|
How on Earth is it that The Crowd has not been released on a digital disc!? Is there some studio weirdness holding it back? I loved Sullivan's Travels but had only a middling response to The Lady Eve; is Hail the Conquering Hero more like the former or the latter?
|
#
¿
Feb 20, 2017 08:31
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 17:44 |
|
|
Here's a whole bunch of shorts, from three sets I saw at a film festival (Cinequest in San Jose/Redwood City). Theme: 'The Highest Point' (something to do with obsession, I think) 5 A Couple - There's a couple; they have an argument; it's moodily shot; the title is really huge for some reason. 4 Brian Mickler - There's a strong sense of place to this and it's well-directed. It's an interesting set-up, but it left me unsatisfied. 6 Dear Dad - A bit overly sentimental and in the end kind of forgettable. I honestly don't recall enough of it to say more. 9 Limbo - This one has an extremely strong performance, and a solid theatrical sense. It feels like the best scene from some larger film. 6 Modern Houses - There's a hammy quality to this, and it was pretty clear where it was headed, but the performance (by Lili Taylor) pulls the film up a bit. It ends up feeling like a 1980s-era Twilight Zone episode. 8 The Final Show - A nice set-up, good actors, and an amusing script. And any film that uses a lesser-known Cars song ("Hello Again") gets an extra point from me. 2 The Real Wi-Fi Of Baltimore - Literally a list of Wi-Fi networks organized by neighborhood. There is no other context, and no attempt to do anything other than show screenshots of a phone set to a song. Someone got a grant to make this, and someone let it into this festival. It only gets a 2 instead of a 1 because it was short. 8 The School Bag - This is shot like (and feels like) a daytime drama, which for me at least lessens the impact of the ending. It's hard to fault it too much, though. 7 Today They Took My Son - A story of real-world injustice that would have been much better if it had been more specific about its fictionalized characters. Instead it mashes styles together, intercuts real-life pictures, and relies on narration instead of showing action. The result ends up being rather histrionic. 8 Zaar - Intense and suspenseful, with a good story, but it feels a little like it could have been directed and acted just a bit better. Theme: 'Mindbenders' (like it sounds, unusual in some psychological way) 7 Chosa [The Assignment] - This is the one that actually stuck with me the most. Even though all it really did was create a creepy atmosphere, it did so excellently and for something this short, that's admirable. 8 Echo Torch - There's a strong video game vibe to this one (System Shock and its lineage, and most particularly Singularity, come to mind), and there's a fair amount of unnecessary showing off of the effects. But it does ultimately tell a decent story, and it's a high-quality production to boot. 6 Exo - Very much built around a twist and using tricks to hide it. But it's only just kind-of weird; I'd rather have seen more of the story it was pretending to be than what it actually was. 8 Girl #2- As much as it feels like something we've seen before (a send-up of horror film tropes), this one manages to hold its own by being genuinely funny on top of the main joke, thanks to some committed performers and a great script by Kari Wahlgren. 7 Instapocalypse - Yet another swipe at millenials and their supposed self-obsession. Kind of dumb, but at least mildly amusing. 8 La Petite Mort - There's a straightforwardness to this that makes its absurdism all the more engaging, like it's a perfectly normal artifact of another culture. I probably should have rated this a point higher, in retrospect. 9 Monster - While made rather simply (and even somewhat amateurishly), the single performance is very compelling. It runs an emotional gamut that turns what could have been just a creepypasta into an excellent short film. 3 Nocturne - Stitched-together Cold War public domain films. Nothing original or interesting about it. 4 RedRuby - This just kept getting more on my nerves the longer it went on. Annoying exposition blathers for far too long before you realize this is literally a trailer for a graphic novel. It seems chock full of half-baked and fairly stupid ideas, topped off with a healthy dose of racist exoticization of Asians. The only reason this didn't get a lower score is that the surrealist visuals are pretty fantastic. 6 The Visit - This does have some great performances, but the twist is visible from five miles off, and there isn't much more to the story outside of that. Feels like an episode from the last attempt at The Twilight Zone. Theme: 'Animated Worlds' (just means they were animated, although Coffee Virgin was semi-live action) 5 A Day With Dad - Mildly amusing cartoon, although it worryingly demonstrates the influence of Minions on filmmakers. 4 Boomerang - A music video of sorts, and I disliked all the decisions made in putting this together. I won't deny that it's competent on some level, which is why it didn't get that low of a score. 4 Coffee Virgin - I wasn't much a fan of the collage style of this one, and while it was frenetic and short, it didn't feel very substantial. 7 Deer Flower - This was very weird (perhaps it'd be less so if I understood the cultural context), but the animation was quite effective. Probably my favorite in terms of animation of this set. 6 Elena and the Shadows - Kind of a neat idea executed with reasonable skill, but I feel like I rated it slightly higher only because the rest of the set was so mediocre. 6 Hope - Could have been very good, but it fails to effectively convey the setting or characters in a way that provides the emotional weight needed for the premise. 7 Ma'agalim - I can't find too much fault with this. It's solid in all aspects, just not great. 6 Olilo - This could have been a neat parable about social isolation, but I felt it didn't work at a few key moments -- in some way it seemed to be mixing up its symbolism. Nicely drawn, though. 6 One Per Person - The animation was acceptable (low-budget derivative of Pixar), although the story shifted in odd directions, making the whole thing lack cohesion. 8 Panic Attack! - This was amusing, brief but effective, and the images flowed nicely. 5 Pearl - I nearly fell asleep during this, and frankly can't recall what happened, other than that it seemed pleasant. I'm not even 100% sure if this was the one shown, because I don't recall seeing the title. 5 Second To None - Seems like there's a new cartoon of people trying to kill each other Looney-Tunes style and failing all the time, and they're never all that appealing. The audience seemed to like it, though. 7 The Aeronauts - The look of this was a bit off-putting to me, and even ugly (if intentionally so). The story is a good one, although at times it was slightly muddled. I didn't catch the political symbolism until reflecting on it just now; this is one I'd rate a bit higher after thinking about it. 5 The History Of Magic: Ensueño - Visually busy is not the same as visually rich. I just didn't find this engaging. I fell asleep in the middle, but it did not seem as if anything of much interest had transpired, despite there being a lot happening on-screen. 7 The Last Bastion - I tried not to judge this unfairly having already seen it (and knowing its budget was likely more than the rest of the films here combined), but even though it's the best of the Overwatch shorts, it takes a bit too long to make its point, arguably because of a desire to show off the game. 4 The Servant - Some of the time this looked good. Most of the time it kept repeating itself and trying and failing to evoke Kafka. It neither made enough sense to work nor was it surreal enough to get by without a coherent story.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 14, 2017 05:46
|
|
|
Scrapper - 3.5/5 A charming story about people who continually avoid their problems having to confront them, from a child dealing with grief to a father who ran out on his family. That maybe sounds heavier than the film is. It's fairly funny and if not exactly light-hearted, it doesn't get somber. There are some surreal touches that are just enough to feel playful without becoming overbearingly cute. It's very good at efficient storytelling; the characters are rarely giving needless exposition and the details are filled in organically just by portraying their everyday lives. It also doesn't dwell too much on the social commentary, even if a lot of their situation is driven by their circumstances. I think this is director Charlotte Regan's first feature, and she does a fantastic job of having well-realized characters. I'd probably give it a higher rating, but I also don't want to shift expectations too high on it. It's heartwarming without being cloyingly so.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 17, 2023 23:43
|
|