Your Lucky Day is not for the faint of heart. Dan’s film is dark, vulgar, and unearths some of the deep, disturbing thoughts we all harbor. The characters are rational people thrown into a dire situation forced to confront the ultimate dilemma: moral judgement against self-preservation.

Dan’s film has been touring festivals for a few months now. I first caught it at the Seattle International Film Festival where it screened in the same program as my film, The Thomas Beale Cipher. See Dan’s motion design work at Oh Hello.

Meet Rocky Salemmo. He’s a ramblin’ gamblin’ man. For the majority of his adult life Rocky has hustled bowling for a living.

Dunne’s hugely entertaining, character-driven doc tells the story of Rocky Salemmo, a larger than life man, who has spent the majority of his adult life in the bowling alley, gambling for a living. Like a heady combination of Bill Murray’s Ernie McCracken from Kingpin and Joe Pesci’s Tommy DeVito from Goodfellas (without the violent episodes), Salemmo feels like he was born to be in front of the camera. Rocky is a seriously hyper personality (he claims he doesn’t take coke as it brings him down), he tears up the screen like a wild man, spitting out stories like his life will end if he doesn’t tell them. It’s these rambling antidotes that form the basic structure of Dunne’s film, it feels like he just set-up his crew and waited for Rocky to let loose (much like a crew shooting a wildlife doc would do).

However, there’s no point in having a captivating character with a wonderful story, if the production values don’t match the levels set by the content.

Shot on the Sony EX3, the film features some sumptuous cinematography by director of photography Hillary Spera, as her camera seems magnetized to Rocky and his manic behaviour. The interviews are beautifully constructed and whether we’re in the low-lit bars or Rocky’s mother’s busy living room, Salemmo is always the given space he needs to frantically tell his stories. Often overlay the distinctive voice of our storyteller, The Bowler is also filled with a wealth of hugely effective cutaways ranging from random bowling alley shots, to close-up shots of Rocky bowling, laughing and dancing. Salemmo’s quick-fire delivery is perfectly matched with the fast paced snappy editing from Kathy Gatto and her cutting does a great job of painting the world in which Rocky believes he lives.

Dunne seems to be rapidly becoming a name to watch in the world of the documentary short and his distinctive style and charming stories are sure to win him an army of followers. If you liked The Bowler, be sure to check out the 2009 Sundance selected short The Archive, another fascinating short focusing on the owner of the world’s largest record collection.

Shot on the street and in various check-cashing stores, Checkmate sketches the landscape of the check-cashing industry in Brooklyn. Why are there always jewelry stores next to check-cashing spots? Why is there 1 bank per 1,000 people in fancy Brooklyn Heights, but only 1 per 50,000 people in gritty Bushwick? In discursive style, Rafi and Dallas take us around the borough, talking to people on the street and walking us through the mechanics of the check-cashing spot to illustrate how this particular part of the cycle of debt operates. And we learn how the cycle changes. “Internets,” Dallas jokes, “you know you’ve made it when you go from check-cashing fees to ATM fees.” Ben Popken, an editor at consumerist.com, makes an appearance as a talking head, but it’s mostly Dallas and Rafi on camera, riffing on the absurdities of our new, “eff-ed the eff up” economy.

The Internets Celebrities (the name, by the way, is very much toungue in cheek) are doing something unique on YouTube: using it as vehicle for informed, pointed documentary-making. The rough style is part of the message, that this is off-the-cuff, not watered down. There’s no critical distance here, and the video itself has a loose style perfectly suited to embeddable online video. But the lack of obvious slickness obscures how slick Checkmate actually is—it’s a 10-minute video about “check-cashing” of all things, but it’s already had nearly half a million views. Are they indeed, as they claim, “the Woodward and Bernstein for the YouTube generation”?

Directed by German brothers Wolfgang and Christoph Lauenstein, Balance is a remarkable piece of animation that has held up very well through the years. Winner of the Academy Award for Best Animated Short in 1989 , it has been featured in a few animation collections on video, including the now sadly out of print, “The World’s Greatest Animation”, where it headlined alongside another famous film we reviewed on this site, Nick Park’s Creature Comforts. But thankfully the internet has saved us once again and this film has been uploaded to at least half a dozen user-generated content sites. These uploads might be unauthorized, but I doubt the Lauenstein brothers care as it is sure to act as a great calling card for their commercial film production house.

In fact, Balance is a perfect reel highlight for commercial direction because it displays simple confidence in concept. The film uses stop-motion to animate, but is ultimately not much to look at. It is not pretty and the character motions lack the artistry and polish of some of the more experienced practitioners of the craft. When made though, Cristoph was still in school for his Fine Arts degree. So, in the midst of such brilliance, this shortcoming is easily forgiven.

What shines here instead is idea and execution. A film without words like Balance is frequently an exercise given to young animators and film students alike. New storytellers often overwhelm audiences with exposition, so instead are asked to concentrate on telling a story visually, focusing on expression and craft to carry a viewer through. It is difficult enough to simply tell a story that makes sense, let alone interest your audience, let alone raise greater social issues, all of which Balance does.

