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haydenwest
Reviews
Most Likely To (2007)
Organic, real, full. Raw, human.
The story is really engaging, which is surprising considering that there's a lot of lamenting the high school/college days. Here, we really do care about the memories these guys are looking back on - they're defined by them. Being able to keep a singular, static two-shot on characters remembering those old glory days while keeping the audience hanging on every word is a good testament to how involved you can become in this story.
Everything about this movie just seems very thoroughly purposed and thought out, from the writing and cinematography to the directing and acting. It's an incredibly intriguing character study, and as a writer/director it was very interesting to watch how both events and emotions played out and the decisions that were made.
8/10, because there's almost always room for improvement somewhere, and because you know.. gotta be stingy with those higher numbers. ;)
Jimmy (2003)
A shocking film that isn't as innocent as the name would imply.
Was it a documentary? Or was it a film? I really wasn't able to tell the difference when I viewed this short. It seemed so real on a raw, fundamental level - and it was really disturbing and uncomfortable to watch, which is something that I try to incorporate into my own films as well. My confusion as to whether or not the short was fabricated or merely recorded made the film itself, much less the subject matter, that much more intriguing to me.
The voice-over was particularly effective, not being able to hear what Jimmy or Ron sounded like and only being guided by a disembodied voice to the obviously intense visuals. The non-diegetic inserts subsconsiously replace your own thoughts, pulling the audience into this sad story completely without their even realizing it even after the credits roll.
The most intense moment comes when Jimmy shoots up, with the footage replaying and overlaying into a disillusioning visual while the silence traps you into being forced to watch what the boy is going through.
Acted or not, the short is incredibly well directed. I gave it a 9/10, as I usually leave a last point of improvement as a rule.