The 7 shorts it the Date Night Programme examine romance in all its quirkiness, from book covers who tell their own stories late at night to what really goes on after the credits of a movie that has just ended “happily ever after”, or so we think.
Lunch Date (11 min) is a charming British dramedy about a young woman waiting for her date to show up at the restaurant when his 14 yr-old brother arrives instead, sent by his older brother to break up with her.
Rhinos (17 min) is an unlikely Irish dramedy that finally wins you over with Thomas, a Dubliner, and Ingrid, a German, meeting cute one afternoon on a park bench and then hanging out the rest of that afternoon barely understanding a word between them.
Co-directors Spike Jonze and Simon Cahn deliver a rather explicitly weird but stylish stop-motion animation piece in To Die By Your Side (6 min), which sees characters from major works of fiction involved in their own bizarre stories once their bookstore owner departs for the evening.
Cafe Regular, Cairo (11 min) considers a young adult couple examining where their relationship is and where it’s going now that they’re approaching their two-year. She wants to have sex and he keeps trying to talk the both of them out of it in this intriguing and intelligent scene that would be interesting as a feature.
We Refuse to Be Cold (8 min) is quite literally a pact a young Montreal couple makes in this experimental short about themes of promises kept and broken.
I Could’ve Been a Hooker (24 min) is the best in this bunch, a dark French dramedy about a 30ish woman, her pair of hedge clippers, and the panic attack she has in public that ends with an overnight stay at a stranger’s house, a 40-something man. In theory, this is a totally preposterous situation, but the writing, direction and acting pull us along and we find ourselves engrossed by the film’s open-ended conclusion. This stuff reminded me of Haneke, but with a wink to the audience.
After the Credits (15 min) is a droll Australian short about a young man who flees his own wedding in order to profess his love to a woman about to board a plane out of town. Everything goes swimmingly until the credits are done rolling and the woman has to try to get her fare back while the man is raking up a huge taxi bill because he told the driver to keep the meter running. And then they’ve got to figure out their happily-ever-after arrangement as the woman had left her job to move somewhere else. But they’ll figure it all out, right?
- Moviejay
Check out our coverage of the WorldWide Short Film Festival:
- Xavierpop Breaks Down the Popular ‘Scene Not Herd’ Programme - Xavierpop Reviews The ‘Short Dramatic Films” Programme - MovieJay Really Enjoys The ‘Celebrity Shorts’ Programme - Douglas Breaks Down The ‘X-Ray Spex’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The ‘Stranger In A Strange Land’ Programme - Now Onto The ‘Homeland Security’ Programme - Xavierpop Takes On The ‘Someone To Watch Over Me’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The “All Tomorrow’s Parties” Programme - Douglas Godhino Reviews The ‘Superfans’ Programme - Xavierpop Takes on The “Creative Control” Programme - MovieJay Reviews the “War, What Is It Good For?” Programme - MovieJay Reviews ‘The Family Compact” Programme - Next Up A Look At the ‘Iron Ladies’ Programme - Xavierpop Covers ‘The Love Hurts’ Official Selection - A Break-Down The ‘Who’s Your Dada?’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The Opening Night Gala: Winners From Around the World - The @xvrpop Ultimate Worldwide Short Film Fest Preview - The CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival’s Screenplay $50,000 Giveaway is Back!
This marks the WSFF‘s 9th edition of the popular Scene Not Herd program showcasing world-class and cutting edge music videos of the last year or so. This year’s crop of vids are about as good as ever, IMHO.
Gotye (feat. Kimbra) kick things off with the visually delightful two-shot in Somebody That I Used To Know (4 min), a song most folks are familiar with from the over 100+ million viewed video by Canada’s own Walk Off the Earth. I love this original version just as much.
Stellan Skarsgard (Melancholia) stars in Lykke Li‘s Sadness Is a Blessing (7 min) in a wonderful dogme-style short before the young Swedish songstress dances away her sorrows in the middle of a restaurant.
M. Ward is the revelation in the pack with his First Time I Ran Away (3 min), a Nick Drake-like production of restless guitar picking with a lush arrangement of brushes on drums and bouncy bass-line with character, the impressionistic animated video tells of a youngster going out to venture on his own. Beautiful song.
Annie Clarke is the front woman in St.Vincent, and their new single Cruel (3 min) is a delightful 80′s-infused pop melody with a terrifically surreal and derivative video accompanying it.
Fryngies (4 min) plays like a suspense-thriller involving a young woman and the smoke-filled box behind the wall of her new apartment in this electro-pop song from Karin Park of Denmark.
