Chris Stuckmann is the most popular solo movie reviewer on youtube and today I’ll be reviewing
his short film.
I really like this opening bit.
The music, dialogue and acting all give off a pretty professional vibe.
I definitely smirked at the “better than schlinder’s list” quote on the poster.
And the girl who plays Melanie is really good.
I don’t think they’re funny, some of them come one right after the other, and this one
completely ruins the serious tone that was just set.
However, I do think the posters should stay in the film as easter eggs you
can see in the background.
I was very happy when Chris showed the “mission possibly” poster and didn’t stop the movie
to focus on it.
Then he stopped the movie to focus on it.
With the exception of the opening stuff I mentioned earlier, I’m not a huge fan of the dialogue.
Most of the jokes don’t do it for me.
And some of the serious lines just doesn't come off right.
After the mister and missus argue for a while,
it’s revealed that they used to be boyfriend/girlfriend and it plays exactly like a reveal in a short film.
A short while later Melanie casually mentions
that they used to date and I really think that’s the way it should’ve been brought up.
I’m not into the story either partially
cause I think the pacing is f’d.
The goal of the entire short film is to fix the script and once they start brain storming
they come up with the main solution in two minutes so it doesn’t feel earned.
I get that they come up with smaller things after that but the script treats that last
clip as the big eureka moment and it happens way too fast.
We also go from the protagonist’s lowest moment to the moment of inspiration in 23
seconds if I’m being generous.
10 seconds if we go by the music cue, I’ll let you decide.
Either way, the tide turns so quickly it doesn’t even feel like a payoff and it guts the plot.
I do like Chris’s general idea to leave it open to interpretation whether or not they
end up together but I think there needs to be more of a focus on their relationship for
it to have any emotional effect.
I feel like things should go.
We aren’t going to get back together.
We are.
But remember this thing, maybe we shouldn’t.
And back and forth until a clear resolution or lack their of.
Instead the film ends with them reading lines from the protagonist's script, and them talking about what
the ending of the fake movie should be as the real movie is ending felt cheesy to me.
I listened to Stuckmann’s commentary track cause I needed something to jerk off to and he said this.
I don’t think he succeeded, with the main problems being I don’t care about these people and the stakes are extremely low.
Our main guy isn’t at risk of losing… anything.
To raise the stakes you could go in a silly direction where our boy’s rival Danny Mcdougal
is going to take over Hollywood unless our brave writer can defeat him.
Or go for something more sad like….he’s going to get kicked out of his apartment because
he blew all his money.
Neither of these things are exceptionally compelling but I do think they’re better
alternatives.
It doesn’t help the situation that there’s multiple moments where screenwriter man comes
off a bit weird.
And for more character development I think a lot of the banter in the first six minutes should be mixed with personal stuff.
Kind’ve like Before Sunset where they go back and forth but talk about what they’ve
been up to at the same time.
According to the commentary track there was originally more to the protagonist but Chris
cut it because he thought they were running long.
It kinda bums me out cause there’s a lot of other stuff he could’ve cut.
Even if he didn’t want to remove all the cut aways he could’ve shaved a few seconds
off each and edited this one out entirely.
It’s a reshoot and it feels like a reshoot.
I would have also taken this out.
Jerry Brudos is a killer on the children’s show mindhunter and he’s very intimdating
so I don’t agree with either of them.
I do like the music Stuckman chose for the credits though, makes me feel like I’m meandering
through a field with my faithful horse.
With 5 being average, I’d give this abbreviated movie a 4.
If you’d like to check out a youtuber’s short film that I do like, you should checkout
“Sauce” by ralph the movie maker, and I’ll see you on the next one.