Guillotine Guys is weird. Not so much in its content, but in what’s good and bad about it.
Protagonist Russ Kingston is a fantastic physical actor. The first half of the short is silent and Kingston is wonderful. The other actor, Mark Wood, is lousy. His expressions are terrible.
The second half, with dialogue (which seems like an odd choice, not to do it at first, then to bring it in), the situation reverses. Kingston is awful and Wood is fantastic.
Ricardo’s direction is pedestrian. A lot of it might be the sets—the majority of the short takes place in a convenience store (a real one), but there are two scenes on sets. They look bad. Between Ricardo’s composition and Christopher Gosch’s lighting, it looks like a soap.
But, again, Guys is incongruous… and Ricardo’s dialogue is great.
It’d almost be worth seeing, but Jason Solowsky’s score is intolerable.
Not Recommended
CREDITS
Written and directed by James Ricardo; director of photography, Christopher Gosch; edited by J.R. Lizarraga and Aron Rosenthal; music by Jason Solowsky; produced by Monique Yamaguchi and Ricardo.
Starring Russ Kingston (Elmer), Mark Wood (Punk) and J.C. Maçek III (Doctor).
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