Short film review archive

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0–9 — 34 results

• 0,08 (2006)

  Review preview for 0,08

  Kramer truly gets to the heart of his protaganist’s handicap and helps you to see it more clearly.

  Documentary about a unique boy who loves football.
• 1000 Voices (2009)

  Review preview for 1000 Voices

  With such powerful subject matter it would be difficult to make a film that didn't leave an impression.

  Dark animation which gathers together voices of detained asylum seekers.
• 10 Again (2002)

  Review preview for 10 Again

  Ellis uses a clever device, originated in Tom & Jerry cartoons, of never showing the face of adults.

  Looking back at childhood from three different perspectives.
• The 1:10 Scale Score (2003)

  Review preview for The 1:10 Scale Score

  The performances are spot on. The dialogue is diamond.

  Thieves plan a robbery, using a scale model of the crime scene.
• 11.59 (2005)

  Review preview for 11.59

  Thankfully, the world isn't as black-and-white as writer/director Johan Kramer would have us believe.

  A Dutch Moroccan, angry hip-hop and prejudice.
• 12 Hour Shift (2020)

  Review preview for 12 Hour Shift

  A splatter-happy romp through one night in the organ trade.

  Nurse Mandy is just trying to make it through her double shift alive, but her nasty drug addiction, annoying coworkers, needy patients, and devious cousin are making it pretty tough, not to mention organ-stealing criminals and an injured convict.
• 15 Summers Later (2011)

  Review preview for 15 Summers Later

  It could be the set-up for a disturbing thriller. Instead, 15 Summers Later plays out as a delicately balanced observational comedy.

  A woman visiting a lonely beach with her boyfriend bumps into a high school friend, with bittersweet comic consequences.
• 1745 (2017)

  Review preview for 1745

  Napier - who is surely going to step up from short films soon - tightly controls the mood.

  Two slave sisters flee their master in the Highlands of Scotland.
• 1985 (2016)

  Review preview for 1985

  A poignant remembrance for those who were lost, this film also highlights the way in which individual deaths impacted wider communities.

  A dying man seeks out a beauty consultant to hide his symptoms.
• 1991 (1991)

  Review preview for 1991

  Žiūra captures the strange mix of boredom and alertness that haunts these places.

  Drama unfolds at a Lithuanian guard post.
• 1 Or 2 Things I Don't Know About Him (2008)

  Review preview for 1 Or 2 Things I Don't Know About Him

  All the fixed camerawork, while certainly capturing Guido's emotional stasis, makes for rather unengaging spectacle.

  A man considers his lost love.
• 20/20 (2005)

  Review preview for 20/20

  Yevtushenko has the cinematic eye of a thriller maker.

  Two young Japanese tourists in London lose things and each other
• 24hr Taxidermist (2006)

  Review preview for 24hr Taxidermist

  The joke isn't a bad one, although the production values are bargain basement.

  Woman calls the, er, fifth emergency service
• 24 Frames Per Second (1977)

  Review preview for 24 Frames Per Second

  A short and interesting novelty.

  A short, experimental film exploring mystical imagery.
• 25km² (2011)

  Review preview for 25km²

  The film has a magnetic quality - it is allegedly based on a true story, but its whimsy and execution put it in the realms of 'man in the pub' and 'shaggy dog'.

  An alchemist draws on the power of lightning to create splendid jewels.
• 27 (2023)

  Review preview for 27

  Although Buda makes use of comedy here, it’s always underlined with a recognition of the strain of being unable to be one’s whole self.

  Alice lives at her parents' place at the age of 27 with no private life or a relationship. It takes a bicycle accident and a short coma to make her realize that it's time to move out.
• The 2nd Repatriation (2022)

  Review preview for The 2nd Repatriation

  Kim’s film is patiently, sensitively constructed, allowing plenty of room for his subjects to speak for themselves.

