The Official Selection – Sundance (shorts set)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: D     Shorts: C

 

 

In a newer set of shorts from the Sundance Film Festival, The Official Selections offers seven from the famed film event, though the results are very mixed and on par with the Park City set Vanguard issued before.  At least the picture quality improved slightly from that set.  The shorts featured here are:

 

Bit Players (Andy Berman, 1.85 X 1, 2000) – A stage revival of Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory brings out all kinds of prejudices and tensions in this mixed, average shot featuring Verne (Austin Powers franchises’ Mini Me) Troyer.

 

Delusions Of Modern Primitivism (Daniel Loflin, 1.85 X 1, 2000) – A fan of tattoos goes as far as he can in this average, overlong gag Mockumentary that never clicks.  This was also featured on Palm Pictures’ Resfest 2 shorts set reviewed elsewhere on this site.  It is actually more obnoxious in a second viewing a year later.

 

Fits & Starts (Vince Di Meglio, 2.35 X 1, 2002) – This surrealist piece has toy-like people communicating through artificial means (i.e., magnetic tape) and drinking from giant oversized bottles.  It looks good, but only goes so far.

 

Love Thy Brother (Ralph Macchio, 1.33 x 1, 2001) – The actor from the Karate Kid franchise tries directing, and though it does not ultimate work, he has some narrative capacity.  The young actors playing brothers are convincing.

 

Neo-Noir (Chase Palmer, 1.33 X 1, 2002) – A silly work about Russian Roulette (or Soviet Roulette, where there is cheating) is lost form the get-go, including a title that emphasizes how clueless the writing and filmmaking is.  Yawn!

 

Mullitt (Pat Healy, 1.33 X 1, 2001) – This is not a great short, but the geek world of comic books and its most troll-like inhabitants are recreated with great accuracy, so those in the know might get more out of this than most.  Otherwise, it is above average at best.  Too bad it could not squeeze more about this world into it for other viewers to enjoy.

 

Gasline (Dave Silver, 1.78 X 1, 2001) – This is easily the best short of the set, trying to recreate the gas crisis of the 1970s and how it affected people’s lives.  Though not a total success, it at least takes us somewhere we have not been before, as this era is usually ignored and written off as a joke for politically convenient reasons (i.e., rolling back an era of liberalism).  It has some moments.

 

 

The various aspect ratios look right, but picture quality is not outstanding on any of them, though Gasline and certain aspects of Fits & Starts are noteworthy.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 AC-3 is really just a series of ambiance upgrade on existing audio.  Since they are a newer set of works, the audio has improved for low-budget productions, but not dramatically in any of these examples.  All are dialogue based and that in itself is limited.  There are no extras, and this is far from the best shorts set, so you will have to choose based on what (if any of them) sounds intriguing.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo