Blind Spot (I) (2011) User Reviews

A fine example of what a short film should be.

[Robert_Lypka · 8/10 · 28 February 2012]

When I saw this film at the 2012 Boston Science Fiction Film Festival, it stood out from the crowd. Its a delightfully executed story of a guy stuck in traffic, having his own personal customer-service-from-Hell experience while on his cell phone. As the story progresses, his internal focus on his problems becomes increasingly humorous as the magnitude of events outside his car become evident.

The film begins without title or credits, which was an immense bonus for me since I did not know the title when I saw it. Given the final moments of the film -- which I will not reveal here -- putting the title at the end was a stroke of brilliance. I split a gut laughing: it was SO apropos.

Obviously, anyone reading this review DOES know the title of the film, but if by chance you are a festival organizer planning on showing this film, DO NOT reveal the title beforehand; it'll make the experience that much more fun. And for those of you who DO know the title but have yet to see the movie, don't worry: it'll still be a funny and entertaining ride.

Kudos to Brandon Brackenbury for a fine single-shot performance.

An Observation

[Theo Robertson · 7/10 · 11 March 2014]

The Short Of The Week website analysis states there's a danger of Matthew Nayman's short film being both one note and mediocre but Nayman manages to pull it off . I agree though there's no escaping from the fact it's very much one note and a one trick pony but while you're watching it you do wonder how quickly other people came to understand what was happening at the mis-en-scene

Some people might claim " if that was me I would have known what was happening right away " but would you ? Go on youtube and look at the live news broadcasts of 9/11 as the second plane crashed in to the South Tower of the WTC . It's surprising how many of the commentators don't notice the second plane come in to frame and hit the second tower and thought the resulting explosion was coming from the North Tower . On a similar you might have done a quick observation test where you're asked to study a still photo of busy city centre street . You're asked what you noticed about the still " Perhaps you noticed , the street lamps , or the cars in the foreground or the blonde woman walking nearest to camera . But did you notice the spaceship in the sky at the top right hand corner ? " and you're left kicking yourself for not noticing something so obvious , so yes the scenario here is very credible and well done for making it on a budget of $2,000 . That said anyone who's driving a car making a plane reservation on a mobile phone dserves summary execution

Inspirational Short

[patriciomunoz · 4 November 2011]

I saw this short at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival in 2011.

The concept is very simple so it's difficult to describe this short without ruining the punchline so heads up - contains spoilers:

The story follows a male character who's driving in his car and on the phone with a travel agency trying to switch his flight. Of course he's getting the run-around from customer service and the whole time this is happening chaos quietly unfolds in the background.

His performance is quite enjoyable as most of us can easily relate to his customer service woes. He plays off the frustration very naturally and believably yet in a humorous and likable way. The urban chaos unfolding behind him is well animated with sufficient variety to keep me amused and engaged.

The reaction at the end when the man realizes what has been happening seems somewhat mild to me... his reaction is arguably not dramatic enough to merit the mammoth destruction that he is witnessing. I feel he should be more surprised considering all that has been happening without him even noticing. Anyway that said, I'm sure others would disagree with me and that's fine... in fact this film did win Silver in the audience choice award at this festival which says a lot since there were many likable shorts at this event.

Finally - The thing I particularly enjoyed the most about this short is the fact that it consists of only ONE shot. The whole story unfolds in ONE shot composition which I think really makes this short so memorable and inspiring. The script is entertaining and well balanced with the destruction happening in the back. It's a nicely paced short and if you can get your hands on it, it's a must see!

Enjoy!

Impressive one-take idea which almost conceals the pat nature of the message - almost (SPOILERS)

[bob the moo · 8 March 2014]

The entire content of this short film is basically a guy on the way to an airport trying to change a flight from 7am tomorrow to be 7pm tonight. He has been bounced around the call center departments several times and we join him in the middle of yet another dead end. As he fights his way through customer service and traffic, he is so distracted that he cannot see what is happening on the edge of his vision.

There is no point in trying to pretend that the message of this film is pretty obvious and a bit patronizing in just how simple it is; ie we are so tied up in the busywork of our own lives that we cannot even see the world literally burning around us. This is the message of the short and luckily it tries to deliver it in a more interesting way than could have been the case. Here we have an one-take deal with actor Brackenbury doing a good job of keeping it going and being natural. In the background of this scene we have a disaster subtly unfolding with smoke and fire far in the distance. The viewer is drawn into both but Steven is focused on himself. It is nicely played and appreciated the subtle nature of it but I did still have some problems.

OK, the point being made doesn't really apply to the situation we see – it is a comment on the bigger picture of the world suffering, people dying in other countries, inequality everywhere but yet we sit with our own problems in corners of privilege and do not see it or want to see it. It is a fair point but by making it a cityscape, particularly with a collapsing tower, it is hard not to think of 9/11 and then to remember that actually the whole world saw this and the whole world watched it all – it was never in a blind spot from the very start to, well, years later when that one event continues to shape our world.

Technically it is very well done and it does engage in the foreground and background, for sure it could have made the same point with a lot less subtlety and I appreciate that it at least tried. It doesn't quite cover the rather pat nature of the message, but it almost does and is worth seeing for that effort but also the single take it was made in.