Sue Lange's Blog, page 4

Short Film: Symphony No. 42

This wonderful short piece of animation played at Berlinale: https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2016/02/09/symphony-no-42/

Humorous, thought-provoking, and beautifully rendered. It is like a symphony of real and absurd human/animal encounters. They seem somewhat random but somehow connected. No real recurring themes. They start out tragic but at some point start to turn somewhat loving. I like the cat that grows until the human becomes the object of nurture. I like the old lady that cut the dog leash. The drunken foxes doing the limbo morphing into the smoking woman wearing the fox. Both with La Bamba playing in the background. I love the little dipper in the very first scene. The song of the red-winged blackbird. I like the fox at the beginning creating a target out of particle physics and Eastern religions and he ends up shooting himself in the head instead of the target. Trying to understand this stuff (and this movie) will drive you to that.

It’s a wonderful movie. I’ve watched it three times now and still don’t understand it. A vignette here and there, sure, but the whole thing. What does it mean? I don’t care, it’s s great film.

A+

Short Film Review: The Birthday Treat

 

This short film comes to us from Stage32 pal, Owen Mowatt. He put this out a few years ago. Make sure you watch the second reel. It’s cute and has great music. Fine job, Owen!

Short Film Review: The Chickening

Found this little gem in Vimeo’s staff picks. Every once in a while, you need a dose of junior high humor. This little film does the trick. And lampoon an icon like Kubrick’s The Shining? Hell, yes! Thanks Mr. DenBoer and Mr. Force for this Mad Magazine-ish romp. Well done!

Short Film Review: Removed

This film by Nathanael Matanick was created as a teaching tool for foster parents. It does a good job of portraying the life of a child that is placed in foster care. It does not pull punches, but at the same time it doesn’t wallow in depravity. It’s not always easy to watch, but it does get its point across.

Beautiful child. Happy ending. Considering the circumstances.

Nice effort.

Short Film Review: Genesis

Here’s a short science fiction film starring an acquaintance from Stage 32, West Ramsey. I actually saw the end coming, being familiar with this type of Philip K. Dick-like twist.

Hard to do sf on a budget and in a short time span. You really need a good amount of time to do these big subjects justice. Takes a while to get the future world established and all that. Still this story is not so weird that they needed a lot of set up. I still feel more time would have given us some sort of resolution. As it is, I’m left wondering what’s going to happen to this replicant.

 

 

 

Short Film Review: Oh Willy

https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2015/11/16/oh-willy/

No idea what this one is about, but I loved watching it. This was screened at Sundance. Fantastic animation using wool and fuzzy stuff. At time funny, but also poignant. Really a beautiful little movie. But I don’t know what it means. That’s not a bad thing.

 

 

 

Short Film Review: Actresses

https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2015/12/28/actresses-by-jeremy-hersh/

I really like this little film by Jeremy Hersh that made it into the 2015 Sundance festival. I have no idea why it’s considered a comedy. I guess because it has a happy ending. Sort of excruciating to watch the process until we get to the happy ending, though.

On the other hand, there’s more going on here than jokes and pokes. Definitely worth a watch.

Short Film Review: Emma and Katie

Andrew Coughlin made this sweet little film on a zero-dollar budget. Of course he already owned the phone, so we don’t count that. It’s amazing what you can do with a small story. Great job!

 

Short Film Review: Now and Then

Very nicely done little film by filmmaker Sean O’Connor. Well acted. Great little screenplay. Good illustration of what makes a good short film: simple script, uncomplicated setting, small cast, single location, great premise. Can’t say enough about this nice little film illustrating time travel paradox and asking the question if you could change the future, would you. Or maybe: should you?

Nothing better than spec fic!

 

Short Film Review: re-:belief

According to the log line this film is “a stunning 3-D printed, hand-crafted, zoetropic short film that asks if recalling memories can break a cycle.”

“Stunning,” sure. “3-D printed,” well, that explains it. “Hand-crafted,” okay, I’ll buy it. “Zoetropic,” what the…?

This all points to film school pretension, which is fine by me. Pretension is what film school is for. Where else can you get away with it? I certainly didn’t get the premise, but I didn’t really care. It’s wonderful to watch. I loved trying to figure out how they got the tiling so seamless.

Someday I’m going to go to film school and figure it out.

Meantime, my favorite part was the scene with the twizzler-like apparati. Made me hungry.

Not crazy about the music. I don’t think I could dance to it.

I give it a B. Keep up the good work.