Bob Doto [Film Festival 11.16.08] movie review short



ALTAR
Nathan Bezner, 18 min

Nathan Bezner has a lens and that lens has one function: obliterate the edges of every scene in saturated florescent light (see Antibody for comparison). The main problem I have with this is that while it allows the film as a whole to be more hyper-real than real, it also sucks the real out of things you want to look real (like feces on a toilet [watch the film and you’ll see what I mean, it’s not like that’s a specific interest of mine or anything]). Story: Prosaic janitor narrates his way through the doldrums of life including his relationship to the holiest of thrones.


BURYING THE EX
Alan Trezza, 15 min



Part boy-meets-girl with a dash of zombie and a whole heaping of American Pie. Burying the Ex is a funny short dealing with the irrational pining of a young man over his long-ex, though recently dead, girlfriend. His roommate is the mac player extraordinaire who sets him up on a blind date with a young fowl-mouthed vixen. The two fall in love and the ex- comes back to check in for a little last chance woo woo. This could easily be made into a feature length film in the vain of SUPERBAD and all the rest of the teen exploitation films, at which point I would cease to care out it.

THE GLITCH
Joe Fordham, 13 min



In this forth-wall-breaking meta-narrative a man experiences some heavy brain-splitting digital breakdowns and finds his mirror-self speaking to his apartment self. He then runs across some more of his selves in a haunting tale of “don’t be a couch potato loser or you’ll have a nervous breakdown and realize your real self is just a digital self.”

FIRST KILL
Micah Ranum, 16 min



First time killer with a family’s botched first time kill is thwarted by first time killer with a family whose plan is not so botched. Make sense? Some strong imagery here. Sopranos meets coming-of-age story meets Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

TREEVENGE
Jason Eisener, 16 min



This is the film I wanted to hate, but ended up liking, but not nearly as much as the (almost) standing ovation (I can tell they wanted to) crowd around me did. Kudos to Eisener for getting me to sympathize with anthropomorphized Christmas trees and laugh once again at forever-ignorant yuppies and rednecks. Plus, with the opening music lifted from Cannibal Holocaust? You got me. I’m interested. What’s next for you?

Check out the website here

EAT ‘EM UP
Paul Carty, 4 min



A musical and explicit tale of trolls and little girls. The little girls don’t fare so well.

GONE GOLFING
Maxi Dejoie, 18 minutes

Brutal violence, inhumanity, and revenge. If you like your shorts to be hyper-realist powerviolence, than this is your film. If you find the ending fulfilling, that puts you in a precarious spot as there too you must enjoy hyper-realist powerviolence. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth never meant so much. A well done, if uncomfortable, to watch piece.

You can watch Gone Golfing here.

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