Short Film Reviews
Short films are a way for film directors to test their creativity in film making but to a smaller scale. This means everything has to be taken into consideration, like each frame and the words people are saying because if it’s not important it could take up valuable time.
The two films telling lies and soft are both directed by Simon Ellis. And although they have different storylines and different characters they are actually quite similar in theme.
Telling Lies is about a man who has broken up with his girlfriend and is talking to different people on the phone about it. We never see anyones faces all we are presented with is their voice and a transcript of the phone conversation, although the fonts are different and move according to the tone of voice.
Telling lies has the theme of the viewer knowing more than what the characters do, this is the case in most films but telling lies takes this to a whole new level. When the person is telling the lie the truth comes up on the screen in a white and bold font, it’s over what they are actually saying which gives the audience a perspective of both sides of the story.
Soft is about a father and son who are being bullied by a gang. It shows their relationship and how they cope differently to the same situation.
In soft this happens again but in a not so obvious manner, we see the dad get knocked over by the gang, and we can see the fear in his eyes, so when he tells his son he’s not scared we know he is lying. But since it doesn’t come up on the screen in big bold letters we still have that same doubt his son feels, which makes us more emotionally involved with the sons character.
While both films have a dark side to it telling lies lies under the category of comedy, it’s like a newer and better version of a pantomimes “he’s behind you” joke, we know he’s behind you (or lying) but the other person doesn’t.
Soft on the other hand has a much darker and more serious side to it. The gang in it are never seen to have a empathetic side to them so as the viewer we just see them as the ‘bad guys’, this gives the audience a disconnection from these people and therefore like the other people in the film we are also scared of them, we don’t know what their lives are behind hanging around on the streets and if they’re pressured into doing what they are doing. And neither does the father so it makes the audience relate to his coward behaviour.
However, when we hear the dad telling his son that he should have fought the bullies he was confronted by earlier, it turns him into a hypocrite and that audience connection to him is lost.
A similarity of the two films is status. In telling lies the characters Phil and Sarah were together, then both slept with other people. Now that they’re calling each other it’s like they want to hurt the other person more. In this case Phil is hurt more because his friend Darren has also betrayed him, which leaves Sarah on top of him in status.
In soft on the other hand status is coming from lots of different aspects of life. The father and son are both middle class, you can see this from their house, they also have a car and the son plays cricket. But the gang is working class, again you can tell from their clothes and the way they speak, so technically the father and son should have a higher status than them. But because the gang use violence and humiliation it makes them higher in status as people are scared of them.
Both films are made to make the audience relate to the characters, in telling lies people can relate to lying on the phone to people to cover up what really happened, or to pretend to be better. And in soft we can empathise with how the son is feeling after his father is sending him mixed messages.
In conclusion I think both films were creative and a joy to watch. I prefered telling lies because I have never seen a short film where it’s just the transcript of a phone conversation, and it’s hard to make an audience engage with that but it did and it was fun to watch.
The two films telling lies and soft are both directed by Simon Ellis. And although they have different storylines and different characters they are actually quite similar in theme.
Telling Lies is about a man who has broken up with his girlfriend and is talking to different people on the phone about it. We never see anyones faces all we are presented with is their voice and a transcript of the phone conversation, although the fonts are different and move according to the tone of voice.
Telling lies has the theme of the viewer knowing more than what the characters do, this is the case in most films but telling lies takes this to a whole new level. When the person is telling the lie the truth comes up on the screen in a white and bold font, it’s over what they are actually saying which gives the audience a perspective of both sides of the story.
Soft is about a father and son who are being bullied by a gang. It shows their relationship and how they cope differently to the same situation.
In soft this happens again but in a not so obvious manner, we see the dad get knocked over by the gang, and we can see the fear in his eyes, so when he tells his son he’s not scared we know he is lying. But since it doesn’t come up on the screen in big bold letters we still have that same doubt his son feels, which makes us more emotionally involved with the sons character.
While both films have a dark side to it telling lies lies under the category of comedy, it’s like a newer and better version of a pantomimes “he’s behind you” joke, we know he’s behind you (or lying) but the other person doesn’t.
