This is the second of several looks at the Slamdance shorts from Caitlin and Brent.
Holy Water|
A young girl from a restrictive religious community attends a seance with a teenage coven to try to connect with her dead sister. Haunting, touching, and beautifully composed.
Lumbago
Surreal comedy in which a shaggy dog story is told to a captive audience on a hot summer day. A deliberately strange and uncomfortable film with an assortment of odd characters and an animated sequence holding it together. An actual shaggy dog makes an appearance.
Joey Earns Rewards Using the McDonald’s Mobile App & Megh and Clev Discuss Their Future Together
A single overhead shot captures drama and humor in a McDonald’s parking lot. The title is the plot. This was fun.
One Day This Kid
Inspired by David Wojnarowicz’s collage Untitled (One Day This Kid…), a boy grows up to become alienated from his father and culture due to his sexuality. While it hits differently than the work that inspired it, the brief glimpses of one man’s unique life and the compromises he is forced to make are provocative and affecting in their own right.
Stellacast Transmission Pt. 1: Subconscious Eyes
In a dystopian nightmare world, a drug called “seven” causes awareness of subliminal communication and secret surveillance. Campy, psychedelic sci-fi depicted in a wild painterly style with deadpan humor and low-budget effects that make it feel like live-action animation (in a good way). Another favorite.
The Great Cherokee Grandmother
A man’s date is ruined when people keep claiming unfounded Cherokee ancestry and engaging in cultural appropriation. Styled as a PSA, the film has fun with his growing exasperation and incorporates well-known examples of redface.
The Meaningless Daydreams of Augie & Celeste
The line between imagination and reality is disturbingly blurred as two young girls play at adult relationships. Perfectly captures the creepy absurdity and drama of childhood games.
The Sea Inside Her
A woman’s overwhelming fear is made manifest as she tries to protect her grandchild from sea creatures that spring to life from bath towels and shower curtains. Gorgeous puppetry and menace among soft things.
The Sphinx
Social anxiety is given horror movie treatment in a bad night experienced by a locksmith with a prosthetic nose and disturbing past. Dark comedy with flashes of absurdity.
The Sweater
A guileless young man tries to steal back a donated sweater after being pushed around by his girlfriend and his friends. An enjoyably silly heist where you can’t help rooting for the hapless protagonist.
Two of Hearts
An absurd thriller where dramatic music and movie magic escalate a mundane dispute between two siblings. Deadpan silly in a way where I felt like I was watching an episode of Invitation to Love, the soap opera from Twin Peaks. Not sure if this is an apt comparison.
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