repository of Generational Sins and Secrets
Gia Rayne-Harris and Joshua Zev Nathan co-directed Cairn has all the makings of a horror. An ancestral home in the country, a groundskeeper with a long history with the property, and a group of raucous youths vacationing in said home. Plenty could and does go wrong. Ada (Nyree Neil) has taken over from her father… Continue reading Cairn: The Ancestral Home as the Repository of Generational Sins and Secrets
Born of Water: A Warrior is Brought to Life
Alex Bates’s 19-minute Born of Water pays heavy attention to its surroundings in order to create an atmospheric effect as its protagonist stubbornly evades death. The setting is Guernsey in 1372. One raider who has invaded the island pursues a young mother through the forest and across the shores. What will it cost to win… Continue reading Born of Water: A Warrior is Brought to Life
The Killer Service: Friendship and Rage Unite in Thriller Origin Story
Gio Randazzo’s The Killer Service sets up the origin story of its protagonist, Elliott for an upcoming series. A proof-of-concept thriller written by Randazzo and Miranda Rausch, it portrays a young woman with inherited debt and few legal ways to pay it off. Finding herself backed into a corner a little too tight, Elliott decides… Continue reading The Killer Service: Friendship and Rage Unite in Thriller Origin Story
Ill Fares the Land: Guilt, Fear and Conflict in a Story (Not) About a Mermaid
Patrick Ireland’s Ill Fares the Land succeeds in creating the impression of something alive out of itself. And indeed it is alive, chiefly with guilt, fear, and unceasing friction between an impoverished island and the larger world. The protagonist is a young teenage boy, who has not spoken in nearly two years, overwhelmed by worlds… Continue reading Ill Fares the Land: Guilt, Fear and Conflict in a Story (Not) About a Mermaid
Mandje: The Limits of Greed and the Steep Fall Beyond
Cameron Currin and Cody Kristapovich’s 18-minute Mandje is a loose adaptation of The Fisherman and His Wife (adapted by Josh Hughes) substituting the grand scale of its progression for a more rustic, folk mood. The film wants to reinforce the anti-fairytale nature of the story and thus attempts to be psychological and gritty, something along… Continue reading Mandje: The Limits of Greed and the Steep Fall Beyond