  A documentary about long term political prisoners who, though they ‘converted’ through coercion, still hope for repatriation to North Korea.
• 2 Birds (2008)

  Review preview for 2 Birds

  To make a film that is touchingly beautiful at the same time as dealing with very bad things is a remarkable achievement.

  A group of teenagers experiment with ketamine and find themselves out of their depth.
• 3000 Steps (2006)

  Review preview for 3000 Steps

  The film mirrors the narrative and, by keeping the visual stimulus in pace with the narration, it concentrates your mind on the tale.

  One boy's bus journey.
• 38 At The Garden (2022)

  Review preview for 38 At The Garden

  Although this is a largely straightforward mixture of talking heads and archive footage showing Lin’s rise to fame, the use of animation adds welcome variation and it is powered by contagious enthusiasm.

  Documentary charting the rise to fame of basketball star Jeremy Lin, the racism he faced and his impact on the wider Asian-American community
• 3x1 (2008)

  Review preview for 3x1

  It's easy to be curious... but 3x1 gives nothing away.

  Views from a bridge.
• 3 Degrees (2006)

  Review preview for 3 Degrees

  The split-screen style is interesting and keeps the viewer hooked.

  Split-screen examination of a love affair.
• 3 Hours (2010)

  Review preview for 3 Hours

  The cast deliver good performances, but not enough for the burden they're expected to carry.

  Recreation of an incident in Iraq in which nine children were massacred by militants.
• 3 Logical Exits (2020)

  Review preview for 3 Logical Exits

  Both neat and strong.

  A sociological meditation on the different 'exits' that young Palestinians choose, in order to cope with life in the refugee camps.
• 3 Minute Meltdown (2004)

  Review preview for 3 Minute Meltdown

  So nutty, it's charming.

  Where would you eat ice cream in Dundee?
• 4000 Days (2026)

  Review preview for 4000 Days

  An important contribution to a still pertinent debate.

  A documentary about a group of parents determined to change the law after their children died during college fraternity hazing rituals.
• 4.1 Miles (2016)

  Review preview for 4.1 Miles

  The suffering on display here is relentless, but it's the form of the film, not just its content, that gives it its power.

  A documentary about a coastguard captain whose life changes when boats full of refugees begin arriving in the waters around his small Greek island.
• 489 Years (2016)

  Review preview for 489 Years

  The film makes good use of computer generated recreations of landscape to evoke wonder at nature and capture moments of genuine terror.

  A soldier's memories play over this animated tale of Korea's demilitarised zone.
• 575 Castro St (2008)

  Review preview for 575 Castro St

  There's a mood of eerie melancholy as Milk lays out the reasons why he might become a target for someone who is "insecure, terrified, afraid" - a concept that has lost none of its resonance with campaigners in many fields of equal rights in the years that have passed since.

  A light and motion study accompanying a tape recording by Harvey Milk to be played "in the event of my death by assassination".
• '63 Boycott (2017)

  Review preview for '63 Boycott

  The format may be traditional but historical context is succinctly laid out.

  Those who took part in the 1963 Chicago schools boycott tell the story.
• 7 Fois (2023)

  Review preview for 7 Fois

  The dynamic between the two young people is beautifully observed and very telling.

  One afternoon a polite young boy, Elio, meets his tutor's secret lover. When he confides in her, sharing an even bigger secret, she's convinced he's joking and bursts out laughing.
• 7 Peaks (2012)

  Review preview for 7 Peaks

  While it's got culture (or at least poetry and sculpture), it's not long on meaning.

  Looking down from the mountains of Europe, can one gain an insight into its culture?
• 93 (2008)

  Review preview for 93

  You don't see much but you are left to imagine and wonder.

  A cab driver and his dispatcher converse, but each seems to be keeping secrets.
• 9 - 5 (2023)

  Review preview for 9 - 5

  Tonally awkward, deliciously so, a film full of textures.

  An inexperienced copywriter must face the pressures of work and the expectations of his surroundings, which have an increasing impact on his sex life.