In execution, the film is accomplished. The cuts do a fine job of relaying the action, the physics of balance are realistic enough, and key actions by characters are imbued with a forceful purpose. Several memorable shots punctuate the film and prove haunting. As an idea, it works as a parable and an allegory, and more remarkably the two contrast. It strikingly moralizes the dilemma of human beings working in cooperation. Like a story out of Game Theory, if the men were to cooperate they could all enjoy the box together, but it is selfishness that dooms them.

Add though a context. A time and place to the film’s creation. Germany, 1989. If you do, you realize a whole host of additional readings and levels are available to enjoy. The fact that the men are identical but for their numbers, is this not a oft-used symbol for the anonymity desired of those in a Communist society? That they are all the same and thus interchangeable? The cooperation they display at first is perhaps indicative of Socialism, and the box, what is the meaning of the music it plays, the dancing it inspired? Radio Free Europe used to broadcast American music, such as the jazz heard coming out of the box, into Communist countries throughout the Cold War. Perhaps the box is a symbol of possibility, of what is outside the closed system, which inevitably undermines said system.

And so a parable about selfishness becomes an allegory about German society and Soviet Communism at its fall. The sad and ironic ending of Balance, who is at fault? The men that fail to do what is best for them? Or the system that fails to acknowledge this human quality?

Holiday Romance is a 1998 British comedy that’s not going to leave you dwelling on the nature of life, but will leave you with a smile.  A small time burglar (Oz Milburne) thinks it’s his lucky day when he sees a woman (Eva Pope) drop her keys on the train platform.  She’ll be off on vacation and he’ll have all the time in the world to pilfer her home.  He’d have thought differently if he’d noticed her dropping them previously, planting them for someone to pickup.  At the house, he finds everything he could have desired, plus a little more in the form of a not-so-ferocious dog.

The film has the dry, witty humor I’ve come to expect from Britcoms, along with the mindset.  The kindly robber, who is ready to break into your home or pick your pocket, but would never harm you no matter what, is a British character through and through.  The joke wouldn’t work if the film was set in the U.S., where we assume our crooks carry guns and would blow you away right after killing their own grandmothers.  But Holiday Romance assumes lovable criminals are everywhere, so it all makes sense.

While it feels like a substantial project, the film has a small cast. With only three main actors, and one of those a dog, it’s the four-legged thespian who steals the show. Well, you know the old saying about never acting with kids or animals. The humans do their jobs admirably, but cute will win out.

Of course you’d expect an Academy Award nominee to look good, and it does. Director J.J. Keith pays the bills directing U.K. commercials and is considered one of the best. His skills transfer over to the world of storytelling (where the climax isn’t a frothy mug of Guinness). He knows how to shoot in confined spaces and you still can’t beat 35mm for a short. He was aided by producer Alex Jovy, who shared the directing chair; the two decided to simplify the credits.

Black Button is minimalistic in design and execution, but is the kind of tautly paced, well-written film that really shines in the short format. The film centers around a classic hypothetical and moral quandary; lost and confused in a stark white room the main character, Mr. Roberts, is offered ten million dollars by a mysterious older gentleman to push a black button. The catch? If he does, someone, somewhere will die. This premise sets the stage for a provocative conversation between the two as they discuss the implications of such a choice.

There is a lot to like about the film, the visual aesthetic is stylish; stark and ultra-exposed in order to create the depth-less white set. As mentioned, the pacing is excellent, sucking in your attention and never letting it flag and the shot selection wrings the most dynamism possible out of the limited set. The two strongest aspects though are the excellent sound work and superb acting. Fantastically creepy, disorienting sounds emanate during the payoff that heighten the affect nicely, and quite simply Robert Grubb steals the show with his turn as the elderly gentlemen.

As accomplished a film as it is, especially for a $200 first time effort, Black Button likely would have found success on the festival circuit, but instead on YouTube it has become a phenomena, garnering a half a million views and over 6000 comments. It’s hard to imagine garnering as much exposure or feedback from any other means than the online video giant. But also because of the community-nature of the site, the feedback is often a lot more substantial than other sites. Thirteen video responses have been posted already by fans of the film, and questions generated by the short prompted the filmmakers to post two new “making of” segments to YouTube as well, extending the level of interactions possible between independent filmmakers and their audiences. Now if only YouTube can perfect some revenue sharing…

]]> http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2007/08/05/black-button/feed/ 2 http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2007/06/03/rabbit/ http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2007/06/03/rabbit/#comments Sun, 03 Jun 2007 09:42:38 +0000 Andrew S Allen http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2007/06/03/rabbit/ This strange short story tells an old tale in a new way. Two ambitious, young children chase down a rabbit and find a small idol hidden inside. This idol has the odd power of turning insects into jewels. Soon, the two kids hatch up a plan to make an operation of it—killing animals to attract flies that are then transformed into more jewels. Connections to our consumer culture can be readily drawn.

Animated from a set of 1950s stickers meant to teach kid’s how to read, Rabbit reads like a children’s book brought to life in 3D. In combination, the horrific storyline and the innocent imagery creates a sense of twisted unease that has no equal.

Run Wrake is a seasoned animator/illustrator with a bizarre taste in the grotesqueness of pop culture. His website is chock full of more film pieces and probably the best illustrated biography page I’ve seen.