At Sundance we all willingly pay a jacked up priced to sit in the theater and watch innovative new cinema, but what about the sixth finger, the extra nipple, if you will, that comes along with the film we paid for? Ah yes, you know what I’m referring too, the short film preceding the feature that often leaves me saying, “um…ok, now play the movie.”  I have seen more short films in the past seven days then ever in my life, so I now feel I have some sort of reference point when it comes to judging what I mostly consider little nuggets of uselessness.

 

Ok, so that may be harsh, I have in fact seen some shorts that I liked as much as a feature, or in one case even more then the main film that came after, but there does seem to be a theme of the shorts being more personal then relatable to the audience. I was constantly frustrated by watching shorts programs because, for most films, I felt empty and slightly peeved after they ended, and for the ones I really enjoyed I just wanted them to continue. I wanted the characters to be developed instead of just revealing a glimpse and then rolling credits. For instance in shorts program five I was very intrigued by the little boy who was obsessed with rabbits in Netherland Dwarf, but I still felt slightly uneasy when the film ended because my time with the character was cut short.

Many shorts I saw felt completely indulgent on the part of the creatures. For instance Horsefinger3: Starfucker, the short before Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead, was ten or so minutes of stupidity where an actor gets turned on by a girl wearing huge horse hooves on her arms. She dresses him in a porky-pine outfit was they have sex and then finds that he has fur under his skin. In my opinion a silly little film such as this just wastes time. But there are always those who think it is absolute brilliance so its objective I guess.

Then there are shorts that are not mind blowing but are at least quirky and enjoyable to watch for some unique element contained in the five or ten minute clip. The Skooks for instance, a short preceding Slamdance film Drool, was enjoyable because it was a funny little narrative that sounded like words run backwards. There were subtitles that read lines like, “ this is my brother. He puts on a suit on everyday and pretends to go to work…he parks three blocks away and waits quietly until the sun goes down.” Another funny but not completely satisfying short was From Burger it Came, before Paper Heart. It was a hilarious little look at a kid who convinced himself he contracted AIDS from eating an unattended hamburger. It was cute, a good comic premise, but ended while I was really in the thick of the character and the plot.

There are a few shorts that stood out me during my time here that were great in their own right, the length wasn’t an issue, everything was contained in the short story. Small Collection, the short before Adam was sad but wonderful. It focused on different spaces and objects, a park bench, a bedroom, steps leading up to a house, a cell phone. For each frame we could hear a segment of conversation between a couple. We hear the progression of a relationship, first meeting, falling in love, being married, fighting, and in the end the sad discovery of incurable cancer.  But because we only hear the couple while looking at the objects it gives a feeling of the wife retracing all the intimate spots where she once lived with her now absent husband. It was compelling and perfect on its own.

My absolute favorite short that I have seen to date, however, was This is Her. Unmade Beds was a bit of a disappointment, but it’s short really stuck with me. It started with a woman clearly having an orgasm, then it pans to her having her baby. In a completely objective manner the woman narrates the twists and turns her life will take within the next twenty years. She pans to a six-year-old adorable redheaded girl who is playing with her dolls and the voice over says, “this is the little bitch that in twenty years will steal my husband.” She narrates how her husband, though in love at the moment will grow board and find a younger love. She explains how her best friend, who is happily anticipating the birth in the waiting room, will side with her husband after the split and will avoid contact. She will even help the little girl pick out her wedding dress when the time comes. She reports how her mother, who rushes to the birth, will blame her for her husband’s wandering. Almost at the end the camera follows a twenty year old girl who we understand to be the baby twenty years later, she strides to the door to the now grown up red-head and punches her full in the face. The film ends with the happy couple and new baby unknowingly crossing paths with the little redhead on the street. The film was an absolute wonder to watch from start to finish. It proves that short film can achieve a total impact instead of an abbreviated glimpse of life.

 

Tags: adam, drool, from burger it came, horsefingers3: starfucker, lila lupetin, Netherland Dwarf, paper heart, rosencrantz and guildenstern are undead, slamdance, small collection, sundance, the skooks, this is her, unmade beds

This entry was posted on Friday, January 23rd, 2009 at 1:58 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.