Woodkid‘s Iron (4 min) is a lush, black and white experience with tribal drummers, rich horns, and amazing imagery involving the funeral of a boy overseen by a priest. Hypnotic.
M.I.A.‘s latest single Bad Girls doesn’t have the same catch as Paper Planes, but her tough-as-nails street attitude is all over this video.
Rihanna (feat. Calvin Harris) stars in the free-spirted comeback hit We Found Love that forces us to contemplate the diva as a troubled figure who can’t seem to avoid messiness when it comes to matters of the heart.
Jake Gyllenhaal stars as a sociopath and a killer in perhaps the best single performance from any male actor in any short this week in The Shoes’ Time To Dance (9 min), a UK band with an electro-punkie-industrial-dancy feel that will remind you of 90′s Bowie in this stylish, urgent, haunting vid.
Innovative escalator sequence with a man who just can’t get himself out of a fix where he’s falling down the up elevator in My Machines (4 min) from U.S. rock band the Battles, feat. Gary Numan on electric guitar.
Canada’s own synth-pop group Grimes is filmed at a dirt bike rally in Oblivion (4 min), a hypnotic song.
Walk Off the Earth continues their success at cover songs with the legendary Little Boxes (2 min), in this clever and innovative effort.
Legacy (4 min) comes from Danish indie-rock group Alcoholic Faith Mission in a video that contemplates funeral customs and an unfortunately cute little mouse that meets its maker.
The set concludes with the animated epic The Shrine/An Argument (8 min) from indie-folk geniuses the Fleet Foxes, from Seattle. A great song made even greater with this achingly good video that follows an elk on a mysterious journey of its own evolution. Wonderful drawings here in deep hues of brown, orange and red and then finally in the blue of the sea. Terrific.
- Moviejay
Check out our coverage of the WorldWide Short Film Festival:
- Xavierpop Reviews The ‘Short Dramatic Films” Programme - MovieJay Really Enjoys The ‘Celebrity Shorts’ Programme - Douglas Breaks Down The ‘X-Ray Spex’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The ‘Stranger In A Strange Land’ Programme - Now Onto The ‘Homeland Security’ Programme - Xavierpop Takes On The ‘Someone To Watch Over Me’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The “All Tomorrow’s Parties” Programme - Douglas Godhino Reviews The ‘Superfans’ Programme - Xavierpop Takes on The “Creative Control” Programme - MovieJay Reviews the “War, What Is It Good For?” Programme - MovieJay Reviews ‘The Family Compact” Programme - Next Up A Look At the ‘Iron Ladies’ Programme - Xavierpop Covers ‘The Love Hurts’ Official Selection - A Break-Down The ‘Who’s Your Dada?’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The Opening Night Gala: Winners From Around the World - The @xvrpop Ultimate Worldwide Short Film Fest Preview - The CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival’s Screenplay $50,000 Giveaway is Back!
The CFC will celebrate 25 years next year, and has graduated over 1,000 residents to date. The Short Dramatic Films is a program of 4 shorts from recent graduates.
Parkdale (15 min) is the first and best short, shot on-location in Toronto, directed by Lisa Jackson. It tells the story of a teenaged girl and her younger sister as they try to avoid another stint in foster care when Children’s Aid is onto the fact that their father is too busy getting high or into trouble to care for them. It’s well written and well performed and directed with grittiness by Jackson, making fine use of several recognizable locations in Toronto and giving the city a tough and sad feel for the kinds of folks who’ve fallen through the cracks. Terrific.
Silent Cargo (16 min) is a brutal experience that considers weeks in the life of a dozen illegal immigrants being shipped in cargo containers across the ocean. They live in filth and squalor and there is no guarantee that any of them will survive the ordeal, but it’s the chance they’ll take in order to taste a better life anywhere than where they came from. The actors go through a process that sees them clinging to their hopes of making a new beginning but who end up hoping to just survive an extraordinarily brutal trip.
Oliver Bump’s Birthday (16 min) lives in its own universe and has its own set of really strange rules, like how 12 year-old child prodigy Oliver will end up having to die on his 13th birthday, which occurs at 9 pm on the day that it happens. Do you suppose he was born at 9 pm, or is it more likely that 9 is this universe’s midnight? Oliver’s parents are nice folks, and they’ve seen their other 3 children off to death on the occasion of their birthdays as well, but Oliver doesn’t want to be just another statistic. With the help of a friend and his imagination, he is literally aiming for the stars with a secret spaceship he’s built up in the attic. Terrific acting and some interesting ideas here in a story that would find trouble trying to stretch itself out into feature territory, but that works better as a short episode.
