END

Nice cinematography and great acting! CGI was great as well. Nice work, guys :)

Had a tense, sad vibe, by design. The acting did a good job of backing up the script. It kept me interested and guessing. While watching I thought the woman was already dead somehow.

I liked this movie a strong take on the real time movie - strong acting, good concept, high quality some of the things I have come to expect from this team

Guys this was awesome! Such a great way to tell a real time story, making the story pointed around game helped push the conversation forward and make it believable. My two notes would be I think the whole 'you cheated on me' part seemed a little out of place in the context of 'the world is about to be fking destroyed'. The overhead shot was really great but got weakend by the fire overlay - I think it would have probably been more effective to just crank up that exposure and make the world ending effect a little more mysterious. Besides those two things, a really awesome effort from you guys, probably your best yet! Nice job.

I think you deserve a lot of credit here for writing and performing a narrative and dialogue-heavy piece. Many, many teams on 48 Hours shy away from actual drama because of embarrassment, disinterest, or lack of expertise, so props to you for committing. I thought the idea was solid, the use of real time effective, and the end earned. Some of the plot maybe could have used a hint more clarity, like the car - I get that you're discussing something both characters already know, so wouldn't need to explain, but I could have used a glimpse more in order to better understand the dramatic beats. But on the whole, a very good effort. Nice work!

Firstly a ton of credit for the execution of one of the more difficult genres, a lot of teams struggle with real time. Acting and dialogue kept everyone on the edge of their seats the whole way through. The use of the game element to ground the drive the film forward was just really smart. Great production and great story telling. What else is there to say. This team really has kept a really consistent high quality over the years. Keep at guys, really good work!

Strong take on the real time genre. I liked the way the true premise of the film unfolded. based on this teams entry last year I was expecting something more metaphorical/supernatural. the actual premise was a nice surprise. props to the actors for comfortably making their way through the script and the nearly wall to wall dialogue. personally I found the floaty camera distracting. and I’m guessing that camera choice/set up is the reason for the occasional out of focus shots and exposure issues? a good tripod might have been a better call? (but i hate to be the guy telling other people how to make their films, but i know you can take it :P) getting really brutal now I also don’t think the fire effects worked at the very end, (on a technical level) the sounds of the explosions, and the colour grade had totally worked to sell me on what was happening. should have just faded to white after that great top down shot. (strong use of the requirement too) hate to be that guy giving unsolicited notes but I know you’d rather know why i arrived at my star rating. EDIT: came back to say, easily one of the best team intros this year. - you guys are really growing into your name too ;)

Nicely shot film with a very unique story. The acting was bit bit cringe at times - quite forced, and the performers needed make-up (not to be mean but it was off putting). The ending felt like a student film. Overall though, better than some teams that have been making films for years.

Finally, I get to review this. You can imagine me rubbing my hands together in anticipation. This is an excellent script. Unquestionably. Good to see Beth Walsh back at it again. She gave a very confrontational performance this year as last, and I felt she was the foundation behind the film's control of tension. I'm going to level and say I did not enjoy this as much as The Style, for The Style had much more style. This was a penetrating character study into the realities of a relationship, somewhat juxtaposed against the finality of the world coming to an end. It was very simple in concept, somewhat simple in cinematics and overall execution, but the writing is where the finer details flourish. Your work is observational, a pretty thing to be looked at, admired, and the sheer realism of it inspires meaning. The Jenga tower was no accident, right? It did not fall down. Daniel's "but that's none of my business" pin, eerily fitting. Daniel Mathers, now I think of it, was my biggest issue with this film. He had no chemistry, his performance felt flat, and the only thing I am more displeased with was the decision to cast him. I swear to god he was playing himself. Your film, so deeply focused on the connection between these two characters and the realistic portrayal of their picnic, was let down by my utter disbelief that they could ever actually be together.

A nice use of the real time genre, it doesn't rely on it necessarily, but the story fits perfectly into it. I think the strongest element of the film is the performance from the lead actress. She felt very genuine. I'm not necessarily crazy about the plot itself, it was cute to begin with, but exploring the darker parts of their relationship felt a little weird considering one of them had to write these triggering moments on a Jenga block in the first place. I understand the impulse to go a bit creative and stylistic, but maybe a smaller and simpler set up, just of a couple lying together and working through their issues, would have had a touch more intimacy to it, and would have made the ending more impactful. This is of course, subjective creative opinion though, from a guy who has written multiple 48hour films of characters just sittin' around chatting, and not all of them were particularly gripping. Happy to be wrong on this one. On the ending though, I feel mixed. It feels like maybe the inception of the idea was "the end of the world", but I guess your specific choice of apocalypse (firey explosion) didn't feel right for the tone of the piece. Shaky VFX aside, I think something a little smaller would have sufficed. My pulpy genre brain goes straight to zombies - maybe one of them has been bitten and transforms by the end of the film? Maybe they both do? Something a little smaller and a little easier to pull off would have really elevated this film. It's awesome to see Everything Sticks up their game each year, and I think this is your best film yet! TITLE REVIEW: I really like END. It's intriguing, and has a nice double meaning.

I can be a bit slow at times, didn't click that this was supposed to be some sort of end of the world scenario until seeing the references from other reviewers, then the final wind and the title made a bit more sense. Was a bit too subtle for me in tis regard, could have used some clues from the dialogue or shown on the screen. Real time is a tricky genre, it is a bit of a creative constraint and as a result it wasn't the most entertaining film (but it wasn't bad by any means, both performers put their soul into it and the jenga roulette was a nice touch). Definitely an art movie 48 hour equivalent.

Although this film had a good use of the genre, it just felt very flat and left the viewer with more questions than answers. Firstly, the lead female actress was fantastic, however, this just consistently highlighted how weak the lead male actor's skills were. He struggled to sell the lines and there was very little on-screen chemistry. The 'end of the world' ending just seemed a bit of a convenient way of wrapping up the film without any real resolution. Maybe an actual break up with the two characters would have served a more effective finish to the film and a figurative (rather than literal) 'END'. Sometimes smaller is actually bigger. Also, surely there were better complications to a relationship that would have served the premise of the film better, as instead the story ended up playing into an archaic stereotype that women aren't trustworthy.