“Idea Men” goes first and it's with the same “Let's get together and make a movie” feeling of the other Bill Sebastian short “Mail Fantasies.” This one works better: two guys have several ideas and keep changing what they are. It's hard to explain.
“String” is far better showing a man finding a note attached to a string which reads “Follow String For Happiness,” he follows it all around the city, in and out of houses, around people, through dresses. It's a very quirky and amusing short that survives with VERY little dialog.
“Flossing” is funny, as a couple has a full subtitled conversation whilst flossing. The downside is that this short was seemingly shot on VHS quite some time ago, so it's yellowed, and has the waviness and flicker of a tape copied ad nauseum. It needs to be remade and could be classic. “A Good Scratch is Hard To Find” was just as funny and ridiculously short as it Lisa Fotedar-Miller had said it was. A woman in an elevator tries to get her back scratched. That's it. It's a trifle.
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“Untitled” is a beautiful film, (see fig. ac) showcasing color and light. It's dye mixing with water on a white background set to music. “Loom” is another example of a difficult technique (in this case stop motion animation) that still manages to look amazing. It tells the story of a street musician who saves the life of a child only to die in the process and have his spirit taken by the old woman in charge of soul collection. (Then, if I understood it right, she weaves them on her loom.) “787 Cliparts” is a trippy “cartoon” where movement comes through the quick switching of clipart people. “Kidney Thieves” shows again, and I enjoy it more now that I KNOW that's Ethan Embry. “Honey, I'm Home” shows a man coming home and admitting his infidelity to an unseen woman. Of course, it's his dog. It's an amusing idea but it's too long and I saw the twist coming. Just like Sweeny Todd there's really only a small handful of reasons why you don't show someone important in a scene. Usually it's because they're about to put a big switcheroo on us. “A Fish Tale” tells the story of a man who discusses his relationship issues with the fish his ex girlfriend gave him. Sadly a banger ending and funny writing are eclipsed by overdone acting and unnecessary and unwarranted black and white photography.
That's a long paragraph there, so I'll just point out that a film has been skipped. “Bad Brownies” which seems to be about cops and pot brownies inexplicably doesn't show.
“The Image” is a film told entirely through photographs. It's about a photographer suddenly seeing the supernatural. It's a good concept and has some chills, but it's still a movie made out of photographs that made me have horrific flashbacks to those old slideshows we used to watch while learning to read. (“When you hear the chime **DING** turn the page!”) “So, A Guy Walks Into a Bar” and tells a bad joke which turns into another guy telling another bad joke and so on and so on. The jokes told in this film aren't funny. And when jokes are acted out, they're even less funny. The film has bad focus throughout, terrible sound and an inexplicable two minutes of front credits. It's A FLIPPING SHORT PEOPLE! WE DON'T WANT A FULL FRONT CREDIT SEQUENCE! Unfortunately this is a common occurrence with these short shorts: credit sequences running WAY TOO LONG.
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“Speechless” is quite amusing, following a hip-hop gangsta rap white kid who breaks up with his girlfriend via text message and then spends the rest of the film texting back and forth with a buddy. All dialog is done via onscreen text messages. It's quite well made and funny. And just the right length. “I Just Want To Eat My Sandwich”(see fig. ad) instantly hit me in the right place. It's a girl who's not the IT girl at a company just trying to eat her titular sandwich while people keep bothering her about things that aren't her job. I've been there many times my self. Lot of fun and well made. “Sad Sculptor” is sad. And rather slow. The sad sculptor slowly sculpts a likeness of her sad self. It's well made but has focus issues and feels rather angsty. I was surprised to find it wasn't an autobiographical film by the sculptor. Oh, and on a side note I'm REALLY getting sick of the freeze frame with the title on it. Never looks right. DON'T BE AFRAID TO GO TO BLACK, PEOPLE! I realize I'm doing a lot of yelling in this short shorts collection.
“Scare Tactics” has two parents sitting down with their teenage goth-cum-emo daughter after finding pot in her car. The father tells a very tame story about his run in with the wacky tobacky and then leaves, thinking he's scared his daughter straight. The mother then tells her own story about how drugs lead her to a life in the sex slave trade that actually does the trick. The second half of this short is far better than the first. It's really well made, but marred by terrible acting on the part of the daughter. The two parents are quite good, however.
