I Could Fly

Brilliant. Well shot and edited, fun and creative song writing. Never give up on team intros.

Awesome. So much fun and even a dance routine!!!

Awesome, mad respect for pulling off a solid and funny musical

This starts well with a funny set-up complimented by a couple of cool songs, the second of which nicely shows the dilemma the two lads are faced with. For me, I think they should have taken off there - rather than introducing the sister character. Things got a little slow with too much time spent on the side of the road and the songs started to feel a little flat, lacking zip. The ending didn't really land for me either and I think if this had become a genuine cat-n-mouse chase (which could have better used the sister character) or a Fargoesque cover-up with two guys completely out of their depth the story might have been a bit punchier.

Well filmed, edited and it all sounds great. I do prefer your 2021 musical "Him & Her" for shear energy but once more you've landed a probable finals worthy film. Nice job!

What I liked:
The rip focus team are never ones to shy away from Musical, and I'm glad we at least had one team that went full musical over possession this year. It shouldn't have been a choice! What we have here is probably one of them only pure examples of a musical that we'll have seen in what feels like years - next to this year's Stage Fright (though that only has one song) and 2022's Treble in Paradies from DvM. During your acceptance speech you talked about how much you love musicals and that everyone should do them - I agree.

What I didn't like:
I think the beat-to-beat story here didn't always work for me, and falls apart the more I think about it. Like Idk if I believed these guys wouldn't just let her go after learning she was alive. And how did she even survive getting hit at such a high speed? Furthermore, when she's killed at the end by the match cut (lol), does that have a real world explanation? Or is that just a reference to the comp? My only other complaint is I think I always feel a bit uneasy when I'm watching a 48Hour film about men hurting women - accidentally or not - now, I Could Fly is not the year's most egregious example of this, but it is one of two shortlisted films which unambiguously depict a man punching a woman, and while the tone is light and silly here, it did kind of turn me off the characters.

Something else I liked:
For the swing and miss that was your match cut (lol), I think your implementation of the other elements was as brilliant and funny as always. Nothing quite reaches the heights of your 2022 gatekeeper, but your warning and Neighbour were both refreshing and innovative uses. Unfortunately you were going up against the Naycol Weevils for Neighbour, and nothing could quite beat them hahaha.

I’m terrible at forming enough coherent words to write a review but just wanted to let you know that “Craig” was probably my favourite part of any 48hour film I watched this year. I’ve seen your film twice now and both times laughed for what felt like an embarrassingly long time. Comedy gold.

Wow what an absolute unit of a film. Something I haven't seen written about in the reviews and something you're not credited enough for is this film being a historical jukebox of musical theatre styles all with your own original score. It's mental! Somehow managing to merge The Sound Of Music, Little Shop Of Horrors (?) West Side Story to... Oliver (?) to Sweeney Todd?!

I have absolutely no idea how you managed to achieve this AND make a coherent engaging film at the same time. Hats off. You deserved a place in the grand finals.

Highlights for me were:

The internal boot knocking sliding into the rhythm of the next musical number.

"She isn't one to lack punctuality" is not a line I thought I'd ever hear in a song.

Random boot opening the first time made me laugh out loud in the heats, the finals and even this time I watched it.

"So I can leave and never see you again?" "Absolutely" "I kind of love that". So subtle but such a cracking bit of throwaway dialogue.

Match cut was obviously next level and on par only to Toot Toot's use of the element this year - but honestly I prefer this use as it gives it a beautifully poetic ending, she shows up, the situation combusts and then it's lights out.

Incredible job from an incredible team and I feel so grateful to have met you all. Really inpiring and can't wait to work together in the future!