The Line Director: Kent Basset
The Line was the first of the five movies I viewed. It follows a migrant and his son crossing the border from Mexico into Arizona. The son forgets to bring the water he was carrying after the pair finish resting underneath a tree, and wanters onto the property of a ranch owner in an attempt to fill up the bottles they have left. The rancher's son, who is acquainted with several Minutemen in the area, confronts the trespasser, shooting him unintentionally as he flees. What ensues is a trip to the hospital in an attempt to save the migrant's son.
Of the group, I liked The Line the most- it tells of the current struggles facing both migrant workers in search of a better life, those living near the Mexican border who resent their presence, and how the two clash with one another. The soundtrack is a little amorphous, but the cinematographer captures the majestic landscape of southern Arizona very well, which does a lot to enhance the atmosphere and mood of the movie.
My opinion of The Line is a definite positive.
MamitasDirector: NIcholas Ozeki
Mamitas is a 24 minute short set in the urban environment of downtown Los Angeles. In it, a young latino man provides advice on how to pick up women to his friend- very sketchy advice that astonishingly pays off for the latter. This occurs when the two boys begin flirting with one of their female acquaintances (who is the desired target of their advances) and her cousin (who is initially focused on as a ploy to make the other woman jealous). From here on, Mamitas turns into the same sort of sappy romantic comedy/drama that is so often played out for a cheap sort of emotional satisfaction; the "player" turnes out to be an actual human being with feelings, and in the end winds up with the geeky cousin. Overall, it was unsatisfying, though fortunately not on the momentous scale movies like Gigli manage to invoke.
The soundtrack is of the hip, urban, beat oriented variety, which was not too bad. But the dialogue was at times very difficult to hear- sometimes it was just right, other times it was lost in the ambiance. The camera work was not as satisfying as that in The Line, either. Overall, I felt Mamitas was a much less impressive show of talent. How ironic that it has the best rating and the most votes of the five on teh Internet Movie Database.
I would give it a slight negative.
Eater
The soundtrack is of the hip, urban, beat oriented variety, which was not too bad. But the dialogue was at times very difficult to hear- sometimes it was just right, other times it was lost in the ambiance. The camera work was not as satisfying as that in The Line, either. Overall, I felt Mamitas was a much less impressive show of talent. How ironic that it has the best rating and the most votes of the five on teh Internet Movie Database.
I would give it a slight negative.
EaterDirectors: Matt and Ross Duffer
Eater is the over the top, gory horror flick of the group. It is based on a short story written by a man named Peter Crowther, and takes place inside an absurdly grimy police station. It centers around a rookie officer who is supposed to watch over a recently caught killer that eats his victims (hence the somewhat cliched title of the movie). It seems that everybody in the station is out to either pull a prank on the new guy, or kill him- and it is never made clear who the "Eater" really is. In fact, it could very well be the rookie himself- but I was never sure what was real and what was a paranoid, schizophrenic delusion. Surely that was the intention of the film's directors, but I just do not think 18 minutes is enough time to build up an atmosphere for such a premise to be effective.
Technically speaking, I would say that Eater is the most accomplished of the pack- but I would expect as much, seeing as it was based on a story somebody else wrote. It falls into the trap of every jolt-oriented work of terror made in the past twenty or so years, but it replicates the claustrophobia well, mostly with tight camera angles an dim overhead lighting. The soundtrack is par for the course, with the typical sonic buildups and screeches that try to entice the viewer to jump out of their seat at anything that appears on screen.
All in all, I felt pretty neutral about Eater.
Chiles
Technically speaking, I would say that Eater is the most accomplished of the pack- but I would expect as much, seeing as it was based on a story somebody else wrote. It falls into the trap of every jolt-oriented work of terror made in the past twenty or so years, but it replicates the claustrophobia well, mostly with tight camera angles an dim overhead lighting. The soundtrack is par for the course, with the typical sonic buildups and screeches that try to entice the viewer to jump out of their seat at anything that appears on screen.
All in all, I felt pretty neutral about Eater.
ChilesDirector: Tyrone Huff
The 14 minute long movie Chiles is a classic tale of cultural conflict that predominantly takes place in the house of a devoutly Catholic, Latino family. The daughter brings over her boyfriend, who is most assuredly not Latino, to meet her parents. At first, he is not very successful in winning over his girlfriend's father, especially when said girlfriend announces to her parents that she is pregnant. Fortunately, the pair begin to bond over a contest involving a large bowl of jalepeno chilis and a mutual refusal to drink water, and all is well in the end.
Technically, Chiles was produced in a similar manner to Mamitas, in that it looks like a cross between an early '90s music video and Pedro Almodovar's masterpiece All About My Mother. I would wager that both Nicholas Ozeki and Huff have seen several of Almodovar's films, since, like Almodovar, their works focus on race and gender relations- and use very bright colors and muralistic motifs. It is an honorable (and surely personal) motive for making a film, but I hope that both aspiring directors expand beyond what they have exhibited here.
Consensus: neutral.
Negotiations
Director: Ethan Cushing
Technically, Chiles was produced in a similar manner to Mamitas, in that it looks like a cross between an early '90s music video and Pedro Almodovar's masterpiece All About My Mother. I would wager that both Nicholas Ozeki and Huff have seen several of Almodovar's films, since, like Almodovar, their works focus on race and gender relations- and use very bright colors and muralistic motifs. It is an honorable (and surely personal) motive for making a film, but I hope that both aspiring directors expand beyond what they have exhibited here.
Consensus: neutral.
NegotiationsDirector: Ethan Cushing
In my opinion, Negotiations was the weakest showing of the five films, as it has a premise that only becomes more muddled and absurd as the story reveals itself. It centers around a police negotiator who is called to a hostage situation, only to find that his son is one of the gunmen. An initially routine operation eventually devolves into a therapy session between father and son, set to a background of police lights and the noise of sirens outside. I honestly found the plot to be too whimsical for a short crime drama.
Technically, Negotiations was nothing extraordinary- it is outshined by the four other films in one department or another, and the ending is a little odd, and aggravatingly inconclusive.
I would give it the strongest negative of the pack. Better luck next time!
So there you have it: my first college film compilation. I wish the best of luck to all of the people involved in the creation of these works, as none of them were so awful that I wanted to end it all, or at the very least do away with cinema entirely- like I did with, say, Cool World. Hopefully there will be more on the way in the coming months- but now I have to get back into the routine of reviewing a movie a day.
Technically, Negotiations was nothing extraordinary- it is outshined by the four other films in one department or another, and the ending is a little odd, and aggravatingly inconclusive.
I would give it the strongest negative of the pack. Better luck next time!
So there you have it: my first college film compilation. I wish the best of luck to all of the people involved in the creation of these works, as none of them were so awful that I wanted to end it all, or at the very least do away with cinema entirely- like I did with, say, Cool World. Hopefully there will be more on the way in the coming months- but now I have to get back into the routine of reviewing a movie a day.
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