“Drawing a Single Line for 24 Hours Straight” (2019)
Director: McKinley Benson
Rating: 3.5/5
In this documentary short, director McKinley Benson gives us a look at a unique art challenge from Brady Dollyhigh, in which artists must draw continuously without lifting the pen from the paper for an entire day.
“Drawing a Single Line” finds ways to capture the intensity of this immensely creative process. Through clever choices in cinematography and editing, this story is brought to life in a manner that accurately depicts the intense nature of this challenge without ever becoming overly flashy in its presentation. At the same time, the addition of comical moments between the filmmakers and Dollyhigh give the piece a warmth to it that makes the eventual end product have a sense of victory to it that we can relish in to some extent. A solid yet simplistic piece of filmmaking that is sure to impress.
“Noel” (2018)
Director: Jordan-Paige Sudduth
Rating: 3/5
In this bittersweet holiday treat, a girl must try getting over the tragic lost of her sister over the Christmas season, only to receive a surprise visit that may help change her morale.
Sudduth’s work clearly has a heart to it that makes it hard to get too upset over, here especially. Subject matter such as this is often shunned away in most other Christmas or holiday related films, so it is refreshing to see a more serious story being told that some may find themselves resonating with if they have experienced similar tragedies during this time. The actors involved bring in a lot of that heart as well, truly putting in their all to tell this story in a tender and meaningful manner. What holds it back from being anything truly standout, however, does come down to its production. The awkward cinematography, editing and sound design do distract, with simple elements such as establishing shots or ADR not included that could’ve strengthened the piece. Ultimately, while it does bring the film down a few points, “Noel” still makes for a special experience that deserves credit for talking about what it does.
“Alien Territory” (2019)
Director: Jordan-Paige Sudduth
Rating: 2.5/5
This sci-fi short focuses on a group of kids who, through unknown circumstances, wind up on a mysterious alien spaceship and must figure out what the best route is to escape, but with their butting personalities, escape may not be so simple.
Much of the same that was said about “Noel” applies here as well but without any of the interesting direction in its storytelling to help distinguish it. The young actors, once again, do a solid job and make their back and forth believable enough. However, the filmmaking is once again very flawed, with a lack of understanding of the space due to overly tight camera work and wonky editing. This resulted in a lack of atmosphere that was necessary for such a story to work. An ultimately unharmful venture that doesn’t leave much of an impact.
“Runts” (2019)
Director: Jordan-Paige Sudduth
Rating: 2/5
“Runts” tells the story of Cyrus and his group of outcast friends known as the Runts. When Cyrus’ older brother goes missing under unusual circumstances, the Runts make a plan to travel together to go and find him.
Clocking in at 52 minutes, this film contains many of the same problems from Sudduth’s other work but running for far too long. The story starts out with plenty of promise, illustrating an intriguing mystery and some solid cinematography. But once the plot kicks in, things take a downward spiral. Full of blandly directed scenes, questionable character decisions, overly long conversations and repetitive lines of exposition, the film loses momentum rather quickly. The film’s message of sticking together and finding family feels mishandled. While the characters and their actors have struggles and conflicts that allow for depth, the story itself is so empty of interesting scenarios to test their traits that it all feels for nothing, with an ending that straight up makes no sense. Despite its good intentions, the lackluster approach to the storytelling and direction bog this one down to a disappointing degree.