I must admit I was hooked from the first frame, a bedraggled beauty in a red cocktail dress, completely alone and vulnerable in a stark ,threatening, urban environment. The plot drags the viewer through a claustrophobic and shocking series of events and leaves you feeling slightly stunned when the credits role some four minutes later. I found the consistency of this short film's photography quite astounding. Filmed at night in one take, navigating street lights and a car interior and it's many reflective surfaces without losing control of the narrative for a moment. Giving the film a hyper-real, voyeuristic feel. Whether intentional or not, the under-cranked moment of violent rage brought back memories of the bar scene in goodfellas and the infamous car door scene of Lock, stock and two smoking barrels. The female lead was exceptionally believable, and the little moment where she stopped to pick up her shoe amidst her trauma was remarkably well observed. Telling a fully rounded tale is never easy and this does in less than five minutes what most can't encapsulate in thirty. Well worth a look.
2 Reviews
Not perfect but it moves fast enough and is short enough to ignore the problems while the "one-shot" approach draws the viewer into the story (spoilers)
bob the moo4 January 2007
Warning: Spoilers
A young woman calls her boyfriend from the middle of a housing estate hurt, bloodied and hysterical. Her boyfriend picks her up and they go to drive to the police station. However as they start off she spots the man who hurt her and her boyfriend decides to take matters into his own hands.
Impressively filmed in one continuous take, this film has a simple twist at the end of a solid scenario even if it is not that surprising once it comes. It moves quickly with a good pace, with only the beating of the suspect being in slow-motion and perhaps losing some of its impact as a result. The director keeps close to his subjects the whole time and far from being a gimmick, the one-shot approach draws the viewer in and puts them in the car with the couple making the story more effective that it may have been if delivered in a different way.
I didn't totally buy Calil's performance for most of the film but his "money-shot" (for want of a better word) of realisation is spot on and makes the ending. Bryant is good throughout as she is convincingly hysterical even if I thought the makeup could have done a better job of showing that she had been attacked in some way. Not perfect then but it moves fast enough and is short enough to ignore the problems while the "one-shot" approach draws the viewer into the story.
Impressively filmed in one continuous take, this film has a simple twist at the end of a solid scenario even if it is not that surprising once it comes. It moves quickly with a good pace, with only the beating of the suspect being in slow-motion and perhaps losing some of its impact as a result. The director keeps close to his subjects the whole time and far from being a gimmick, the one-shot approach draws the viewer in and puts them in the car with the couple making the story more effective that it may have been if delivered in a different way.
I didn't totally buy Calil's performance for most of the film but his "money-shot" (for want of a better word) of realisation is spot on and makes the ending. Bryant is good throughout as she is convincingly hysterical even if I thought the makeup could have done a better job of showing that she had been attacked in some way. Not perfect then but it moves fast enough and is short enough to ignore the problems while the "one-shot" approach draws the viewer into the story.
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