Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Review: Shortcuts Canada Programme 3

Every year I make it a point to see a batch of short films, and generally Canadian ones.  This year, I felt fairly fortunate with my selection, especially since I saw them immediately after walking out of my previous movie.  Here are individual short reviews of each of the short films.

Pointless Film: Directed by Peter Wellington, this black and white short shows the negotiation between two men for a "barely used" futon.  Humorous (unless you used to work in purchasing) and well made, but nothing too earth shattering.  My imdb rating: 5/10.

Man v. Minivan: This film, whose title alone lead me to choose this particular batch of shorts, was perhaps the most elaborate short of the bunch, at least in terms of crew.  A groom with cold feet, a trouble-making future brother-in-law, a stripper with a heart of gold (I know, I know, that's never been done before), and a gift of a brand new minivan the morning of the wedding lead to a humorous set of events.  There was even a Fight Club inspired “punch in the ear” moment.  Well-acted and directed, I enjoyed this film and expect a feature in the next couple years from its awesomely named director, Spencer Maybee.  My imdb rating: 7/10.

The Island: Trevor Anderson used regular film mixed with animation to reflect on an actual e-mail (famous in some circles) he'd received suggesting that he and all the other gays should just go to an island somewhere and "give each other AIDS".  Trevor uses humor to brush aside the piece of "fan mail", sent directly from the good ol' USA!  My imdb rating: 7/10.

Homeland Security: Isaac Cravit directs this short story of a jealous man who suspects his wife/girlfriend of cheating.  He works for Homeland Security and takes out his anger on a group of Canadian women traveling to New York for a bachelorette party.  Do the women really have something to hide?  My imdb rating: 6/10.

Soap: This mid-80's period piece was directed by Dusty Mancinelli.  With very little dialog, he tells the story of an unhappily married mother of one and what she's willing to do to keep her lifestyle when her lover slips on a piece of soap in the shower, bangs his head, and dies right there in her bathroom.  A slight Coen brothers feel haunts the cop scene.  My imdb rating: 7/10.

Runaway: Two-time Oscar-nominee Cordell Barker spent an incredible seven years producing this 9-minute hand-drawn animated short.  Working in a back-and-forth method with musician Benoît Charest for this film, it begins as an amusing tale of a coal-powered train carrying two cars, one with partying elite and the other with normal folk.  It ends rather darkly and illustrates Barker's rather dim view of our society.  My imdb rating: 6/10.

Deadman: Switching gears, Chelsea McMullan directs this documentary film about wannabe cowboy Matt Sandvoss and his dream to build a ghost town version of Disney World in British Columbia.  He is one of those people commonly referred to as a “harmless kook”.  Obsessed with the "wild west" folklore of the U.S., he completes phase one of his endeavor and produces a western film to celebrate and promote the event.  In one hilarious scene, the movie within the movie contains a shootout between two gangs of seven or so members each, each gang standing side-by-side, standing about three meters apart.  It goes on for about fifteen seconds with not a single gunman going down.  Strangely the lady next to me and I were the only two people in the theater laughing.  While Mr. Sandvoss may not be a talented filmmaker, Ms. McMullan captures his dream with expert care.  My imdb rating: 8/10.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

you obviously know nothing about filmmaking. the 15 second shootout in Deadman was filmed that way for editing, ie facial shots, panning. As well, I'm sure the sequence was shot many times with multiple angles. There are those people who sit, and those who get off their asses and live their life with no obstacles in the way of their dreams. you, sir, are the former.

Anonymous said...

Chris,

Even if more angles were shot, the fact that only the one long take of the men shooting at one another and not dying is used within the documentary indicates that the filmmaker, too, saw the same humour in that as Sean did.

Anonymous said...

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