Noel Clarke plays the fedora and trench coat wearing “gumshoe” in Reign of Death, hunting down a “rat”— in this case a rather retro-styled robot. A woman has been murdered making for front-page headlines in the town, and the two characters end up having a showdown in the same alleyway where she met her end.

The action in the film itself is not the most dynamic as the editing is slow and a couple of shots seem somewhat clumsily executed, but as mentioned the VFX are astounding and create a look very faithful to the film’s classic references. A VFX breakdown has been posted by the man in charge, Linus Hofman, which shows the extent to which CG additions are able to transform real-life locations into the grimy, dark, yet fantastical backdrops of the film’s action.  The result is a look very similar to two features of the past, Sin City and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, which used extensive virtual sets to achieve a retro-look.

That said, we have seen numerous examples over the past year and half of increased sophistication in CG/live-action incorporation from the amateur set, and while Reign of Death at its heart prioritizes aesthetics, the film distinguishes itself by having an honest-to-god story unfold in its 5 min runtime. Short film aficionados know that 5 minutes is plenty of time to tell a complete story, however several writers of recent calling-card pieces seem to have forgotten this. Director Matthew Savage though displays a good handle on the story, having elements unfold slowly—well, as slowly as one can in such a short piece—and manages to employ a few traditional short film tricks to joyfully upend expectations, including a late twist.

Produced for BBC’s Its My Shout, yet another UK short film scheme (does the government there never get tired of being so damn supportive?), Reign of Death is an enjoyable watch that has all the elements to succeed in attracting widespread interest. Even though it has yet to make its presence felt online, the traditional path has proved effective for it, as its star and director are now developing a feature adaptation. Placed online last month by Sci-Fi London, catch this short while you can.

Filmed outside Barrow, Alaska, this short takes place on the beautiful yet terrible Arctic ice amongst the Inupiat peoples. The film’s dialogue is spoken in their language. A hunter, together with his pack of dogs, sees two men fighting on the barren horizon. From that point the film becomes a tense morality play, as the bystander must decide his level of engagement, and the participants must decide on the level of escalation. Further explication would spoil this simple, yet riveting story.

The challenge for a film like Sikumi (On the Ice), is overcoming its exotic location and culture—the same features that serve as an asset to lesser films. It is easy to dismiss shorts such as these by charging that their, admittedly alluring, foreigness is the primary source of appeal. Sikumi rises above such perceptions via superior craft, and a plot that is ultimately universal.

Rising star Cary Fukunaga served as DP on the project. His feature length directorial effort Sin Nombre, made many top 10 lists this past year, and he has now lined up a Hollywood adaptation of Jane Eyre for himself. While the vast white expanse of the arctic is an admittedly attractive backdrop, You have not seen it with this level of intimacy before. Planet Earth this is not. Fukunaga employs beautiful close ups and hand held POV’s to complement the obvious panoramas, shooting in anamorphic 35mm. All this while dealing with the challenging sub-zero Alaskan “summer”.

Writer/director Andrew Okpeaha MacLean though does great work in providing the story and tone for Fukunaga to visually relate. A Barrow native, MacLean writes what he knows, but is also writing within a long filmmaking tradition. Sikumi you see is really a Western. The frontier has not been tamed it has simply moved. Westerns are often about competing moralities,  tensions between personal codes. The weight of personal responsibility in these instances is heightened and rendered in sharp relief by the absence of societal enforcement. Typical protections afforded by Hobbesian bargains do not apply. It is within this space—the frontier of the ice, that the entirety of the film resides, and thus Sikumi is alternately suspenseful, scary, yet humanistic. The hunter with whom we arrive upon the scene with speaks very little, he is almost a non-character, as the onus of action quickly shifts to the perpetrator. Instead he serves as a stand-in for larger concepts such as Community, which judges and sets standards of conduct for a people , and  Conscience,  which, even in the absence of witnesses, must live with itself.

A startling spare and beautiful update on the Western,  Sikumi (On the Ice) takes full advantage of the stark and dramatic setting it employs, yet nonetheless could have been effectively  told anywhere using anyone. Thus it transcends novelty on the way to becoming one of the best shorts of recent memory.

Mimicking the ‘50s-era style that made us all want to duck and cover, The Three R’s introduces us to four happy co-eds (and a disgruntled little sister, obviously in even more need of a man to complete her than her sibling).  They are on their way to a beach party where they can socialize, drink, and meet a man.  But a moment of carelessness leads to one dead hobo.  As average youthful citizens, they panic, but with a shout, our omniscient narrator puts an end to that.

“Hey, calm down, this isn’t the end of the world, and you can still make it to your beach party in time.” Yes, all they need is to remember the three R’s:

1. Rationalize!!
2. Resourceful!!
3. Remain (calm)!!

Faux info videos and their close cousins, “found footage” videos are everywhere on the Net.  They are cheap to make since they don’t require a modern professional look, so every Tom, Dick, and Harry has given it a shot.  Most are painfully bad as the makers have lacked the one W: Writing (talent).  Nathan Voltz, along with co-writers Chris Hobbi and Joseph McCain (who also appear in front of the camera as Rick and Andy, two of the clueless murderers) don’t have that problem.  The script is tight, consistently funny and biting from time to time.  The gags come quick, and are never throwaway.