The Secret of Goat (15 min) is such a kooky and peculiar film. You may get seriously annoyed by it, or you may find it droll with its young lovers who live out in the woods. They talk like Canadians but they go around looking like leftovers from a bad Oktoberfest commercial with their frilly costumes. He wants to love her long-time and in practically every location — indoor, outdoor, you name it. But she isn’t really into pleasures of the flesh and it causes a disturbance in the force one day as she catches him pleasuring himself out in the woods. I’m sure that’s crucial character development, but I just can’t really say how that is exactly. Anyway, they buy a goat one autumn that only he can milk, since apparently he’s got the “touch” or something, while she can only get the goat to shoot blanks. Then a funny thing happens when he starts to take on goat-like characteristics. The Secret of Goat is a must-see only because it wouldn’t be fair that I am the only one who has those images burned into my brain. You deserve them, too, so that you can then decide if this is one of the worst shorts you’ve ever seen. This one’s a turkey dressed as a goat, methinks.
- Moviejay
Check out our coverage of the WorldWide Short Film Festival:
- MovieJay Really Enjoys The ‘Celebrity Shorts’ Programme - Douglas Breaks Down The ‘X-Ray Spex’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The ‘Stranger In A Strange Land’ Programme - Now Onto The ‘Homeland Security’ Programme - Xavierpop Takes On The ‘Someone To Watch Over Me’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The “All Tomorrow’s Parties” Programme - Douglas Godhino Reviews The ‘Superfans’ Programme - Xavierpop Takes on The “Creative Control” Programme - MovieJay Reviews the “War, What Is It Good For?” Programme - MovieJay Reviews ‘The Family Compact” Programme - Next Up A Look At the ‘Iron Ladies’ Programme - Xavierpop Covers ‘The Love Hurts’ Official Selection - A Break-Down The ‘Who’s Your Dada?’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The Opening Night Gala: Winners From Around the World - The @xvrpop Ultimate Worldwide Short Film Fest Preview - The CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival’s Screenplay $50,000 Giveaway is Back!
From TV to film, you’re bound to recognize some of your favorite performers in the Celebrity Shorts Programme – a group of 8 shorts involving celebrities, many of whom are playing themselves or riffing on their own personal characteristics.
Judi Dench and Penny Ryder carry on the way teenagers do in Friend Request Pending (12 min), a funny sketch that sees Dench playing a woman at her laptop who simply can’t wait for a man she knows to reply to her friend request on Facebook. Don’t blink or you might miss Tom Hiddleston‘s cameo (the baddie from Avengers).
The Carrier (18 min) has the feel of nighttime drama with Rita Wilson (It’s Complicated) playing the mother to recently deceased son Chad Michael Murray (One Tree Hill) in this tragic drama about how the mother visits with those closest to him in order to share a grim discovery about him that he kept secret or didn’t know about himself in life.
David Duchovny is the voice of an animated polar bear riffing on fame and its corrupting influences in The Beaufort Diaries (4 min), a slick and sharply observed monologue.
The Voorman Problem (13 min) is a perfect short just this side of Ray Bradbury or the Twilight Zone with shrink Martin Freeman (The Office) enlisted to examine the psyche of maximum security prisoner Tom Hollander (Pirates of the Caribbean), who sets out to prove that he is God. Ingenious and entertaining.
Charlotte Rampling stars in The End (17 min), another very well written piece that considers a film industry so desperate for good stories that they digitally remove actors from films of decades past and replace them with the hot young things of today so that they may appear in good movies, too. Rampling’s riff on her own tough persona here is magnificent and very funny.
Butterflies (2 min) is a tremendous micro-short from Sandro Miller, starring John Malkovich in a stop-motion animation piece where he rants about the dangers of television.
Blitzen Trapper Massacre (7 min) follows Rainn Wilson (The Office), number one fan of the Portland country/folk quintet who gets to meet them but who is rejected from their company with his rough edges and poor taste in humor. Very funny.
Michael Fassbender (Shame) and Liam Cunningham (Game of Thrones) star in Pitch Black Heist (13 min), a glorious black and white caper about a couple of bank robbers as they plan an upcoming heist. Good acting here barely overcomes a fairly paint-by-numbers story.
