Is Love Enough?

Couldn't fault this, AMAZING use of the 80's style, the actors were great and I am still humming that bloody theme song. Sweet, cute, genuinely heart warming and a brilliant twist on the insomniac character. Can't wait to watch this again!

Vic can't sleep and he can't watch TV 'cos he didn't do the digital switch-over. He finds a box of old 80s VHS tapes - looks like the whole series of the popular soap opera, "Dangerous Obsession(s)". As he watches he becomes obsessed not only with the series, but most importantly with main female character, and ultimately the real life actress. The Eh Team have been knocking on the door of this competition for some time now and have come close only to be pipped near the top by an out-of-the-park effort from another team. This year, it's The Eh Team who have smashed it. Superbly shot, edited, written and acted, with awesome comic timing from Hamish Parkinson. The footage of the TV show is great, and weaved expertly into the story to keep things moving along - rather than just placed there for effect. So many awesome moments and you need to keep watching after the credits. My only concern is the ending which was just creepy really, and I'm not 100% if it fits or not. Hmmm. Finalist for sure and early favourite for Christchurch winner (although has serious competition from Zebra Crossing Inc.). I expect to also see "Is Love Enough?" doing well nationally. Awesome work!

And so we ended the heat with this wee shoulder-padded gem. It's a rare thing when an entry in this competition isn't just a great 48Hours film, but also stands strong outside the competition as a great short film in its own right. I really enjoyed the fine line it walked along Obsessive Relationship road, where things were plainly more than a little creepy, and yet at the same time it was all rather sweet. We might have often felt sorry for our lead, but never revulsed (unless you count a brief moment of big screen scrote-scratch action). I loved that the main character didn't utter a single line of dialogue, which actually meant that things were left uncluttered, and we got a much clearer picture of the small details of who he was (indeed, I suspect they achieved this far more successfully than most films that actually drew the Non Dialogue genre). And speaking of details, it was the sum total of all the little things that really made this one for me. The supporting cast were uniformly great, even the blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameos from co-worker-guy and bus-stop-guy, the latter in a brief but hilarious scene. Then you had the 80's soap opera flourishes, including big hair and even-bigger acting, a convincing daytime soap video look, and a cheesy theme tune repeated sufficiently often that it crawls maggot-like inside your brain. But I think the greatest trick this film pulls is that it never feels rushed; somehow, it tells a full story within its seven-minute parameters, but is always happy to stop and smell the VHS. Case in point: there is a critical scene in the soap opera essentially played in full not once but twice, only with its narrative function in the film transformed the second time. It's a perfect demonstration of the confidence the team have in their craft. It turns out you don't have to sacrifice comedy to have a character study; you don't need to sacrifice pacing in order to tell a complete story. Not bad at all.

Fantastic intro. Amazing use of the switch to digital TV bit. Terrible shot of the crotch. Very cool VHS cover and hilarious inserting VHS scene. Amazing "is love enough" intro music. This is amazing. So amazing. Holy crap at the encounter and repetition of dialogue. Holy craaaaap. OMG I died laughing at the bit after the credits. You guys killed it. Grand Finals. So yeah, my notes pretty much devolved into me screaming and crying with laughter and delight. Thanks guys, this thing ruled so hard.

Couldn't fault this, AMAZING use of the 80's style, the actors were great and I am still humming that bloody theme song. Sweet, cute, genuinely heart warming and a brilliant twist on the insomniac character. Can't wait to watch this again!

Vic can't sleep and he can't watch TV 'cos he didn't do the digital switch-over. He finds a box of old 80s VHS tapes - looks like the whole series of the popular soap opera, "Dangerous Obsession(s)". As he watches he becomes obsessed not only with the series, but most importantly with main female character, and ultimately the real life actress. The Eh Team have been knocking on the door of this competition for some time now and have come close only to be pipped near the top by an out-of-the-park effort from another team. This year, it's The Eh Team who have smashed it. Superbly shot, edited, written and acted, with awesome comic timing from Hamish Parkinson. The footage of the TV show is great, and weaved expertly into the story to keep things moving along - rather than just placed there for effect. So many awesome moments and you need to keep watching after the credits. My only concern is the ending which was just creepy really, and I'm not 100% if it fits or not. Hmmm. Finalist for sure and early favourite for Christchurch winner (although has serious competition from Zebra Crossing Inc.). I expect to also see "Is Love Enough?" doing well nationally. Awesome work!

And so we ended the heat with this wee shoulder-padded gem. It's a rare thing when an entry in this competition isn't just a great 48Hours film, but also stands strong outside the competition as a great short film in its own right. I really enjoyed the fine line it walked along Obsessive Relationship road, where things were plainly more than a little creepy, and yet at the same time it was all rather sweet. We might have often felt sorry for our lead, but never revulsed (unless you count a brief moment of big screen scrote-scratch action). I loved that the main character didn't utter a single line of dialogue, which actually meant that things were left uncluttered, and we got a much clearer picture of the small details of who he was (indeed, I suspect they achieved this far more successfully than most films that actually drew the Non Dialogue genre). And speaking of details, it was the sum total of all the little things that really made this one for me. The supporting cast were uniformly great, even the blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameos from co-worker-guy and bus-stop-guy, the latter in a brief but hilarious scene. Then you had the 80's soap opera flourishes, including big hair and even-bigger acting, a convincing daytime soap video look, and a cheesy theme tune repeated sufficiently often that it crawls maggot-like inside your brain. But I think the greatest trick this film pulls is that it never feels rushed; somehow, it tells a full story within its seven-minute parameters, but is always happy to stop and smell the VHS. Case in point: there is a critical scene in the soap opera essentially played in full not once but twice, only with its narrative function in the film transformed the second time. It's a perfect demonstration of the confidence the team have in their craft. It turns out you don't have to sacrifice comedy to have a character study; you don't need to sacrifice pacing in order to tell a complete story. Not bad at all.