Review: Crossroads Short Films (2nd block)

Head in the Sand and Chronicles by the Other
Comedy/drama/war and comedy/drama/love
Malco Grandview Cinema
18 April 2010

The second block of short films I viewed were all very distict from one another. "Head in the sand" focuses on a young boy who loves to read war-related comic books and often imagines himself in a farce version of warfare; everything is a joke. Then, it becomes apparent that this little boy is much older and actually fighting in Afghanistan, where this fantasy transforms into a disturbing reality as he witnesses the horrors of warfare. In the end, we see how this is all in the past and he is now reaping the ramifications, for he has become a paraplegic. Overall, I thought this film was very well made; it had awesome special effects (for a budget I'm sure wasn't very high), very good sound editing, and very realistic locations and sets. The battle scenes were very realistic, with bullets zooming across the screen and explosions off in the distance. However, the acting was a bit cheesy at times, with some questionable lines of dialogue. But, the film made up for this with its very clever means of telling the story and its terrific ending. The ending, by far, was my favorite aspect of the film. After he has been company has been attacked and his fellow men are dying around him, everything fades; we are left with the main character in a very elusive state, observing an illuminating door in the middle of the desert. He walks through the door, which is a portal into the present reality and his unfortunate destiny has become manifest.
"Chronicles by the Other" is a french film about a love triangle between two males (whom are best friends) and their female next door neighbor. The tension begins to rise and feelings get hurt as these people begin to realize the complications of such a relationship, because both men love the woman. It ends on a very bizarre, yet comical, note where all three characters have become unified in one, three person relationship. The film's strongest element was the acting. The actors became the roles in which they were playing, for it almost seemed as though I was watching a documentary. Not only that, it seemed like alot of the dialogue was improvised, which (if this was the case) would be extremely impressive on their part. For the most part the camera work was handheld, but a few scenes had very stylized shots. In one scene, the characters are sitting at a table eating dinner; the camera is placed in the center of the table and begins to slowly rotate, giving the audience a unique perspective on their interactions and conversations. Furthermore, the film's had great use of music, which was sort of European-triphop. Overall, I felt that both of these films were very successful, especially for first-time film makers.