Short film Review #49

This Way Up from Shoot Productions on Vimeo.
All you really need to know about this is that it has Lucy Ellinson in it. And a cute little tyke. Aw.

STRIKE from Xando Geddes on Vimeo.
Something of an oddity here. Xando Geddes’ Strike, written by Fátima Guedes, features Harry Hepple as businessman Arthur who is on a massive cycle of self-destruction. Work, love, life are all crumbling due to his drug addiction and we watch him sink to rock bottom and end up facing quite the dilemma about if it is all worth it. It’s odd though as the central idea that life is like a frame of bowling and we’re all just skittles is underworked and underexplored, never feeling an integral part of the story and if there’s an explanation how the very English sounding Arthur has a Brazilian/Portuguese mother, it passed me by. Choppy editing adds to the very lo-fi feel but there’s a fair amount of Hepple flesh flashed if that floats your boat.

THE PREACHER from Peter Blach on Vimeo.
There’s something admirably simple in the understated class of The Preacher. Written and directed by Peter Blach, it’s a uncomplicated look at a man’s struggle to reintegrate into society and the realisation that it is often harder to forgive oneself than to be pardoned by the community around you. Tony Pryce is marvellous as the central John, a hugely empathetic figure but one who would be mortified to be thought so as his relationships with his nearest and dearest hang in the balance, waiting for a moment of forgiveness that just might never come.

Louis Vuitton 'The Exchange' Rankin Film from Jake Scott Cinematographer on Vimeo.
Little more than an extended ad for Louis Vuitton and shot by noted photographer Rankin, The Exchange has Vanessa Kirby and Robert Sheehan acting out a silent film-type storyline of the beginnings of a romance. Not a word is spoken, a piano tinkles away, slates of dialogue appear as they move closer to eventually meeting, a Vuitton suitcase comes into shot, you get the idea. The most amusing thing about the whole affair is that a screenwriter is credited…(I know screenplays have more than just dialogue, you know what I mean!)

TIME MAGAZINE | Out Of Time from jappignanesi on Vimeo.
A much more successful advertorial adaptation of the short film format is Out of Time. Shot for the launch of Time Magazine Style & Design, it features a time-travelling couple who’ve chosen London in 2012, an apparently pre-apocalyptic moment, for a holiday. Josh Appignanesi’s script is all played out in their heads though as the way it is filmed is nothing less than a fashion shoot showcasing designer Jonathan De Villiers and the marriage of the two is hugely stylish. Michelle Dockery and Tom Hiddleton make beautiful clothes horses but also give real life to their characters even in a short space and only in voiceover and the whole look is to die for.

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