The Three R’s is supposed to look old and damaged.  The YouTube version adds grain and artifacts that are go way beyond what is effective, but for a film like this, it doesn’t take away too much of the fun. Watch it with a few friends, and keep in mind, communism has no place here.

So for those of us who crave the charm of these homages to yesteryear, the place to go is not your DVD rental store, but the web site of director Andrew M. Young for The Great Detective. In a time where all boys look like they are about to yell “paper mister,” woman are called “doll” and “sweetheart” by criminals and heroes alike, and plucky reporters do anything for a story, The Great Detective preserves the good people of Chicagotown behind his black mask and under his fedora.

Effie Soul, who brings the good news in uncertain times by way of a classic typewriter, has information on the whereabouts of the arch villain Pokerface. Luckily it is no trouble finding The Great Detective: just walk into the wrong part of time and he’ll show up to save you. With his jetpack strapped on, and a few secret weapons hidden in his trenchcoat from his faithful sidekick, The Great Detective sets out to clean up the city, and more importantly, provide hope in dark times.

Robert Trahan is dashing as the lead, with a touch of generic tough guy. The rest of the cast fit their parts: maniacal, trustworthy, and cute, in turn. The action is compact, which takes away nothing since we do get our needed shot of the hero streaking through the air.

A production of North Caroline School of the Arts, The Great Detective has no deep themes or important message. It is just good fun; dare I say it: old-fashioned good fun.

Logan, a motion design studio famous for their slick commercial work for big companies like Apple, Nike, Sony, and others, are the main faces behind A Volta. Inspiration came from the artwork of The Date Farmers—an LA-based duo who describe their work as “Mexican-American heritage rooted in California pop culture”. Their work has been translated by Logan into a dark, grungy world that could be the offspring of Sim City and Grand Theft Auto. The erratic camera work keeps a frantic pace that seems most revealing when less is shown.

It is a music video but one where the featured song plays as background music to a narrative with characters and dialogue. The song is by NASA (North American South America) from their first album, The Spirit of Apollo released earlier this year. All the songs on the album have corresponding videos made by selected pairings of artists and directors. Though I haven’t found any others yet.

If you’re interested in learning more about A Volta, BoingBoing has a nice Q&A with the director, Alexei Tylevich of Logan.

The film, shot in a faithfully hi-key B&W and seemingly set in the 1940’s, quickly sketches out its scenario in broad strokes. Werner and his lovely wife Mylene, are busy making their apartment festive for Christmas, when Werner’s friend from work, Sam arrives. Sam is not looking to share in the joys of the season however, instead he accuses Werner embezzling money from the company ever since the recent and mysterious death of the company’s managing director. From this point forward, the comedy starts and violence, tricks and double crosses abound.

The true enjoyment of the film is its playful subversion of genre. In craft, it is a very faithful homage to work of the era, from the aforementioned lighting, to its staging and orchestral swells. This referentiality, allows for the absurdity to do its work as the script goes big with the genre tropes. The intention of the film to engage in postmodern reflexivity is made very clear with the film’s opening and closing. The film’s opening credits begin with a song; a vintage number about going to the movies. The ending similarly comments upon itself as a work of film, as a character addresses the audience directly in order to impart an old truism as the moral to the story.

Yet pleasing as it is on an analytical level, the film is still just a whole lot of fun. It’s great to look at for one. It’s shot on 35mm, a real pro production all the way, and excellently photographed. The pacing is excellent as well. Obviously as I’ve alluded to, there are a lot of developments in which to keep the film humming along, but there is undeniable skill in the management of tension, its ebb, flow and release. The Bloody Olive is definitely a film where I wasn’t watching the clock.

With the defining traits of the film being self-awareness and absurdity, I was surprised to find out the film was not French. (Sadly all those European languages sound the same to me I guess). Instead it is the work of a Belgian director name Vincent Bal. Seeing as how this film was produced way back in 1996, I hoped to find more recent short film work by him, but to no avail. It seems he has stayed busy in Europe with features and TV work though fortunately. Fortunately for my ego as well, I found that a French connection does exist—Bal adapted the story from a comic strip by famed cartoonist Lewis Trondheim. This link from the P.O.V. journal compares the various versions of the story.

I ran into this film while exploring the FutureShorts Youtube channel. FutureShorts is a fascinating short film enterprise that I have been peripherally aware of for some time due to its heavy operations in the U.K.—the place to be it seems for exciting short film developments. Looking more into it for this review though I have to say it sounds really cool. FutureShorts is a hybrid, part festival, part label, part distributor, which really seems to try and address some of the gaps in the current short film political economy. I’d encourage you to check out their website. They also have their first compilation DVD coming out, which features work from SotW certified filmmakers Gaelle Denis and Arthur de Pins.