Soft on the other hand has a much darker and more serious side to it. The gang in it are never seen to have a empathetic side to them so as the viewer we just see them as the ‘bad guys’, this gives the audience a disconnection from these people and therefore like the other people in the film we are also scared of them, we don’t know what their lives are behind hanging around on the streets and if they’re pressured into doing what they are doing. And neither does the father so it makes the audience relate to his coward behaviour.
However, when we hear the dad telling his son that he should have fought the bullies he was confronted by earlier, it turns him into a hypocrite and that audience connection to him is lost.
A similarity of the two films is status. In telling lies the characters Phil and Sarah were together, then both slept with other people. Now that they’re calling each other it’s like they want to hurt the other person more. In this case Phil is hurt more because his friend Darren has also betrayed him, which leaves Sarah on top of him in status.
In soft on the other hand status is coming from lots of different aspects of life. The father and son are both middle class, you can see this from their house, they also have a car and the son plays cricket. But the gang is working class, again you can tell from their clothes and the way they speak, so technically the father and son should have a higher status than them. But because the gang use violence and humiliation it makes them higher in status as people are scared of them.
Both films are made to make the audience relate to the characters, in telling lies people can relate to lying on the phone to people to cover up what really happened, or to pretend to be better. And in soft we can empathise with how the son is feeling after his father is sending him mixed messages.
In conclusion I think both films were creative and a joy to watch. I prefered telling lies because I have never seen a short film where it’s just the transcript of a phone conversation, and it’s hard to make an audience engage with that but it did and it was fun to watch.
My Favourite Film Review
Mean Girls
Mean Girls, a film about the social cycle of what a teenage girl goes through in a year. On the outside this film seems like your average chick flick but it has so many more levels to do with sexism, social norms and friendship, which is why it’s my favourite film.
The film is about a teenager called Cady, who starts [high] school for the first time after a life of being home schooled in Africa. It shows her learning about what school is all about and popular culture etc.
The theme the film touches upon the most is the rules around school. Cady has to learn the social rules of school, she’s spent her life with her parents so she doesn’t know what not to do, when she mentions she likes Regina’s Ex boyfriend Gretchen says “ex-boyfriends are just off limits to friends. I mean that's just like the rules of feminism”, which is something Cady did not originally know, she also has to wear certain clothes on certain days, like pink on a Wednesday, to be apart of “the plastics”.
The film was written by Tina Fey, who also played the teacher, and I think her role in the film is to be the voice of reason. She gives a speech near the end of the film which is clearly her own views and I think it brings a nice touch to the film because what she is saying has a lot of meaning behind it and it will make teenage girls watching the film think about how they act.
One thing she says in the film is “you all have got to stop calling each other sluts and whores. It just makes it ok for guys to call you sluts and whores” which I completely agree on and I think it’s good she’s using this film to say something of such importance about feminism. She also gives advice in the film such as “you don't have to dumb yourself down in order for a guy to like you” which I think is nice because lots of young people will be watching the film and this could actually help them.
Mean Girls is very similar to real life, we only know about the characters from the school. We never see them at home and what their families are like, we don’t even know who’s in their families, and this reflects real life because at school we only see what happens there. We don’t even know about everyone in our class and this film accurately represents that.
I love comedy, watching it, reading it and even writing it. And Mean Girls is the only film I can watch over and over again and it still makes me laugh. There are many classic quotes from the film that are all over the internet in memes and parodies such as “Coach Carr, step away from the underage girls!” and “she doesn’t even go here”. I can guarantee everyone who has watched the film can at least say one quote from it because it’s so memorable.
While many may think Mean Girls is a film restricted to teenage girls I would strongly disagree and say it’s a film for everyone to enjoy. Every knows the experience from school and social rules they’ve had to follow and this film is about that, so everyone can enjoy. The humor is also not restricted to teenage girls, again it’s something everyone can find funny.
In conclusion Mean Girls is my favourite film because it’s funny, it’s full of great quotes and it has good morals in it such as be yourself and do not think you have to act in a certain way to be popular. I think it’s great that a good film is so successful and it’s affected teenagers all over the world.
