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Rating: 6.8 | 0 User Reviews | Send to Friend
Another winning collection of shorts, from the sublime to the patently silly, featuring the works of directors both well-known to North American audiences (Guillermo Del Toro, Jane Campion, Alfonso Cuaron) and not-as-yet (Andrea Arnold, Sylvain Chomet, Adam Elliot). This year's ensemble continues the rich tradition of previous volumes. Some selected high-lights:
Wasp - Andrea Arnold's biting depiction of a young British welfare mum and her four young kids is both extremely well-rendered and nearly unbearable to watch. Seeing the doleful looks on her kids' faces waiting outside on the sidewalk as their mother spends the night in a pub, trying to hook up with an old flame, is truly miserable, yet Arnold manages to inject just enough pathos with their mother that you can't entirely turn your back on her.
Sikumi - US director Andrew Okpeaha Maclean can thank his wondrous DP, Cary Fukunaga, for helping to conjure the atmosphere for this brief murder drama set amongst the Inuit on a frozen lake far up north. Barebones, but a visual knockout, the film gets much mileage out of the barren landscape and the particular squeak of boots on frozen ice.
Dona Lupe - Guillermo del Toro takes this opportunity to pay no small homage to the low-budget Mexican pulps of his youth with this tale of a little old lady who takes it to a couple of corrupt cops who rent a room in her house. Using what appears to be out-of-date film stock, covered with scratches and dust, del Toro weaves his tale with a blend of reverence and self-consciousness.
A Girl's Own Story - Jane Campion's 1983 short, shot in vintage B&W, finds her more or less in Sweetie form, sharing snippets of a small group of high-school aged, Beatle-mad girls in the '60s. As typical of Campion's oeuvre, sex, failed parents and depression all co-mingle in a kind of visual hodge-podge of scenes, ideas and implications.
No extras to speak of, other than varied and engaging director's commentaries on many of the shorts.
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