User Reviews

"Lou" is an American 12-minute live action short film from last year (2018) written and directed by photographer Clara Balzary, actually her very first filmmaking credit in both fields. But she must be still somewhat faous, otherwise there is no explanation for the actors who agreed to appear in this little movie. Most of all, I am talking about Joaquin Phoenix of course, who is getting nice mentiones these days because of his upcoming Joker portrayal. I really love him as an actor, so I am genuinely about his turn here and I hope he can perhaps win the Oscar for it. We will see. Lets speak about this short film here now. Phoenix is only in it in the first half playing the title character's father who is about to have a date. And probably he has a little more screen time than expected story-wise because he is Joaquin Phoenix honestly. I cannot complain. In the second half, the action moves outside as tomboy Lou is strolling the streets and meets a group of young people partying. She ends up walking with a girl from the group and the two kiss before the police arrives and Lou as well as everybody else has to run in order to make sure she does not get caught for drug abuse perhaps or underage drinking or whatever they have done wrong. It is really just secondary. It is more about her sexual preference and probably kissing a girl for the first time. I liked the moment we see her laugh in the face of this minor (legal) danger the moment the closing credits roll in. Butg this is really the only moment that was slighly memorable and I guess everybody who gave this film a 6 out of 10 and above also remembered this one a lot more and perhaps forgot about the great deal of mediocrity before that. What I found especially disappointing was how little the film did with Phoenix here. The role offered almost nothing (even if he still does a lot with it in terms of "face acting") and every other mildly talented actor could have pulled that off too without making a negative addition to this movie. So yeah still surprised how Balzary got this cast here, actually two female actors in this one have also played in big productions already in the past, it is not just Phoenix. As for the overall outcome, this film gets a thumbs-down from me. It is not a failure by any definition, but also not good enough for a positive recommendation. My suggestion is the woman in charge here stays with photography and you watch something else instead. Even for my fellow big Phoenix fans, this is probably not exactly a convincing work. Not recommended.