Giles
45 Reviews
Reviews
A Strange Pair
This is the kind of film I always hope to see in the 48 hours: plot and character driven fun. It wasn't technically the slickest film, but it was funny and enjoyable and you wanted to know what happened next. The little girl expressing things from her point of view and her growing relationship with the kidnapper was the highlight. I also really liked that the lying was a real plot driver.
Survival of the mutant
A film very much in the have-a-go spirit of the 48 hour film fest. I really enjoyed watching it. If you measure it by professional film-making standards, it doesn't come off well, but the film had an originality and personality that made it more valuable than any star rating it's likely to get. Looked like a tiny crew (I think I only saw one guy stand up to take his bows) so well done Monastery Amateur Film Club!
The Dragons are Coming
Some classic kiwi deadpan acting and some good jokes made this a fun watch and the plot made sense (even if it was built on an absurd premise). What more can you ask for? I loved the understated performance of the 'kind-of-like-a-wizard' uncle character and the final line from the mother was a crack up. The idea that everything hinged on fixing an ornament with super glue was funny. I liked that there was secret dragon-society; the tattoos were a nice touch. For me the film was one of the better ones in the heat at pulling off intentional jokes. With some technical polish, this team could make some great films.
Ringtone Revenge
Good acting. Some very nice shots. Some very dodgy sound, some of the time. Pretty good story. This team is on the verge of being pretty slick. Didn't quite nail any aspect, but overall this was probably the best film of the heat.
A Strange Pair
This is the kind of film I always hope to see in the 48 hours: plot and character driven fun. It wasn't technically the slickest film, but it was funny and enjoyable and you wanted to know what happened next. The little girl expressing things from her point of view and her growing relationship with the kidnapper was the highlight. I also really liked that the lying was a real plot driver.
Morgan's Match
This was an ambitious film; a Rom-Com staring very young actors with sexual themes, and I thought it came out remarkably well. The two young leads did a great job and even gave credibility to material that could have been really crass, but instead remained quite sweet and endearing. That was until a woman appeared on a computer screen, pushing the youngsters to have sex. That character was, I think, ill-judged and came across as some kind of sexual predator, but I don't think that was the intention and I still enjoyed the film. The film used some good Rom-Com conventions, but there was still a good vein of originality.
Post-Heist
Just watched this in the screening room. Cool film. Some very pretty shots, good acting and I liked the ending. The film-makers really did a good job using their required elements; It was a solid crime film and the line of dialogue was used really well for example. It was quite an economical film; everything in it was a necessary part of the story, which I guess is what you want in a short film. The story in this quite short film kept me engaged all the way; I always wanted to know what happened next, but if we were made to care more about the characters in it, it might have gone from good to really, really good. Having said that, it does really well with so few scenes. In the 48 hours I guess it's probably pretty smart to put all your effort in to a tight film, like this team has. Well done.
Gonna Get Rich
This comedy stalker film cracked me up. I loved some of the dialogue. I lost it on "Who sends cookies like this?". Lead actress was great, carrying many of the scenes with her performance. Thanks for a genuinely enjoyable film, team!
Keta-Mean Girls
For me this was one of the more enjoyable films of the heat. I really enjoyed the vibe and energy. The dialogue between the two leads was well done and very funny. It wouldn't take too much improvement for this team to make some really, really nice films. Visually, I thought the film suffered a bit from having a lot of shots from inside the car, where a lot of overexposed exterior was in the frame, but hey, it's tricky getting those car shots right some times. I thought the fight in the opening scene was pretty clunky and the resolution of story wasn't really great, but there was a bit of pay off at the end and the film made me happy.
Scooter Girl
I thought the idea of the object of affection in an obsessional relationship being an inanimate thing was pretty good. There's lots of scope there. I just thought that that needed to be more the focus of the film; there were scenes that didn't have much to do with the obsessional relationship. I really liked the scene where the lead sat on the scooter, imagining riding with the wind in her hair and sun on her face. You could really see that, even though we didn't actually see it. That's what the film needed more of: fun or interesting scenes about the core obsessional relationship. Well done to the young cast members.
Poesy
Some very nice visual images and some unique humour. I thought the counting to 24 scene was great; I thought the humour was very much intentional and that it worked. The film's approach to it's genre of musical could fairly be called avoidance, but it was a creative avoidance. No real plot, but enough amusing moments to keep me entertained.
Post-Heist
Just watched this in the screening room. Cool film. Some very pretty shots, good acting and I liked the ending. The film-makers really did a good job using their required elements; It was a solid crime film and the line of dialogue was used really well for example. It was quite an economical film; everything in it was a necessary part of the story, which I guess is what you want in a short film. The story in this quite short film kept me engaged all the way; I always wanted to know what happened next, but if we were made to care more about the characters in it, it might have gone from good to really, really good. Having said that, it does really well with so few scenes. In the 48 hours I guess it's probably pretty smart to put all your effort in to a tight film, like this team has. Well done.
