To Claire; From Sonny is a film about a teenage boy trying to navigate the limbo he’s left in after his first relationship. The most striking thing is the visuals. There are some pretty shots and neat techniques filmed in this. The story is simple but there’s a narrative trick here and there to break it up.
3.5/5
The Nice Girl is a short about social interactions with strangers, and key personality traits. Can get uncomfortable at times because it’s hard to tell how the characters will act. Unfortunately this is due to the unrealistic nature of the short, more than good writing. It may speak to you, it may not, but my the end of the film the message comes off in a silly manner.
3/5
The Girl is an intimately shot film about love and loss. The short stylish scenes, the narration, and the music give it a nice feel. It has all the style it needs, just wish there was a little bit more substance.
3.5/5
The opening of Secret sparks which looks to be a beautiful and artistic film, before jarringly throwing you into the fire. A simple and unfortunately realistic portrayal of an English school boy hanging on in quiet desperation. Not easy to sit through, it’s bound to emotionally draw you in, in the same way that many films try and fail to do.
5/5
The video and sound quality of A Hopeless Romantic aren’t exactly up to par. But while they do leave much to be desired, they’re not bad enough to hide the quality of good filming.
The narrative is fast paced and the style of film making suits it. The film features plenty of short sequences which visually provide the energy needed to keep up with the writing. Also the entire film is narrated, which is rare in shorts. Though not necessary here, the narration doesn’t fail and it arguably makes the film better.
The downside is that the tale and message is one we’ve all heard before, and can predict a mile away.
3.5/5
Run With Me has the unique distinction of being a short film based on a true story. It’s the classic underdog story, this one about a high school kid with cerebral palsy trying to do what the other kids do. The most standout thing about this short is definitely the acting of the lead. He played the part very well, and made his character believable.
Run With Me tries to tug on your emotions, and it does just that. Though in a cheesy and kind of cliche way.
3/5
Strangers is a dialogue free yet tension filled short about judgement. It’s reminiscent of a spaghetti western the way tension is built through frequent eye closeups with no dialogue. The problem is that the payoff isn’t quite good enough for the amount of time it took to build it up.
3.5/5
Scars is an intriguing, well acted, thought provoking, emotional short that I wanted to go on much longer. The main character deserved her own movie, or at least a 30 minute film. Not much else to say about it, you just have to see it yourself.
5/5
The narrative of this film floats like a feather in the breeze. Everything is gentle and light, and the score compliments it. The story is pushed along through narration that is both written and delivered well. The lack of real time dialogue, the narration, and the simple piano score all work together to give this short film an anime like feel.
4/5
A Lonely Silence doesn’t have much of a plot or story, it’s instead a mood piece. It’s goal is to draw you into the world, feelings, and emotions of the protagonist and to care about her. Even though there’s nothing waiting on the other side, the small journey you’re supposed to take with this character is a successful one.
Visually the film is impressive, particularly a really nice shot of the character sitting on her bed.
3.5/5
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