{"id":18118,"date":"2012-02-06T21:50:04","date_gmt":"2012-02-07T05:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=18118"},"modified":"2012-02-07T13:19:23","modified_gmt":"2012-02-07T21:19:23","slug":"shorts-program-2-santa-barbara-international-film-festival-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=18118","title":{"rendered":"Shorts Program 2: Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Linda Lopez<\/a>.\u00a0 Viewed at SBIFF.\u00a0 Metro 4 Theater.<\/p>\n

There were five entries in the Shorts Program 2:\u00a0 “The Dining,” “Odette,” The Arm,” “Lunch Date,” and “Picture Paris.”\u00a0 All were equally entertaining and full of surprises.<\/p>\n

The Dining (Ethan Kuperberg, 2011): USA<\/p>\n

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It’s a Sunday evening and there’s nothing to eat for dinner except left-over brisket that no one is interested in eating.\u00a0 What is a family to do?\u00a0 In most families, the parents decide but in this family, there is a democratic process in place.\u00a0 The mother (played by Amy Madigan) wants Indian cuisine, the father (Henry Winkler) has a craving for Chinese, two of the three sons are undecided, while the third and youngest son wants Cheerios for dinner.\u00a0\u00a0 Ethan Kuperberg, the director, said that the film is\u00a0 based on a situation within his own family.\u00a0 Personally, this film reminds me of a Seinfeld episode, i.e., a story about nothing but entertaining.\u00a0 But, I still\u00a0wonder if Cheerios had any\u00a0sticky fingers in this film.<\/p>\n

Odette (Nicolas Bacon, 2011): Canada<\/p>\n

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“Odette” is about a family, a la les miserables,\u00a0sitting down for dinner on a day where\u00a0the\u00a0father lost his job.\u00a0 His sons follow\u00a0Papa’s cue and start\u00a0complaining about their day.\u00a0 Fittingly, the mother chimes in with her own life’s woes.\u00a0 The only one not complaining is\u00a0grandmother Odette, who cooked dinner for everyone.\u00a0\u00a0As the clock ticks, the\u00a0whinning in the room\u00a0soon turn to tears, then loud sobs after tasting\u00a0Odette’s dinner.\u00a0 They all\u00a0exclaim that the food\u00a0is horrible while spitting the food back into their plates.\u00a0\u00a0Calmly, Odette stands up and leaves the dining room.\u00a0 As she moves, the camera\u00a0follows her but the lens is only foccussed on\u00a0Odette from the waist down.\u00a0 Moments later she returns.<\/p>\n

Canadian Nicolas Bacon directed and produced “Odette.”\u00a0 Actually,\u00a0Bacon was also the editor, camera man, screen writer, and production designer.\u00a0\u00a0 At the Q&A after the film, Bacon admitted that this film is almost autobiographical because his grandmother is like Odette.\u00a0 Aside, I wonder if anyone remembers the French film, “Tante Danielle?”\u00a0 That’s who Odette reminds me of.<\/p>\n

The film is in French with English sub-titles.<\/p>\n

The Arm (Brie Larson, Jessie Ennis & Sarah Ramos, 2011):\u00a0 USA<\/p>\n

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“The Arm” is about a teenage relationship confined to communicating by texting.\u00a0 It is also about high school peer pressure to have a significant other, i.e., going steady.\u00a0 Face it, many teenagers are still in their awkward stage and are not emotionally mature to be in a relationship outside their own gender.\u00a0 Thus, texting is a perfect medium\/venue for teenagers to avoid face-to-face encounters.\u00a0\u00a0Has anyone noticed that it’s\u00a0faster to contact a teenager via texting than by calling on\u00a0a cell phone call?\u00a0 What’s the problem with\u00a0talking on\u00a0the phone?\u00a0 I still don’t get it.\u00a0\u00a0 Back to the\u00a0plot or the purpose of the film. There is a message in “The Arm,” but you need to see it yourself.\u00a0 But brace yourself for a surprise.<\/p>\n

The directors of the film are three young women:\u00a0 Brie Larson, Jessie Ennis and Sarah Ramos, who\u00a0wrote the script on a Greyhound bus ride.\u00a0 “The Arm” has also been shown at the Sundance Film Festival.<\/p>\n

Lunch Date (Sasha Collington, 2011):\u00a0 UK<\/p>\n

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“Lunch Date” is a delightful story although it begins sadly when\u00a0Annabel (portrayed by the director Sasha Collington)\u00a0is waiting for Thomas, her prince charming, to show up for lunch.\u00a0Instead, Thomas’s 14-year old\u00a0brother, Wilbur (Alexis de Vivenot), shows up to tell Annabel that Thomas will not be coming for lunch.<\/p>\n

The English director Sasha Collington did a superb job in “Lunch Date.”\u00a0 Although the plot is rather short, loveable Wilbur is memorable, which makes this film stand out from the rest.\u00a0 It is a very sweet and endearing film.<\/p>\n

“Picture Paris” (Brad Hall, 2011):\u00a0 USA<\/p>\n

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The opening scene of “Picture Paris” is narrated by an unknown French man while we see scenes\u00a0of Paris from a travel book.\u00a0\u00a0Ellen Larson (portrayed by Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is planning a trip to Paris with her husband as soon as their son graduates from high school and leaves for college.\u00a0 Mrs. Larson is consumed with everything French, from taking French courses to French cuisine.\u00a0 After sending their son off to college, Mr. Larson tells Mrs. Larson that he’s leaving her.\u00a0 The only response from Mrs. Larson is, “Who gets Paris?”<\/p>\n

Brace yourself for a big surprise!<\/p>\n

But, I do\u00a0wonder why director Brad Hall (Dreyfus’s husband) decided to spend the extra money to film on location?\u00a0 Why not!\u00a0 It was well worth it in the end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Linda Lopez.\u00a0 Viewed at SBIFF.\u00a0 Metro 4 Theater. There were five entries in the Shorts Program 2:\u00a0 “The Dining,” “Odette,” The Arm,” “Lunch Date,” and “Picture Paris.”\u00a0 All were equally entertaining and full of surprises. The Dining (Ethan Kuperberg, 2011): USA It’s a Sunday evening and there’s nothing to eat for dinner except […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1958,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,181,81],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films","category-santa-barbara-film-festival-2012","category-short-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1958"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18118\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}