Comedy Shorts Program
Note, though these are grouped together as comedy shorts, many fit more than one category and really should not be limited to being considered just comedies. I think it was just an expedient, though not particularly accurate, way to classify the group.
Director: Rob Meyer
Honestly, this is more quirky, cute, coming of age film than comedy. The Jury Award Winner for Narrative Short, this was indeed one of the best shorts in the entire festival. Fifteen-year-old David and his two friends are into fish, really into fish, in fact they are the youngest members of the Boston Aquarium Society. When they make their way to a meeting at the aquarium, high school outsider David runs into the new girl in school and has a confrontation and conversation that lead to his first kiss. Genuine, well filmed, memorable, and eccentric with unique, endearing characters, this film really had it all for a quintessential coming of age movie experience.
Clair
Director: Liz Tuccillo
Again I really wouldn’t call this a comedy first, more of a drama/comedy, but a damn fine little short however you categorize it. At first, three clearly uncomfortable people are gathered in a house going through boxes. Eventually you realize this discomfort is caused because the elderly couple is divorced and there to look through things left for them by their son-in-law before having a nervous breakdown after the death of his wife and child- their daughter and grandchild. His sister is there to oversee things. Things eventually explode over possession of a pot when pain from three different directions collides and spills over. It has humor in it in the beginning but once all is revealed there is pain and, eventually, understanding. Very well done use of the mundane to sneak you into a very intense situation so that you are there before you even realize it and thus feel its full impact.
Hirsute
Director: A.J. Bond
Part sci-fi, part horror, part comedy, this strange, at times disturbing, at times dark, clever little short was one of my favorites. Kyle is a young scientist struggling to build a time machine. When a future version of himself arrives he is shown that he does eventually succeed. He is also shown a version of himself that has become arrogant, hairless, and a little twisted. Is it to late for him to change his future?
Vacuum
Director: Trey Hock
In another short that is as much sci-fi as it is comedy, after the death of the rest of their planet and race, the last two surviving humans, male and female astronauts in a space vehicle, decide how to spend their final days while the air supply lasts. Some all right moments, but nothing special.
Struck
Director: Taron Lexton
This literal take on the story of cupid is the best of the pure comedies with slowly building hilarity, a highly satisfying ending, and some surprise guest appearances.
Making the Man
Director: John Susman
This very well done little short takes a socially awkward young man through an important interview with a tricky taskmaster of an interviewer. He fumbles though pathetically and hilariously but in the end will make a far better impression than he would have imagined... with a little help.
Primitive Technology
Director: Bo Price
A small group that believes modern technology has made people’s lives lazy and boring, run around disrupting the use of said technology by people on the streets while simultaneously looking for new members to recruit. They refuse to use technology and electricity, communicate in Morse code, and invent things from trash. When their new recruit invents something astounding, jealousy arises and threatens to tear the group apart. Not the funniest thing ever, but clever, original, and funny enough to enjoy.
When Life Gives You Lemon
Director: Chuck Moore
Based around the character of Larry Lemon, a man more than a little obsessed with lemons and anything lemon related, is a story where an odd, supposed FBI agent awaits the neighbor’s return at Larry’s house. If it were just a little shorter, it would be a memorable piece of character-based comedy.
The Diagnosis
Director: Coleman Hough
This is one of those experimental type comedies where nothing makes too much sense but it’s okay because you are having too much fun with it to care. Excellent performances from named talent makes the whole “woman goes to a strange doctor for a diagnosis” set up a treat where one of the diagnoses, among others, is early onset rigor mortis – which to a degree we all have.
Lucy Cruell