Extended Reviews – 2024


Open Your Eyes

Samantha Scaffidi’s atmospheric film focuses on the psychological turmoil experienced by a woman being pressured into an uncomfortable mental space. The film’s strongest hand is served with the interpersonal relationships of the characters, and the carefully composed cinematography, which alludes to a touch of Ari Aster’s Hereditary.

Ella Loudon and Daisy Bevan’s performances reveal more interpersonal tensions as the film expands. The past trauma clashes with the violent present, making the film a sort of crescendo of fear of self-harm and vulnerability.

The film’s strong direction overrides the need for genre-specific outcomes, serving more of an experience than a character-driven film. Overall, this is a memorable and impressionable piece as short films go. Highly recommended.

A QAnon Christmas

First off – the poster of this film is fantastic. There’s texture here, and comical elements such as the bump on the tongue. It is enticing – unique and memorable.

The film’s CGI animation appears detailed enough, with a sort of slowed movement, that it mimics claymation – it is, thanks to these fine-tuned touches, interesting to look at… carrying a finer feeling for artistry than most animated films produced using 3D renderings that we have seen. Likewise, the 2D animation sequences appear fresh, and authentic – boasting a Michel Gondry feeling of handmade quality.

The rest of the film, which is presented in yet another format – black and white – carries the audience’s attention largely through the comedic movements of the camera and engaging script. The colour scene adds a fourth element of contrast, really boasting this film as a blend of techniques and visions of cinema.

Overall, the script and performances are quite engaging. It is a very well-produced short film, one that perhaps only slightly struggles with its wide shots, which appear to be produced on too wide a lense.

It is largely quite great, and highly entertaining – a proper film that will be worthy of being recommended to viewers.

Daniel Came Home

The short vaguely mixes an artful avant-grade style (black and white, focus-play, double exposure and SFX) and dramedy to evoke a sense of time, doom and mortality.

The film’s props (the door sign, the party sign, the carpet) evoke an unusual feeling of modernity in what appears to be a mostly retro-based short film. This however is perhaps more of a pain of the digital film arena – things are perhaps a tad bit too sharp… and something like Film Convert might help enhance the film’s style.

The performances, the concept and the overall delivery though is very well done. The film is blunt about trauma, and the sort of snake-eating-its-own-tail element of the fable of: a certain type of upbringing may result in pain.

The director’s strong sense of timing, and the crescendo ending very much feels like a filmmaker who, with the right film elements (which will help elevate the film’s technical style) is ready to progress into feature filmmaking and distribution.

All in all this is a solid short film, and one that has a strong and impactful ending.