The final short is “The Mercury Men” (see fig. ae) a fabulous 1950's style film where an office worker arrives early to find a dying spaceman entrusting the care of the fabled “battery” (really a brain in a jar) to him, to duel with the Mercury Men. The short has great special effects, the perfect black and white style and a fantastic moment where, when hiding from the MM, he sees an inspirational poster on the wall with the word COURAGE that allows him to do what must be done.
When the lights come back up, I'm exhausted. That was 17 films after all crammed into the running time of one. It's almost too much to bear. But I'm left with one overwhelming thought. Text effects in credit sequences must go. It's like flashing back to the late nineties when animated GIFs on websites were all the rage. Meh, I'm getting grumpy and it's time to rendezvous with my posse. Mike and Jeff are dining in the filmmakers' lounge when I join them. They've just seen Last Stop for Paul, because Mike insisted that Jeff see it. They both enjoyed it, though Jeff had less than our boundless enthusiasm for the film. As a casting director, he really noticed the non-actors that populate the film. We were more taken in by the AUDACITY of the project.
The next film on the docket is a documentary and comes with a doc short. Maybe it's because I've just been through the collection of shorts, but the documentary “Janis: A Daughter's Portrait” about a farm wife, her life and marriage, reminds me of what my documentary teacher in college termed a “safe” documentary. It's not exploring anything overly compelling or unique. It' doesn't have a full fledged reason to exist beyond a filmmaker's love of her mother. And that's alright. Overall the film is hurt by not having footage as compelling as the narration that goes with it. This is fixable, of course.
Break Up, Date (see fig. af) is the feature documentary and it follows several people trying to figure out how to date in their late twenties through late thirties. The doc is very interesting and has found some great subjects. It's funny and poignant when it needs to be, actually showing a break up in one scene. And it takes detours like any good doc (and thankfully unlike the weinerdog film, Break Up's detours don't involve putting dogs to sleep) My favorite subject is a woman named Mindy who works in Chicago. She's in her mid thirties, and as I'm watching this, I realize that this woman, trying to figure out how to find someone on eHarmony would be perfect for the man sitting next to me, Jeff.
I ponder this for a while, and in one of the scenes where she speaks about having a hard time finding someone her age, who's mature, who's looking for more than just a hook-up, Jeff makes a comment that suggests the same thing. After the film, the filmmakers are there for a Q&A and update us, telling us that one of the relationships in the film has ended, and Mindy is still looking. I elbow Jeff a few times for good measure, once again assured that someone hanging out with me is embarrassed that I'm there at all.
Next Mike and Jeff head over to catch An Alternative to Slitting Your Wrist at my insistence. I'm going to jump into “Why We Wax” when that starts, but I've heard Owen will be at this screening, so I go with them. I catch sight of him right away and approach hoping I'm not about to sound like the dreaded FAN. (You know the one. DeNiro played him.)
“Owen.”
“Yeah.”
“Hey, man, I caught your film yesterday, just wanted to say it meant a lot to me.”
“Really.”
“Yeah.” I shake his hand and leave him in peace. I'll talk to him again later. But now I don't want to go too far. And I've got a flick to catch.
