Length: 02:21
Logline: A young man considers what to do with his multi-million lottery win.
There's good intentions behind this short but it doesn't quite hit the nail on the head for me in terms of believability.
Daniel Brewerton is excellent at delivering subtext, his secret hatred for his "best friend" played by Chris Aukett is nicely played as is his abhorrent loathing of his dominating parents. Both acting and writing is great at making you want to grab this guy by the scruff of the neck and yell at him to grow a pair. Moving to America because his parents want to indeed! What a pushover. And although the punchline is delivered with good effect, the fact that the character SPOILER ALERT gives all his winnings away to charity is tainted by it's either because he doesn't have anyone "to share it with" (erm, the best mate seems happy to accept it, plus I don't think it'll be that hard with 158 million quid in his back pocket) or it's because he doesn't want other people telling him what to do with it all, which is a pretty frikin' daft reason.
That said, this is well set up. Good talking head shots help create that documentary feel. They vary between mid shots and close ups, which are good at highlighting the emotion of the dialogue as well as letting the audience watch Aukett's reactions in the background. A professional sounding interviewer asking all the right questions adds to the attempt to make this feel like a factual short. Good attention to detail regarding the shoddy living room location and the tinny sound recording give a realistic impression. There's a good soundtrack which accompanies this and is equally good at evoking the stirring sentiment of the theme.
There's good intentions behind this short but it doesn't quite hit the nail on the head for me in terms of believability.
Daniel Brewerton is excellent at delivering subtext, his secret hatred for his "best friend" played by Chris Aukett is nicely played as is his abhorrent loathing of his dominating parents. Both acting and writing is great at making you want to grab this guy by the scruff of the neck and yell at him to grow a pair. Moving to America because his parents want to indeed! What a pushover. And although the punchline is delivered with good effect, the fact that the character SPOILER ALERT gives all his winnings away to charity is tainted by it's either because he doesn't have anyone "to share it with" (erm, the best mate seems happy to accept it, plus I don't think it'll be that hard with 158 million quid in his back pocket) or it's because he doesn't want other people telling him what to do with it all, which is a pretty frikin' daft reason.
That said, this is well set up. Good talking head shots help create that documentary feel. They vary between mid shots and close ups, which are good at highlighting the emotion of the dialogue as well as letting the audience watch Aukett's reactions in the background. A professional sounding interviewer asking all the right questions adds to the attempt to make this feel like a factual short. Good attention to detail regarding the shoddy living room location and the tinny sound recording give a realistic impression. There's a good soundtrack which accompanies this and is equally good at evoking the stirring sentiment of the theme.
Best Bit: Brewerton by far.
Worst Bit: Lacklustre spirit of someone who's just won the lottery. Miserable git.
Read a condensed review of this film on Twitter here.
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