- Moviejay
Check out our coverage of the WorldWide Short Film Festival:
- Douglas Breaks Down The ‘X-Ray Spex’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The ‘Stranger In A Strange Land’ Programme - Now Onto The ‘Homeland Security’ Programme - Xavierpop Takes On The ‘Someone To Watch Over Me’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The “All Tomorrow’s Parties” Programme - Douglas Godhino Reviews The ‘Superfans’ Programme - Xavierpop Takes on The “Creative Control” Programme - MovieJay Reviews the “War, What Is It Good For?” Programme - MovieJay Reviews ‘The Family Compact” Programme - Next Up A Look At the ‘Iron Ladies’ Programme - Xavierpop Covers ‘The Love Hurts’ Official Selection - A Break-Down The ‘Who’s Your Dada?’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The Opening Night Gala: Winners From Around the World - The @xvrpop Ultimate Worldwide Short Film Fest Preview - The CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival’s Screenplay $50,000 Giveaway is Back!
The X-Ray Spex program explores what’s beneath the surface of things; through dissection, we get closer to truth.
The Battle of the Jazz Guitarist (7 min) This oddly touching and charming film begins with old footage of a jazz guitarist playing on the screen while complicated jazz music plays in the background. Suddenly, narration begins to conversationally tell the story of the guitarist – how he was once a famous musician in his native Fiji that gave up that life to start a family. It’s the director’s voice and the guitarist on the screen is the director’s dad. But the voice starts to wander and so does the camera – telling about things that seem unrelated, showing footage that also seems unrelated; it’s as if the director has lost his train of thought but it’s all very charming and an interesting way to tell the story. This is a great short film that breaks the basic rules of filmmaking but to great revelatory effect.
20hz (5 min) This experimental black and white film plays sounds that are represented by a 3D animation. Akin to sound art, this film is visually interesting albeit quite avant-garde.
The Hounds (15 min) This film opens with a couple of friends buying liquor for a housewarming party they’re going to that night. When they get there, no one answers the buzzer because the party is just too lively to hear it. The story tells a sad but often disregarded truth, however when a fight breaks out in the hallway, the main character is left to fend for himself and the people from the party lock the door because they’re afraid of what will happen to them. When the main character gets back into the party, he understandably sees things differently and so does the audience.
The Sunday Robbers (17 min) It’s the day of the speedboat races – a local event that nearly everyone in the neighborhood attends. Sebastien and Mellie have decided, for the first time ever, that they’re not going to be attending this year. Instead, they’re going to perform a robbery together. Their relationship is complex – they once dated, now they’re friends but Sebastien keeps trying to convince her that they can have sex without their friendship getting complicated. Mellie is also romantically involved with Martin, the third of the robbers in the plan. In this world of jealousy, greed and infatuation, can a love triangle work?
What It’s Like (12 min) A writer for Esquire Magazine visits a retirement home to buy Psilocybin spores (aka “magic mushrooms”) from a retiree for the purpose of writing a “What it’s like” article. The young writer eats a couple mushrooms and the old man hangs out with him while imparting some wisdom. The two go to the rooftop of the apartment complex and look out over the town when the young man suddenly asks, “What is it like to be old?” The old man is caught off guard but answers the question in a way that, perhaps, only someone on the psychedelic drug can comprehend – a sweet little moment in the sun.
Dr.Breakfast (7 min) This is a surreal animated short where nothing is explained but the film is incredibly entertaining for this reason. A young bachelor wakes up in the morning about to eat a large breakfast when a spirit of some kind escapes from his eyeball, rendering him docile. The spirit begins to eat everything in sight and, when finished, travels around the world eating everything it can. Meanwhile, two deer that live near the bachelor try to help him – giving him a bath, changing him and cooking dinner. It seems that the spirit of breakfast can’t resist dinner either and gets sucked back into the bachelor’s body. It’s surreal and has moments that you can’t help but laugh at, even if you don’t know exactly what’s happening.
Sex of Others (22 min) Erotic and teetering on the brink of pornographic at times, this film tells the story of Etienne, a Montrealer who takes time away from his girlfriend to visit old friends – in particular, an old flame. This film is stylish and sexually charged – there’s no way Etienne’s plans could backfire, could they?
Score (9 min) While doing laundry, a couple begins an inevitable conversation that best be avoided: how many people have they slept with? Reluctant to give a number, fearing she’ll be seen as promiscuous – suddenly a surreal thought enters the young woman’s mind: her parents openly reminiscing about her sex life with a slideshow of the penises that have penetrated her. The woman, contemplating whether she’s going to tell her boyfriend, finally decides to give him a number but how will he react? Sharp dialogue and funny uses of art direction accent the overall production – a fun end to this program.
