Short Film Review #55

I have a thing about spiral staircases and though the one at the heart of The Last Ten is squared off, it is still freaky as shit. A genuinely disturbing film that is ingeniously conceived and shot by David Higgs with some fantastic cinematography from Nicole Heiniger, it’s all about the perspective as a single camera looking down the middle of a stairwell captures the story of a man returning home to find…well, that would be giving it away. Hitchcock-inspired brilliance, just don’t watch it on your own, or in the dark.

A short but delightful piece of silliness from Anthony Wilcox which sees Sam Spruell’s Mr Tibbs being forced to face the music by Sophie Thompson’s Doctor Sharp. At two minutes, it would be rude not to just watch it!

Something a bit adorably daft from the pen of Cillian Murphy and Paloma Baeza which features a fresh-faced and fresh-voiced Murphy as a likely lad who wants to remain anonymous in reporting a crime with his friend and basically discusses all the ways in which they can hide their identities – it’s interesting for Cillian fans to be sure, coming just before his breakout hit in 28 Days Later, but doesn’t really have much else to commend it.

A dystopian vision of a future London sees gender as the faultline in the conflict that will surely come - Siân Robins-Grace and Chanya Button’s co-write pits men and women against each other as reproduction becomes the burning topic in this science-fiction tale. Atmospherically shot predominantly in black and white, the film challenges notion of motherhood most effectively and thought-provokingly and in a quartet of exciting performances from Maggie Steed and Amanda Hadingue, Bethan Cullinane and Avigail Tlalim, it is a powerful piece of film.

I’m never quite sure about these corporate, advertorial type films (here its Massy Tadjedin writing for Miu Miu) but when your cast includes Patricia Clarkson, Gemma Arterton, Aubrey Plaza and Rinko Kikuchi looking variously gorgeous, then it don’t really matter. Artful fluff.



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