The Awakening
This film really drew you in. Definitely one of the better films from a really good heat. I really wanted to know what was going to happen in the end. I was really expecting some big surprising finish, which didn't really come, but I enjoyed the ride anyway. If only the ending lived up to the rest of the film! Amazing make-up. There were some serious facial prosthetic jobs and more. Well done.
Spoken Word
I remember thinking there was some really interesting writing in this film. I really liked the premise and the library in the tent was great. Sometimes I thought I wasn't quite getting all the details I was meant to, but over all I thought it was an original idea with some compelling moments.
The Hand That Feeds
Had a genuine horror feel to it, even if it was a bit heavy-handed and technically a little clunky (although, not that bad for a 48 hour film). Well done making a horrifying horror. Good committed performances from the actors. There have been few really successful, horror films that aren't comedies in the competition, so good on you guys for having a good stab at it. Nearly a really good film.
Tyrone
The second animated film with a voice over of the heat. Voice overs just don't work unless you get the production of them right. They so often seriously lower the quality of a film. This film was far from being the worst in that respect though. Not too bad, but really I'd urge any team to really consider how well they can do a voice over before employing one. Anyway the film... I have a prejudice against animations. They're usually rubbish, especially in the 48 hours. Despite that, I didn't hate this film, so that's saying something. I laughed at some bits. The ending made me laugh. I would have preferred to have actually been shocked, but funny is good too.
The Wellington Job
This film's team gave themselves a tricky task of presenting parallel realities in the film. I admired their ambitious efforts and the look of the film helped with that idea. It didn't quite make it as a whole idea, but there was some good work in the film.
Poesy
Some very nice visual images and some unique humour. I thought the counting to 24 scene was great; I thought the humour was very much intentional and that it worked. The film's approach to it's genre of musical could fairly be called avoidance, but it was a creative avoidance. No real plot, but enough amusing moments to keep me entertained.
Survival of the mutant
A film very much in the have-a-go spirit of the 48 hour film fest. I really enjoyed watching it. If you measure it by professional film-making standards, it doesn't come off well, but the film had an originality and personality that made it more valuable than any star rating it's likely to get. Looked like a tiny crew (I think I only saw one guy stand up to take his bows) so well done Monastery Amateur Film Club!
Tyrone
The second animated film with a voice over of the heat. Voice overs just don't work unless you get the production of them right. They so often seriously lower the quality of a film. This film was far from being the worst in that respect though. Not too bad, but really I'd urge any team to really consider how well they can do a voice over before employing one. Anyway the film... I have a prejudice against animations. They're usually rubbish, especially in the 48 hours. Despite that, I didn't hate this film, so that's saying something. I laughed at some bits. The ending made me laugh. I would have preferred to have actually been shocked, but funny is good too.
Engaged
Very compelling cinematography. Really showed how good every-day locations and scenes can look! I thought the music production was done well; it sounded good, although, the same song did just seem to run throughout, without a lot of variation. I didn't like the story, but I am impressed at the quality of the production, especially given the genre. Good, committed performances from the actors.
Hide and Seek
I don't care what the rest of you say, I liked the neighbour with the weird reaction who swore a lot. That was comedy. It seemed like the film could have pushed more into that kind of comedy in other areas of the film. That could have made it even funnier. The Mum almost had that kind of delivery in a few moments as well, but the tone wasn't quite consistent. I liked the kid with the broken arm getting whacked repeatedly, but there was an opportunity to follow that up by having a door slammed in his face later on that was missed. I liked the nice tidy, funny ending. The match cut seemed pretty forced until I thought about it right now and realized that maybe you were going for a deeper meaning involving the ending of the film. Maybe I'm slow. I didn't think the swearing was that bad, even for kids watching. It just needs explanation, like all the swearing kids all observe all the time. Anyway, I laughed, I enjoyed it, I thought the story was pretty solid.
Steve and Friends
This film made me laugh. It was a cute, silly idea. This heat and this film reminded me how the production values don't really matter as long as you're enjoying something.
Witcher Grove
This 'scary tale' exploited the one-shot format well to keep up the tension of the story. I'm not sure if the story would have stood up that well, if shot more conventionally, but I guess the one-shot genre was always going to be tricky to deal with and likely to take over a film. I thought the team did really well to sync the voice-over narrative with the action on screen as well as they did. I loved the red flower petal blood; it was very visually in keeping with the tone of the film. The film makes use of a very simple location, but manages to turn it in to a fairy tale world. Nice use of the required line at the end of the film. It's a shame the film wasn't eligible for competition; I'm sure the audience would have rated it well.
Loop Aahhh
Non-traditional take on the idea of Time Travel. I'm not sure it quite came across in that sense, but it was a worthy experiment and the film was interesting. More of a creepy horror, the actors gave some good natural performances and the cinematography made good use of darkness and hand held shots to show us only what we need to create the atmosphere. The story though, was really told through the editing, which was done well, and seemed like it had really taken some thought.
Deathday Wishes
Solid premise for a race against the clock film initially, but then the story lost it's way a bit, I thought. The ending didn't really relate to the rest of the film, and although I appreciated the attempt at a meaningful emotional conclusion, I hadn't really connected with the characters, so it didn't really do it for me. Some good ideas in there though.