Sundance 08 : Shorts Part 1

Overall this festival, I’ve seen a total of 8 shorts. I’ll quickly go overall of the hits and misses. Don’t forget that these can be found on Netflix, Xbox Live, and iTunes.

I Love Sarah Jane – This one actually surprised me quite a bit. It takes place in a futuristic world where Zombies have taken over. The premise is that these kids have survived and managed to catch one of the zombies. The young boy whom the camera follows shows the awkwardness of being alone and he non-verbally expresses his love for the girl Sarah Jane. The backdrop of the story is strange and lovely; the boys torture the zombie unnecessarily (making Sarah angry which is preceded by a shockingly bold statement that makes the viewer feel the pain of these young kids). Grade – A

Plot Point – The ironic twist behind the short is that after 15 minutes, the movie is never able to find a Plot Point. The possibilities behind the police and general scumbags of New York City are an idea used before but not in this way. Director Nicholas Provost would rather taunt the idea of crime rather than actually show it. The most interesting thing he does is recycle old movie lines into the mouths of the people. Grade – C+

Buyo – Buyo is hands down the worst short I’ve seen at the festival. It makes no sense (The man can only BAA like a sheep and the girl has no head on her shoulders because it’s between her legs). The director thought that instead of using the beautiful Sony HD Cam in its fullness, that he would chop it up and make it look gritty and grainy. It doesn’t look cool and the feel of the movie is overwhelming. The girl in the movie seems to have an electronic voice and because her head is by her vagina apparently she’s deaf. On top of all that it’s creepy (particularly the doll head in her pants) and takes its self way too seriously. Grade – D-

SEVILLA – Models are interesting and cool. You look at the models of maybe Detroit or Miami and it’s nice to see a miniature version of that city. The time that models are captivating is maybe 2-3 minutes. This movie does that but is 13 minutes long. Cut me a break people. Overall the fact that the water and people movie is cool but the techno music is too loud and according to the description of the film there is a plot. As a tech-demo the movie works fine but to make us sit and watch small versions of Europe is dull and boring. Grade – C-

Because Washington is Hollywood for Ugly People – Not only is the title funny but so is the movie. Yes, it juggles multiple opinionated ideas in an extremely political short, but the manner of which the cut outs are presented is cool in a way that only one other short could match. The “poem”, a term I use lightly, playing in the back ground is well thought out and the reader sounds genuinely attached to attacking our government. Grade – B+

Please stand back – This is probably the neatest video concept I’ve seen at the fest. Imagine a picture broken up into small blocks and then those blocks coming in and out of focus, getting bigger and smaller until they finally resembled a picture. All of this is happening on a pure white screen making the idea of the short even more predominant. They don’t hit you over the head with the strange concept but make it long enough to be remembered. Grade – B
Count Backwards From Five – This movie feels more like a home video used to celebrate ones life than a short entered into a film festival. Short grainy clips and running water in the background are used over a series of telephone calls on how a man is struggling with cancer. The bizarre visuals make the movie and the narration feel separate and awkward like this is a personal video and not a movie. Grade – D+

Gas Zappers – The best short I’ve seen thus far. It feels original and satirical in a way only one other video matched (See Because Hollywood is for Ugly People). It uses a side scrolling video game style in which we see a polar bear (maybe representative of Mario from the Super Mario Game) fight the powers of global warming including Bulldozers and George W. Bush. The design is unique and visually interesting. Gas Zappers 5 min running time does a great job of intergrading all the aspects and sounds of a video game while still making a compelling political argument and being fun and funny to watch. Grade – A