Short Film Review #61

 

A wryly amusing look at the demands placed on one particular actor during an audition, Tom Edmunds’ Beard is lots of fun indeed – Tim Steed giving some great facial hair work and Oliver Chris and Katie Brayben adding quality as the auditioners.

 

 

 

Whilst I know several people who’d happily switch off after the first 30 seconds when Stephen Fry’s character gets knocked down by a car, James Keaton’s Lost Connection is actually worth watching all the way through for its mature, reflective musings on the nature of personal grief and how it affects us all differently. Here, a wife, a son, a daughter all act out in their own ways with the focus particularly on the son who clings onto the random discovery that the day of his dad’s funeral, which is also his own birthday, is shared with a Hollywood’s own birthday, kicking off a self-destructive journey.
 

 

 

Featuring David Tennant and Sophie Hunter (the soon-to-be Mrs Benedict Cumberbatch as one of her lesser achievements), Donald Rice’s Traffic Warden is a near-wordless ten minute short which is a little bit quirky, a little bit sweet, a little bit sentimental and a whole lot British in its sensibilities. 

 

 
The result of a 10 day production as part of the BFI Film Academy delivered by Cornerhouse last year, Four Nerds and A Bird is only short but has a lot packed into it. Wry observations on the truth of online dating, the fervent dedication of gamers, the awkwardness of IRL encounters and a neat dollop of unexpected sci-fi combine to gently amusing effect and a strong piece of project work.
 

 

Believe

 

Paul Wright’s Believe is a powerful meditation on the all-encompassing nature of grief and how one man, Lewis, is finding it impossible to move on after the death of his wife.

 

 

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