Yardbird (2012) Poster

(2012)

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7/10
Fixing it
Prismark106 November 2016
There are elements of Carrie in this effective Australian short film.

Set in the remote outback of the lawless kind, Ruby is the yardbird of the title who is confined to her dad's auto scrapyard looking after the menagerie of animals and making sure the cars are compacted.

However a bleeding nose signifies some abilities of a kinetic kind and her father constant shouting of 'you cannot fix everything.'

When she sneaks into town in her father's pickup truck she comes across a trio of youth torturing a cat and does something about it. A car suddenly moves allowing her to rescue the cat and before long the injured cat is well again. The youths on the hand decide to take revenge.

This short film is wonderfully shot, good use of locations and tells it eerie tale with great economy.
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6/10
Nicely atmospheric, mediocre story
Horst_In_Translation3 September 2015
Warning: Spoilers
"Yardbird" is a 13-minute short film from 3 years ago made by the duo Spiccia/Avery who also worked together on the fairly famous Ewan McGregor movie "Son of a Gun". It takes place at a wrecking yard and tells us the story of a girl and her father, who run into a bunch of local (wannabe) teenage gangsters. There is nothing really new or innovative about this film. The dog story was obvious, had been done so many times before and the ending also wasn't something that shocked me, even if it was supposed to I guess. The best thing about this one is certainly the atmospheric setting. Music fits, images are nice as well. It feels like taken out of the world of Mad Max, probably no coincidence that both works are Australian. Lead actress Mitzi Ruhlmann is not known to me, but she played her part well like everybody else. She looks a bit like Hailee Steinfeld and it seems she is fairly known at least in Australia. So yeah, all in all a good way to spend the quarter of an hour, but not a great one.
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8/10
Dustbowl
terrazygotes-3088115 June 2023
A very rustic, lonely atmosphere is created in this film, which is quite lyrical. Excellent "rustic", brown-tinted photography. The soundscape and music are very well done. The acting is very good, appropriate to the setting of some squalor and isolation. All characters are very vivid and engaging. The story is a common fairytale of the downfall of "evil" before the vengeance of "justice". The main characters, the girl and her father were very sympathetic and the "villains" were suitably nasty and clueless. The ending was interesting and unexpected (by me !) accompanied by a haunting song. I found it an excellent entertainment. It reminded me a little of one of my favourite films, "Let the Right One In".
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compacted cars
Kirpianuscus26 April 2023
An auto scrapyard. A girl ,her father , a German shepherd. The interdiction of man for his daughter to leave the yard. Ignored, off course, by. A tortured cat by few bulyies is saved by girl. And their desire of revenge, with terrible consequence for one of them.

After the end the film, emblematic, for obvious motives, remains the heap of compacted cars. And the two deaths. And the look of the bleeding nose.

Auster storztelling, inspired acting, earth colors and fair portrait of cruelty of bullies. And, sure, many, so easy comparations with simmilar characters as Ruby.

But the virtue of film is to propose a personal story. About poverty, survive, secrets, self protection, love of animals and isolation by world. Not the last, the admirable work of young Mitzi Ruhlmann.
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