Category: Short
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Simon of the Desert opens with the title character, played by Claudio Brook, getting a new pillar after six years on his first(?) one. He’s a priest doing penance (just general penance) and living his life in prayer atop a pillar, eating nothing but lettuce, drinking nothing but water, and a local rich guy appreciates…
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There are some truly excellent moments in Zero for Conduct, usually when director Vigo slows down the film (literally) and focuses attention on how the characters are experiencing said moments. The biggest one—though maybe not best—comes during the prelude to insurrection, when the students in a boys’ school are marching towards… well, it turns out…
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Is it really so hard to make a Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon? It’s somewhat unfair to just crap on the writing (by Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant), the acting (June Foray’s back as Bullwinkle but barely in it), the editing (it’s hard to say if Mark Deimel’s timing is off or if it’s Trousdale’s…
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What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? is an absurd but arty comedy short. Director Scorsese mixes full motion video with stills, which sometimes do stand-ins for scenes—like protagonist Zeph Michaelis marrying Nice Girl Mimi Stark—sometimes just for expository stuff. See, Michaelis is a writer who gets a new studio…
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Once the technology gets better, something like Familiar Strangers is going to be disturbing as all hell. Director Sayginer has created a bunch of heads, using deep-fake technology to look like various famous celebrities (Maggie Gyllenhaal and Luke Evans are the most spot on), and the top row moves one way, the bottom row moves…
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A Terrible Night had me exclaiming, “Holy shit,” when the giant bug appeared. Or when it started moving. I’m not sure if it’s always in the shot. I’m resisting the urge to go and check. The short is short—a minute—and one of director Méliès single shot films. He appears in the film as well, a…
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Batman: Dead End goes far in validating the idea of cosplay as successful costuming for film—well, not Andrew Koenig’s Joker—but definitely the Batman outfit. Costume designer Michael MacFarlane, cinematographer Vincent E. Toto, and director Collora do figure out a way to do a “comics accurate” (if you’re reading comics illustrated by Alex Ross) Batman costume.…
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We’re in the Army Now is somewhat inexplicably a rarity. It’s a Warner Bros. “training short” for the Army (during World War II) but in the public domain. It’s got no IMDb entry, no Google results outside a citation from Doug McClelland’s Eleanor Parker: Woman of a Thousand Faces book (with the wrong title), yet…
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Card Party runs a minute. Three guys sitting outside at a table, drinking wine, playing cards. It’s a family affair for director Méliès (who’s one of the card players), with his brother playing another of them. There aren’t any credits and apparently the third player’s identity is lost to time. At the open, Méliès daughter…
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Stryker’s War runs just over forty-five minutes. The first fifteen to twenty minutes are all about how twenty-two year-old lead Bruce Campbell can both do anything and make everything feel legit. The film opens in Vietnam (as shot in East Michigan) with Campbell taking his squad out on a mission after being promoted to lieutenant.…
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Save Me is the story of a kid (Jaheem Toombs) whose house burned down and the rest of his family died and he goes to ask the man who saved him (Sam Bologna) why he saved him and the man doesn’t tell him so the kid lies about it to his new best friend. There…
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Pierre Paolo is a five minute short, set in a seaside Italian town. It opens with a simple, handwritten title card, then there’s a montage of the town set to classical music. The action rests on an old woman (Filomena Paletta) sitting on some stairs. Text appears across the bottom of the frame, explaining she’s…
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Canceled has a great sense of humor. It ends on a knowing smile but then the end credits have a few knowing big laughs. It’s about five minutes of action, real-time, as two friends (Laura Sacchetti and Maria Scenna) try to console a third (Katrina Rossi) over the loss of her favorite TV show. The…
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About halfway through, Echoes of You gets after-school special cringy, which seems like it’s too bad because at least before—despite being this Dickensian tale of classical pianist employed as a theatre custodian (Laurence Fuller) who befriends the street urchin living out back (Zakary Risinger) through the magic of music—at least it’s well-executed. I mean, basically.…
