A massive alien lands on Earth in the Nevada Desert. Unhindered by the efforts of our military, it moves into LA where it hangs around at the beach, the airport, and seems to be generating some type of repetitive noise.
A Narrow World is both interesting and frustrating as a short film. It is a sci-fi, the best of which is about ideas first, and the technology second. It is a narrative wherein a (literally) alien presence is taken as a thing of intrigue by the supposedly smarter half of the population, while those from the military speak in terms of threat and defense. Given that this film is coming out of a deeply divided North America, I found this to be an interesting idea, while on the main narrative I was intrigued to see where it would go.
So frustrating then that the film is all build-up and no delivery. It eventually feels like it was made as a pitch, and not for me to watch and enjoy as a whole piece of work. The suggestive of relevance to my life, and the intrigue of the scenario, both made this harder to take, because there was no closure, or conclusion, to the narrative. Instead it is a tease that doesn't leave you with anything but that sense of what it could have been. I don't even think there is enough here to be considered a proof of concept – although it does feel very much like that, in which case the design of the alien is not particularly appealing to make it a character.
It suggests a lot, and certainly has a lot of effort behind it as a piece – but there is almost nothing below the pitch and special effect shots, which is a real shame.
