Now, it so happens that I have a cat; and being a fan of the scientific method, I decided to put Echelon to the test: are these, in fact, good shorts for cats? For comparison, my cat tends to enjoy Italian horror movies the most, although she’s fine with anything Japanese as well (think I’m joking? Come by my apartment with a Mario Bava DVD sometime).
“Duel” (dir: Dominic Antonio Cerniglio)
The Plot: A drunk (Matthew Rimmer) at Generic Fantasy Tavern goads a soldier (Jonathan Fraser) into a swordfight, only to learn that they have a connection.
Me: Though the story hardly deserves the name, “Duel” is a consummate bit of moviemaking, with some absolutely top-drawer photography, perhaps a little lovelier in the exteriors than the interiors (which suffer a bit from obviously fake candlelight). The swordfight choreography, taking up something like a third of the whole film, is more than good enough considering the tiny scale of the production. At 26 minutes, it’s over before you have a chance to notice that nothing happens.
My Cat: About one minute into the opening credits, she jumped over to the chair by the TV, sprawled on her back and fell asleep. She poked her eyes open just after the fight ended, for all of ten seconds, and went back to sleep. Her paws were twitching and her little pink tongue was sticking out.
“No Menus Please” (dir: Edward Shieh)
The Plot: A recent immigrant (Richard Chang) with a job distributing Chinese restaurant menus makes a deal with a Mexican restaurant menu-distributor (Kevin Rivera), that both men may appear to be doing hard work while actually being lazy. Until, that is, the gears of capitalism catch up with them.
Me: Not really sure what the point was, but it was cute, insofar as we live in a world where “cute” justifies the existence of a movie. It looks very glossy but a bit too flat, and the editing is a mess, full of jump cuts that serve no purpose and all sorts of neat-o video transitions that suggest that somebody just bought the “1980s Kids’ Show” effects pack for Final Cut.
My Cat: Very restless the whole time: up on the couch, off the couch, bathing herself, meowing at me constantly. She settled down literally just when the credits started.
“The Big Break” (dir: Matthew Hals)
The Plot: An idiotic hitman (Luca Costa) interferes with an actress’s (Pia Shah) screen test.
Me: We now know that eight minutes isn’t enough running time to support a plot twist; it took me two viewings to be confident that I knew exactly what had just happened. Fortunately, the two performers – Costa especially – are charismatic and funny enough that the script mostly doesn’t matter, and the film is surpassingly well-lit and in focus, not something to take for granted in the microbudget world.
My Cat: She was leaning against my arm the whole time, like she was sleeping, but her eyes were definitely open and she was watching TV. Not a smash hit, but enough to keep her interested.
“The Fight” (dir: Nicholas T.)
The Plot: A mixed martial-arts fighter (Cody Jones) who wants to be a graphic designer fights one last time over his wife’s (Segel Shisov) objections, on the very day that they’re expecting his acceptance letter to art school.
Me: I have no doubt that this is a labor of love for the uniquely named Mr. T. – oh, I see what he did there! – but it feels a lot like the kind of movie that gets made by people who don’t know how to make movies: the dialogue is clumsy, the shots are all very two-dimensional and over-exposed, and the whole thing feels cheap, hinging as it does on a prizefight with no spectators. The opening, which lacks dialogue, is a great bit of silent filmmaking and it’s a shame the rest of the film can’t live up to it; this is a well-intentioned but undeniably clumsy piece.
My Cat: She fell asleep on my arm during the credits for “The Big Break”, so we just rolled straight through, and she didn’t wake up the whole time. My arm fell asleep about halfway in.
“Little Wings” (dir: Morgan Rhodes)
The Plot: A sweet little boy named Thomas (Joseph Castanon) uses the magic wishing power of butterflies to escape his unbearably hellish, abusive existence, in a fairy tale that is exactly like those stories we used to read as children that were supposed to be charming and uplifting, despite the fact that they were godawfully depressing.
Me: Overdetermined fairy-tale elements notwithstanding, Rhodes sure as hell knows how to compose an image, and she and DP Seamus Tierney make the very most out of golden hour. Castanon is good enough for a child actor, but the presence of a real-life character actor, Ron Canada, is enough to push the film over the top – god bless nonprofessionals, but there’s a difference between hiring your friends and hiring a legitimate actor, and Canada gives the absolute best performance on the DVD. Kudos also to the digital effects, much better than you’d expect from so minor a project; although I must admit, when teeny-weeny indie shorts come to rely this heavily on CGI, I wonder if it’s even worth bothering anymore.
My Cat: When we started, she was sitting in the window with her back to the movie. When Canada appeared, she turned and I thought she might want to watch, but it was just to bathe herself. Then she jumped out and left the room. She doesn’t really like fantasy, you see.
“Don’t Leave Me” (dir: Lyndon Ives)
The Plot: A woman (Amber Coombs) throws her philandering lover (Mark Wilson) out of the house, and an office worker (Andrew Piper) sees a mysterious blonde everywhere he turns. Would you like to know how it all connects? So would I, but the best I can tell is that a dream sequence is involved.
Me: There were script issues that needed to be addressed a long time before the shoot began, but if you can get over that, it’s pretty well put together for something obviously shot on virtually no budget (the shiny video is a dead giveaway). None of the principals embarrass themselves, and Ives clearly has ideas for some compelling visual motifs, even if the film’s extremely modest scale makes some of those ideas a bit dodgy in the execution. The whole thing needs a bit more breathing room, and is a perfect example of what we mean by the patronising word “promising”.
My Cat: Sat on the coffee table, staring at me the whole time.