Thursday, June 18, 2020

Josiah (2020) Palm Springs Short Film Festival

Brandon is an actor up for a big role in a period television series. However he has to contend with the viewpoints of the other people in the room.

Luke Forbes gives a great performance as a black actor trying to balance the shot of a lifetime with dealing with people who say some things that are unintentionally racist in trying to explain the project they are looking to put on TV. Forbes' slow boil is hypnotic. We feel the juice boiling up inside him. In a better world Oscar would look at  performances in shorts and consider giving it them a statue.

As much as I like this film and think it is an important one in light of the current civil unrest, there is one thing that I am not a big fan of  and that is the constantly roaming camera. While I suppose on one level it could be argued that the motion matches Brandon's state and roving eyes, it takes away some of the intensity because we are drifting too much and some of the intensity bleeds off.

Quibble aside JOSIAH is worth seeing when it plays this weekend at the Palm Springs Short Film Festival

No comments:

Post a Comment