- Douglas
Check out our coverage of the WorldWide Short Film Festival:
- MovieJay Reviews The ‘Stranger In A Strange Land’ Programme - Now Onto The ‘Homeland Security’ Programme - Xavierpop Takes On The ‘Someone To Watch Over Me’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The “All Tomorrow’s Parties” Programme - Douglas Godhino Reviews The ‘Superfans’ Programme - Xavierpop Takes on The “Creative Control” Programme - MovieJay Reviews the “War, What Is It Good For?” Programme - MovieJay Reviews ‘The Family Compact” Programme - Next Up A Look At the ‘Iron Ladies’ Programme - Xavierpop Covers ‘The Love Hurts’ Official Selection - A Break-Down The ‘Who’s Your Dada?’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The Opening Night Gala: Winners From Around the World - The @xvrpop Ultimate Worldwide Short Film Fest Preview - The CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival’s Screenplay $50,000 Giveaway is Back!
The set of 7 shorts examined in the Stranger In A Strange Land programme focus on the notion of being a fish out of water. Indeed, one of the shorts is just about that. From an urban cowboy to a baby troll, watch as these characters experience the unknown, both in themselves and in their environments.
Reinaldo Arenas (4 min) is a thought-provoking experimental black and white trip involving the disposal of a nearly 6-foot long shark on a residential Miami street and it just so happens to be based on a true story. Question: Is the narrator the man we see throughout the short short, or is it the shark? Hmm…I suppose they’re both accidental immigrants in their own way.
Ursus (10 min) is a wonderful, hand-drawn animation piece from Latvia that considers the plight of a carnival bear looking for meaning in his life. Engrossing and yet another brilliant piece of animation at the festival, with love in every frame of this picture.
I Am John Wayne (18 min) by Christina Choe of New York contains a plot that would be at home in a Jim Jarmusch movie with Taco, a black teen from a rough neighborhood who must transport his best friend Jerry’s horse Chance across town after Jerry is murdered. There’s enough here for an interesting feature and Choe is a natural-born director who brings much sympathy to these characters.
The Crossing of the Living Room (19 min) is the best work of fiction in this series as it considers a middle-aged French-Canadian woman named Celine who is in the process of reinventing her life after a stint in rehab. Genevieve Albert shows natural gifts as a director by just following Celine and not giving her any kind of plot other than to see her through the beginnings of her mundane sobriety. Micheline Bernard gives an emotionally honest performance as Celine, a woman who suggests much inner life without ever revealing it, making her and this film a fascinating watch.
Odysseus’ Gambit (12 min) is one of the best docs you’ll see all week, this one about the unusually strange story of Saravath Inn, a Cambodian man air-lifted out of his home country in his youth by the American military, only to be deposited in the States as a “displaced person”, making it impossible for him to fully join American society. He gets by playing chess in New York City parks, though he would want you to know that “I’m not a chess player; I’m an entertainer” because of his skill for prearranging a board in order to teach people moves to avoid as well playable moves, all of which relate to life, of course. Totally absorbing experience and one of the most unforgettable characters I’ve met on film this busy week.
From Germany comes the rather droll The Changeling (9 min), a water-colored animated fable about a married couple who must adopt a baby troll after their own child has been taken from them. A funny take on acceptance.
Scott Thompson is Bob London in The Immigrant (20 min), a washed-up 90′s actor that the U.S. deported back to Canada and for good reason: nobody appears to like him since he’s only managed to offend everyone in his path with big and reckless mouth. Michael Cera, Will Forte, Margaret Cho and Dave Foley guest-star in this slight piece of niceness lacking any real bite.
- MovieJay
Check out our coverage of the WorldWide Short Film Festival:
- Now Onto The ‘Homeland Security’ Programme - Xavierpop Takes On The ‘Someone To Watch Over Me’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The “All Tomorrow’s Parties” Programme - Douglas Godhino Reviews The ‘Superfans’ Programme - Xavierpop Takes on The “Creative Control” Programme - MovieJay Reviews the “War, What Is It Good For?” Programme - MovieJay Reviews ‘The Family Compact” Programme - Next Up A Look At the ‘Iron Ladies’ Programme - Xavierpop Covers ‘The Love Hurts’ Official Selection - A Break-Down The ‘Who’s Your Dada?’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The Opening Night Gala: Winners From Around the World - The @xvrpop Ultimate Worldwide Short Film Fest Preview - The CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival’s Screenplay $50,000 Giveaway is Back!
