Actress Olivia Wilde shot this 24-minute short film "Free Hugs" back in 2011, while her trademark show "House M.D." was slowly approaching its end. The lead actress is fairly-unknown Jaclyn Jonet, who nonetheless delivers a decent performance, but the supporting cast has a couple notable names such as Justin Long, who I liked, Aziz Ansari, whose scene could have been cut, from parks and Rec and finally Wilde herself. Mainly, it deals with a young woman and her struggles to keep going after breaking up with her boyfriend. We see her interaction with girlfriends, complete strangers at the supermarket and even things that remind her of the impact they had when the relationship was still going.
As a whole, I think Wilde did a solid job here, given she also wrote the film. There's certainly parts which could have been better and I believe seven to eight minutes could even have been cut without hurting the final result, as occasionally it began to drag a little bit. However, the ending at and outside the supermarket makes it almost worthy alone to sit through the whole thing. It's pretty memorable way Wilde managed to close it all. I've seen way worse first directorial efforts and if she manages to step things up a bit with her next projects, if she ever directs again that is, this could definitely be a second area of expertise for her in the coming decades.
As a whole, I think Wilde did a solid job here, given she also wrote the film. There's certainly parts which could have been better and I believe seven to eight minutes could even have been cut without hurting the final result, as occasionally it began to drag a little bit. However, the ending at and outside the supermarket makes it almost worthy alone to sit through the whole thing. It's pretty memorable way Wilde managed to close it all. I've seen way worse first directorial efforts and if she manages to step things up a bit with her next projects, if she ever directs again that is, this could definitely be a second area of expertise for her in the coming decades.