Short Film Review #59

Toilets from Gabriel Bisset-Smith on Vimeo.
Gabriel Bisset-Smith’s Toilets is a great twist on your average rom-com, focusing on the people that just pop into your life every now and again but leaving such lasting impressions that one always wonders what if… For George, it is the American Fee who is his recurring theme, always appearing when he’s in the middle of something with his almost-out lesbian friend Link, and these fleeting moments are brilliantly conceived. Centring these encounters around conveniences is a neat way of linking them and the common threads of sex, drugs and dance music add an entertaining edge to this almost-love story.

This Is Vanity – Short Film from Oliver Goodrum on Vimeo.
Truly harrowing. It’s the only way to describe This Is Vanity and its depiction of a mother and her severely learning disabled daughter who are repeatedly and viciously attacked by a group of local adolescent thugs and bullies. Lucy Brown and Sophie Farquhar do brilliant justice to Alexander Craig and Oliver Goodrum’s uncompromising writing which dares the viewer to look away, asks us whether how we’d react in the same situation, and Goodrum’s direction never lets up as Angela’s desperation increases to the point of no return as the authorities offer no help. Important, impassioned film-making.

The Beast from Corinna Faith on Vimeo.
Taking place (partly, possibly) in the fevered imagination of a young girl who is fascinated by Bodmin Moor, Corinna Faith’s The Beast is a curious thing. A bit creepy, a bit strange, a bit classic, a bit contemporary, it melds together its constituent parts most effectively and wisely leaves a lot unsaid – things are so often scarier for not really knowing for sure.
Red Hope from Simon Wegrzyn on Vimeo.
When all hope seems lost, there’s always gin. How can you not love a story with that moral…
 
 
Eyes on the Prize is a rather cute little film, written by John Paul Lancaster about a young lad who becomes obsessed with fulfilling an offhand remark from his father about “winning him a coconut” from the local fair.
 

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