Bookcase: The Seaquel

This film is a sequel to what was clearly quite an old film in the competition. It opens with a few quick shots of the original, showing us the location, a look at the main character and really emphasising the technical limitations of the time, as I've said in other reviews, this is an interesting way to open your film as you only have so few precious minutes to tell the story. However, when it cuts to the 2017 footage I threw up my hands and let out an audible "fuck!" because I'd just seen the best use of Ultra and any hope I or anyone else had of taking home the Ultra award disappeared. For the next minute or two I was fully on board (or on deck, if I'm keeping with the nautical theme. Nah, on board is fine) with the film, and I even felt a sense of nostalgia sweep over me as I felt this strong connection to characters in a film I'd never seen. The world building and set up was excellent. I did however feel myself less taken by the Bookubus appearing and the events thereafter but it's almost a victim of me loving the start so much that the end simply couldn't live up to it. A very well done film technically as well but I don't feel I need to point that out!

Next to Pickle Thugs opting for a spin-off approach to Ultra, Prime Rib going for a heartfelt nostalgic feel might be the best use of Ultra I've seen so far. I haven't seen the original BOOKCASE, but all I needed to know was that ten or so years ago, Prime Rib had a lot of fun during a weekend where they shot a 240p film with baby faced actors. From "I love books", we smash cut to a glorious 4k "I still do" all these years later, and we follow on into an amazing location with beautiful shots and hilarious characters. The story was good for the most part, though in comparing it to last year's GHOSTFISH (one of my all time favs), I don't think the concept or script was as airtight, and while I wouldn't say it ever lost me, I certainly didn't find it as gripping. Still, a sure fire for the city/National finals, with a good chance of taking out the ultimate award, and one of my top picks for the Ultra award as well.