Brainsstorm

Mark Scott’s film about an artist who hears SS voices in his head has too many ideas for its own good. There is a lot of technique going on here and much of it is interesting. The problem is the plot, which becomes increasingly hard to follow and is ultimately not accessible enough to hold on to an audience’s attention.

The story as far as it was possible to tell – and, to be honest, it rather lost me - revolves around Tommy, an artist, who thinks he could be great, but who just can’t concentrate. Next thing you know, Hitler and a couple of his henchmen are in his head, speaking with Scots accents but subtitled in German, telling him to KillKillKill!

It is at about this point that the story waves goodbye to sense. But that’s not important right now, as there are saving graces to this short. The techniques used are interesting – from still images to machinima – but there are just too many directorial tics to give coherence to the piece as a whole.

Scott is a man with lots of ideas and has a decent directorial eye but there is simply too much happening here for the film’s own good. Less would be more. His point gets lost in translation.