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Reviews
Laws of the Universe (2019)
Excellent film both complete and makes me want to see more.
It seems the one star reviewer didn't understand the medium. I have been watching almost every short sci-fi film on Dust and this one stands out. I saw it today for the second time and realized how much it had stuck in my head from the first time I saw it maybe a year ago. Good films do that.
The opening shot of licking the styrofoam noodle cup is brilliant because we have all done the very same thing as kids. We all subconsciously recognize the sound (good foley!) and are therefore more able to empathize with the protagonist.
The character is incredibly well developed. The story is masterfully concise and gives a perfect glimpse into the the life story of the inmate, his mother, the reason he's there and we even get a sense of the inmate next door and the stranger too..
Like a well written short story (which I also consume a lot) The beauty is in how richly contextualized this world is and how much emotion and humanity is conveyed in such a brief telling. You can see that the editing must have been difficult to scrape this film down to the core like this. If the characters had been developed more, I fear it would have been excessive.
The story location is unique for science fiction and lends an immediacy and reality to the situation you might not get if the main character were a more "visible" type of member of our society. It was also a very prescient film having been done pre-pandemic. The first people to be forgotten in any sort of disaster are the invisible ones. I loved the drone shot at the end showing normal traffic , The TV stations are still running, dude is still making fresh fruit drinks, but there is no water or food or even electricity for all those people who are largely locked up due to skin colour (imho) . The film is a powerful ,yet subtle social comment.
Even when you find out that he did kill a man, you knew it was because the man was terrorizing people and the protagonist did it to protect his loved ones.... Had
he been in different circumstances growing up maybe he would be a lawyer and not a prisoner. He is pure of heart enough to confess to his mother when he is facing death.(excellent performance from Sidney Brown Jr. ) OR IS HE? When it came to the battle for the device, the thing he says to the stranger is "I'll kill you" Is it self defense, survival or an attack.? Murder? It is clearly the act of a desperate man but what will become of the man in the cell? This question could be explored in a feature length film. .Does the protagonist become a prominent citizen in the "new world order" and forget about the man he left for dead? Does he go back to save all the inmates like an altruistic Snake Pliskin? I would definitely pay to see that film if it is written by Aresty.
Tangoborn Menclenty (2017)
Brilliant Quirky Indie Film!! We Want More!
My husband and I watched Tangoborn and we both just loved it! We didn't want it to be over. We really wanted it to be a pilot rather than a stand alone film.
The script is truly inventive and the story is completely charming. It celebrates simple and direct human motivations without being corny or sentimental. The characters are so compelling that you are really cheering for them by the time that brilliant music comes in with the song about Tangoborn Menclenty.
The park ranger character was crazy hilarious! I'm still laughing! Marigold's costumes were also quite brilliant and so perfect for the character that they actually furthered the story (in my opinion as a former costume designer) .
The film felt a bit like Brigsby Bear in the way that you really fall for the honesty of the characters and realize that although they are somewhat "uncomplicated", they have the right motivations and it's okay to want what is right- even if the situation doesn't allow for it. It's infectious. We want T shirts!
When i showed the film to my brother, he thought it reminiscient of Douglas Adams' work in the way that it is a comedy science fiction fantasy. There are not so many of those around but there should be!
Spoiler alert:
I just wish Parquet could have gone to live happily ever after with them....but I guess if you want to change the system, you gotta do it from within. hehehe. I'm sure that theme can be explored in the future series.
Dreams I Never Had (2017)
Depicts an America of old.
This film is a very good fairy tale. The characters were quite rounded and the writing is excellent. You get very invested in the story very quickly. I was certainly drawn in.
Spoiler alert after this point:
The end was the part I found to be a cop out and not realistic at all. In today's America there would be no happy ending. The girl would have gone to detention and been raped and abused there until she was deported back to her impoverished country. The boy would have been unceremoniously dumped into Mexico to become a victim of gangs and there would not be one chance in hell that he would be able to return to the USA to go to university. There would also not be any sort of a decent chance that lawyers would take this case on pro bono or even on spec and I am skeptical of there even being a judge that would be as fair as this one. The rich people would win. They have money for better lawyers.
As much as it was nice to see justice done in the film, I really think that Americans need to see what the reality is in order for them to understand what crimes are being perpetrated against good honest innocent people every single day.
I read about one of those crimes just TODAY.
I would love to see more films being made about "illegals" and how they are NOT harmful to the country. About how they are being scapegoated by the ultra rich in order to deflect blame for the unconscionable wealth gap in America.