Do you have any images for this title?
Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Richard Speight Jr. | ... | Robert | |
Jeff Witzke | ... | Gil | |
Shelley Berman | ... | Manny | |
Jim O'Heir | ... | Foreman | |
![]() |
Phillip MacIvor | ... | Bobby Jr. |
![]() |
Cynthia Davila | ... | Ashley |
Wendy Braun | ... | Welcomer | |
Bill Birch | ... | Paramedic | |
![]() |
Michael Loprete | ... | Paramedic |
Mary Jo Smith | ... | Dancer | |
![]() |
Heather Brown | ... | Teenager |
Paulina Gretzky | ... | Pink girl | |
![]() |
Tim Crane | ... | Robber |
![]() |
Jim Thoms | ... | Vagrant |
![]() |
Lee Weaver | ... | Big Man |
While standing in the middle of the street contemplating the motto on a quarter, Robert is killed by an on-coming SUV. In the waiting room of the afterlife, a punctilious clerk, Gil, pulls up Robert's record on the computer and tells the young man that he's damned. Lots of little bad things have added up, and his score is negative. Robert bolts back to earth, with Gil and his colleagues in hot pursuit. Robert visits his girlfriend, drinks a smoothie with his dad, foils a robbery, and dances. His positive points are accumulating as Gil (and death) close in. Is it up or down for our Bobby? Little things can mean a lot. Written by <jhailey@hotmail.com>
This is an early short film by Jason Reitman a name that rung a bell somewhere so looked him up on this site to discover he's the Canadian director of acclaimed films such as THANK YOU FOR SMOKING , JUNO and UP IN THE AIR .so that makes him relatively rare in that of the many short films I've recently seen he's gone on to having a very successful career in making feature length films
From the outset we're shown the directors talent as he uses the language of cinema such as editing as the camera pans across space on to Planet Earth and a crash zoom lens hits upon a man called Robert picking up a quarter on the a road that ends up becoming a fatal mistake . At this point I thought I might be watching a short film inspired by a rather disappointing British sit-com from the early 1980s called DEAD ERNEST that starred Andrew Sachs who found himself in Heaven and did all he could to be sent back to a mortal life . This isn't in fact how this short film pans out and despite its title and premise only the most bigoted bible basher will find anything offensive about it . It's a film dealing with redemption and contains a lot of charm and this is mainly down to Richard Speight as Robert a rather u, likable loser type character . As I said earlier the director uses some impressive camera work and keeps a consistent tone throughout and while there might be a slightly twee element it's a very enjoyable black comedy