By: Henry J. Fromage –
Welcome to the second part of our first look at the HollyShorts Film Festival, which runs August 13th-23rd in Los Angeles.
486. Spilled Milk
Hey, EP Jordan Peele! Jared Leaf is the young filmmaker getting the boost here, and he’s made a very Get Out-feeling uncanny world here in the milk-centric convenience store a young man enters to find his absentee father who works there. Dad may have a reason, as everything is just a little bit wrong about this place, especially when a disturbingly cheery Jerry O’Connell in full milkman garb shows up. A bit familiar, yet still effective, polished exercise in creepy atmosphere. Three Beers.
487. Floored
This brightly colored short is billed as “a comedy about women’s rage”. There’s definitely an air of that about this short, which starts as a candy-colored Stepford Wives-type scenario, at least until a Pelvic Floor guru shows up to show all of these suburban housewives what they’ve been missing- in particular our central lady, who is inspired to really go all out on the source of all her ills. Three Beers.
488. Odd Socks
A sock puppet (or as it appears they’re called in the UK- ‘sock monster’) is murdered in the opening scene of this short, which then launches into an investigation and interrogation upon which ever cliche of the genre in the book is hung. Everyone is having great fun hamming it up in their stock roles, none more so than Patterson Joseph, who delivers a little comic masterpiece of a performance as the lead investigator. Two Beers.
489. A Short Documentary About A Giant Pencil
Yes, this is precisely what it says it is- a little documentary about a giant pencil that a Minneapolis couple had the old storm-broken tree in their front yard chainsaw-carved into. It’s now a fixture of the community, up to and including the annual ‘pencil sharpening’ they stage with its carver and a whole block party’s worth of attendees. A lovely little film about making lemons into art. Two Beers.
490. The Colosseum
This is another one of those shorts that feels like it could have supported an entire feature film around it (and may yet- these can be springboards to feature-length expansions). Vincent Cassel stars as a hard-assed basketball coach trying to inspire his team, and particularly his star player who’s been focused too much on the NBA scouts in the crowd, to rally at halftime in the big championship game. Not unfamiliar plot beats, but well rendered ones. Two Beers.
491. It’s Complicated
This Zoe Saldana-produced short is about a Palestinian-American aspiring screenwriter who is learning Arabic online from a never-met friend in Gaza, before October 7th and everything that’s ensued. As it goes, and as she navigates the attitudes of coworkers and a particularly boorish boyfriend, she learns more of her identity, and how it may separate her from those around her in ways subtle and not. Three Beers.
492. The Sisters of Scott County
This fun little exercise in 1970s period trappings and Dukes of Hazzard-style entertainments stars the effervescent Kaitlyn Dever as one of four moonshine-runnin’, big-truckin’ sisters in Scott County, Tennessee. She’s trying to get her semi truck license on the same day a biker gang decides to set fire to their still, meaning she’s going to have to take matters into her own hands. Honestly kind of goofy and low stakes, but looks like a lot of fun to shoot. Three Beers.
493. Chop Cheese
I’ve been late to the call everyone ‘boss’ party- guess I’m officially old- but that’s a thing folks are doing these days, and I’m sure a young man would rather be called that than ‘kid’, as the chop cheese-slinging bodega chef calls the young protagonist of this short. Thus begins a journey to either buy that prototypical New York sandwich until he does, or find another way to earn that marker of respect. A fun little thoroughly NYC short (with appearances by the thoroughly NYC Christopher Meloni and Michael Gandolfini to boot). Two Beers.
494. See You Soon
This punchy short is the most fun change of direction in the HollyShorts slate so far. For awhile there you think this is just a rather mundane conversation between mother and daughter as they close up their small store at the end of a workday, so much so that you may have forgotten that initial shot of the daughter staunching a bloody nose in the mirror, or other small clues of disarray strewn without. Then, bam!, you’re in another movie entirely, and it’s awesome. A hell of a lot of fun. A Toast.
495. Pigeons
Andy Serkis narrates this at times cutesy until it very, very much isn’t animated short about a nesting pair of British pigeons, who get kicked out of their warm home when a telephone replaces their messenger pigeon job, then find themselves embroiled in 1940s-era world events. This is not nearly as sentimental as it may first appear, which is going to have vastly different returns for different viewers. Three Beers.
496. Eructation
“The world record for loudest female burp is 107.3 decibels. Kaylee wants to beat it.” goes the plot synopsis for this short documentary, and that more or less covers the up front details. The joy of it is in how the filmmakers go about letting this rather unique young woman tell of her hopes and dreams (and all of the loud noises in her vicinity). Two Beers.
497. Living with a Visionary
James Cromwell adds a nice level of gravitas to this based on a true story tale of an elderly couple negotiating the slow degrading of the wife’s mind. She sees things- beautiful and terrible things- and he’s found it’s easier to play along with it and shoo away the latter to comfort her. A beautiful story of togetherness, in sickness and in health. Two Beers.