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The strange thing about The Frontier Experience is how it’s really bad with exposition for an educational film. Watching it, you can imagine an accompanying quiz and if the filmmakers do acknowledge the potential test question instead of just ignoring it, they treat the plot point or detail like a secret. I’m sure if I’d…
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Gowanus, Brooklyn is quite possibly the best you could hope for early aughts digital video short. Director Fleck and cinematographer Chris Scarafile know the limitations of the medium. Some of those limitations are seemingly self-imposed—if a scene isn’t obviously handheld, it’s because Scarafile was standing really still that shot. Since the short is so traditional—it’s…
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Alien: Harvest operates at that all too familiar intersection of bad and stupid. It’s a stupid idea badly executed, though it’s not clear whose at fault for each. For instance, the short is about four survivors on a space ship trying to get the lifeboat before the ship blows up in seven (or eight) minutes.…
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Hurried, too short horror short (it clocks in under three minutes) about commuter Ariel Fullinwider and a creepy woman (Merlynda Sol) smiling at her. Director Magaña’s got mostly good instincts, but rushes through his shots. Streaming.Continue reading →
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Charming, beautifully photographed (in luscious color) short looking at pastoral Britain. The stuff with the (adorable) farm animals is more fun than the wheat harvest, but the harvest stuff isn’t at all bad. Lovely, precise direction. DVD (R2), Blu-ray (B).Continue reading →
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“All-new short film” is actually an uncut montage sequence from SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME. A perfectly entertaining three minutes thanks to Tom Holland and company, but so lazy it doesn’t even have opening or closing credits. DVD, Blu-ray.Continue reading →
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Never interesting enough short documentary about the world’s most dangerous amusement park, with multiple fatalities and over a thousand injuries but… the filmmakers are incurious about that aspect other than for gossip. Streaming.Continue reading →
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Well-acted, until it’s not, “official” fan short about three survivors in an escape pod trying to figure out what happened to the big ship and what those slimy alien things were all about. Script craps out, which is too bad because it could be fine. Streaming.Continue reading →
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Officially produced ALIEN “fan short” has a surprisingly good premise and strong production values, but a lousy script from director Miller and a wanting lead in Taylor Lyons. Some of the bad is Miller, some is Lyons. Good enough idea to be a disappointment. Streaming.Continue reading →
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Nine minute promotional commercial reminding audiences there’s another JURASSIC WORLD movie coming someday and they should be excited for it. Kind of dumb, kind of silly, but phenomenally executed dinosaurs versus American nuclear family. Streaming.Continue reading →
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Visually breathtaking CG-rendered short. It’s an assortment of vignettes with recurring motifs, including yoga skeletons, aliens, and, yes, flying fish. The music and imagery help string the vignettes together. Very impressive. Streaming.Continue reading →
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Superior short subject tracking the life of popular European clown Beby; he’s in his late sixties, the world is in the late forties and not so interested in the circus anymore. Seemingly starts with a melancholic take, gives way to something quite different and special. DVD, Blu-ray.Continue reading →
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Twenty minute short about country girl Yane Barry moving to Paris and wanting to party all the time, much to the chagrin of her friends and family. Co-written by François Truffaut, it’s most interesting as a New Wave oddity and passive sixties misogyny. DVD (R3).Continue reading →
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Effective short about the only female scientist in a lab (Marianne di Vettimo) contending with the night custodian (Michel Such) and his unwanted attentions. Director Leconte does an exceptional job controlling expectations. DVD (R3).Continue reading →
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Probably pretty short–probably because co-director Godard’s editing is butcher job–about a young woman trying to get to Paris for college. Big problem is the seasonal flood. The (real) flood footage is great. The short, nah. DVD, Blu-ray.Continue reading →
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Obvious short about unfaithful wife Virginie Vitry’s attempts to con husband Jacques Doniol-Valcroze into unknowingly giving her the fur coat her lover (Jean-Claude Brialy) bought her. Middling writing and directing leads to middling acting. DVD, Blu-ray.Continue reading →
The Stop Button 