Photo courtesy of citizenjanefilm.com
Review by Lauren Hill
Love. The most confusing, wonderful, awful and intricate aspect of the human condition. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it falls flat on its face. But love is always one thing. Love is never perfect. Romantic comedies try to convince us that it can be, but life isn’t like that. It can be a thousand times worse or a million times better. This collection of shorts demonstrates the different faces of love. The only thing I would change is the order of the shorts. This way we aren’t left on a downer that makes me question love in general.
If High School Musical had a sequel and we finally saw how Zac Efron’s character Troy and Vanessa Anne Hudgens’ Gabriella broke up, this would be it. Glitter, singing and dancing, and the awesomeness of cheesy musical theater. But way better than that. How do you break up with someone and not make it awkward? Musical numbers don’t make it any better. Just more fun to watch.
Gory Leslie by Emily Friend Roberts
Roberts described this film as taking our mundane worlds, putting them into a fantastical world, and using that over dramatization to convey the true meaning behind those everyday events. Mind you, this is in the style of a 9-year-old’s cartoon animation. Potato-headed people talking in ridiculous voices, which seem to sound like that girl you know, will leave you in stitches.
Bachelorette by Anna Link
In Hollywood this is the best party a girl will ever have in her life. Booze. Men. Drunken friends. What isn’t there to love? Link is able to deconstruct this pivotal moment and turn it on its head. The party is, after all, about getting married, having children and raising a family. Well, what if you don’t want that? The main character is able to bring us through new eyes in a creative way.
Being able to call a girl up and ask her out is hard enough when you’re 20; imagine what it’s like when you are 10! My favorite line of this six-minute short, the one thing that sums it all up in its comedy and adorableness is said by our main character. “Be a man. Be a man. I’m not a man, I’m 9!”
We’ve all been there. That break-up you just can’t get over. You awkwardly text him to see if he wants to “hang out.” You write him letters he will never get and try to convince yourself that you are so much better off. You mutilate every gift, picture, everything that has a piece of him glued to it. We ask ourselves—can we ever let go? Will things ever get better? This is a romantic, comedic, dramatic, all-over-the-board take on that break-up that wouldn’t end.
Candlesticks by Isabella Wing-Davey
Feminists and marriage don’t seem to mix in my mind. They are constantly at war with each other. The main character in this short writes a paper on marriage as being the transfer of property, which, in a way, is totally true. This short left me at odds with independent, modern women and my romantic princess side. Is there a way to have both?
Scenes of an Adult Nature by Samantha Whittaker
Definitely the darkest of the set. Whittaker brings the audience into a broken marriage that hasn’t even discovered it’s broken. Whittaker uses music and flowers as symbols of that face put on by the characters to the world, to each other, and to themselves. The clash of the gentle melodies and beautiful roses just further echoes how at war this marriage is with itself. This short left me feeling the clash internally, as well.
Vox rating: VVVV
THE RATING SYSTEM
VVVVV = AWESOME! SEE IT TWICE
VVVV = DEFINITELY GO SEE IT
VVV = HMM… IT’S OKAY
VV = EH… DVD MAYBE?
V = DON’T BOTHER
© Vox Talk 2011
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