Nostalgia - Young Love

By: wildcardpix

 "Directed by Matthew Toffolo"

Thing is I don’t like romantic movies. I would rather watch paint drying. But, this job means that I have to go out and watch shorts belonging to different genres just to please my readers. And that is why I watched Nostalgia. I won’t talk about the story because I hate romantic stories and the storyline wasn’t much different from any other romantic movies.

But, to add to my misery the movie was poorly done too. Flashbacks are a good way to do a movie, but this movie went overboard with it. Why have them in black n white? Surely the moviemakers didn’t think that the audience would be dumb enough not to distinguish between the scenes happening in different times!

On top of that the acting wasn’t that great. The actress did all right and tried to do her job honestly, but the guy did not seem up for it! He lacked passion of any sense through out the movie and a love story devoid of passion makes a horrible experience for the moviegoer.

You won’t shed any tears while watching this movie, you might shed a tear or two for me who had to watch it and on top of it review it. The great Roger Ebert, in his famous review of the movie North, used the word “hated” ten times in the space of three sentences. And that’s exactly how I feel about this movie.

Signs

By:steveymcdonald

“A man can stand almost anything except a succession of ordinary days” and that seems to be the problem with our protagonist who is called Jason. He is bored with his routine; life is monotonous until that fateful day when he sees the sign.

Thing about short movies is that rarely its been done by professionals. That’s why you tend to see many little irksome mistakes. And mostly this has to do with the soundtrack and camerawork. However, Signs stand out because of its likeable camerawork and great soundtrack. The music continues to play through out the movie and most of the time this isn’t a bright idea, as it can get a bit irritating. But, not in Signs. The moviemakers take the risk and it pays off very well. The music is splendidly done and really plays to the emotional ups and downs of our hero (who doesn’t utter a word) and the general mood of the story.

I also have no complains about the acting. Its good. However, I do feel that Jason is keeping his mouth open a bit too long at times, which frankly doesn’t look too good on the camera. He is supposed to be shown as someone nervous and shy, but shy people don’t look like mentally retarded you know :)

Overall, this is one of my favorite shorts. Cinematography is superb and the build up to the climax is pretty well done. People tend to make shorts with grave tones and all that but sometimes you want to watch something light-hearted, something nice, something to bring a smile to your face, and this short does a great job on all of these fronts. Highly Recommended!