Pokerface ★★★★☆

Review of 'Pokerface' which can be found here on Daily Motion.

Length: 10:11

Written by John Hales & Carole Budgen. Directed by John Hales

Genre: Comedy

Date: 2005
Rating: ★★★★☆

Logline: A guy with the inability to make more than one facial expression is helped by the guardian angel who let him down as a child. 

This scored high for originality for me. It's a daft plot but unusual and quirky and although not comically outstanding in any way, the oddball story pulls you along. Starring Josh Godard as Jonny, the man with the permanent look of uninterest on his face, and Nick Murray Brown as his three decades out of fashion guardian angel, both do well in their respective roles and at least maintain a modicum of realism while most of the other secondary characters come off as being cartoonish. 

The soundtrack sounds cheap and lets the side down and there are some bad lighting choices but the edit is good, helping pace and keeping in style with the tone of the film. Structure has also been done well, hitting all the right story beats, using setups and payoffs, and fair use of montage. This is a fairly large production for a short with a large cast, numerous locations etc. It's been pulled off well with some nicely planned camera shots and compositions. 

Overall, nice concept, great but not perfect production, likeable character dynamics but stylistically underwhelming. 

Best Bit: Freaky kids party magician (Jimmy Savile style) at the beginning. 

Worst Bit: Not funny enough. 

Final thought: Wonder how many takes they did of the wiggling arse on the tabletop? 

Read a condensed review of this film on Twitter here.