The laboratory of film was back with a new batch
The shorts program at SXSW is always good. Always. No, it’s great, and more often than not presages features to come in future years. This year’s slate was no exception. Here we present just a few of the best.
Milton
Winner of the Vimeo Staff Picks Award, by director Tim Wilkime echoes his experience of visiting a girlfriend’s family as they await the passing of the family patriarch. Allan McLeod (who also appeared in Texas-based The Iron Orchard) is perfect in the role of potential future spouse who steps in it like Sideshow Bob in a field of rakes.
Liberty
This short is the narrative equivalent of cinéma vérité. Filmed on location in the Liberty Square neighborhood of Miami, Liberty follows two young girls as they deal with changes happening around them. The plot is spare, but grieving for the death of a mother and dancing in a crew are involved. This film won the Narrative Shorts award, a tremendous honor for director Faren Humes.
Something Like Loneliness
Any time Lee Eddy is involved in a project, it’s worth watching. Here, she plays the downstairs neighbor in an odd exchange between two relative strangers. Tupperware holds the most precious of commodities as the two explore just what it is we would squirrel away if we could.
Washed Away
The depictions of religion have been varied at this festival, from the strict Catholicism of Yes, God, Yes to the nodding reference of Saint Frances. In Washed Away, contemporary Evangelical Christianity, youth-group style, is the backdrop for a very touching tale of teenage love. The entire endeavor is treated with respect, though the theology involved eventually rears its head in a very ugly–though subtle–way.
Framework
Starring Martin Swabey of Narrative Competition award-winner Alice, Framework takes place in small-town France where a man is just a little too interested in hanging out with some tween boys. The results are not so much gross as they are sinister, and the reveal comes slowly but surely at film’s end.
The Orphan
Winner of a Special Jury Recognition, this Brazilian short exposes the tension behind cross-racial older adoptions, but does so with psychedelic interludes that would make Baz Luhrmann blush. Certainly deserving of an award, even in this most crowded of fields.
Stepdaddy
Stepdaddy portrays a woman approaching middle age who just wants to have a nice dinner with a friend from college. Instead, she nervously blathers all over him before Peter Gallagher shows up as her father in an uncomfortable twist. Lauren Blumenfeld has the line of the fest as she multi-syllablizes the word “thaw.” This one is awkward, good fun.
Sweet Steel
What if the only thing keeping you from pulling the trigger and ending it all was that the gun literally tastes bad? John Merriman (who also appears in Fest Favorite Sister Aimee) is what we might call a problem solver. This short short is as dark as it is funny.
Bronzed
SXSW regular Linas Phillips kills (literally?) in this short about a quasi-megalomanic in need of a tan, a “golden shower” if you will. Phillips is often sweet, sometimes goofy, but here he’s menacing in way that’s absolutely compelling. Johnny Pemberton plays the tanning technician whole kicks things up a whole notch.
Lowland Kids
The only doc on this list (because I got sucked in to watching a screener pre-fest), this gentle depiction of a family dealing with multiple levels of hardship–climate change, addiction, disability–in the heart of rural, coastal Louisiana treats is subjects right while painting a picture with technical cinematic mastery.
Montana, GA
The most nerdy depiction of nerds I’ve seen in a while. (I work in tech; I should know.) Some guys who probably play board games for fun go to a mountain cabin of one of their deceased grandpa’s. Bears, ghosts, and phat beats compete for scariest thing around in this Midnight Short.