We are constantly looking for new and different films when it comes to bringing you the best in genre entertainment. Short films are often where you find the most exciting new filmmakers taking chances, yet most audiences don’t seek them out. With that in mind, we will be showcasing a short film each week in an effort to give a signal boost to shorts we enjoy.
Since squirm comedy has embedded itself in popular culture in the last twenty years, I have not been able to shake the feeling that it is a subgenre best experienced in small chunks. I have never been able to make it all the way through a feature-length squirm comedy in one sitting and TV shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm have been the antidote to binge watching for me. Maybe that is why I appreciate AFFECTIONS so much. It is squirm comedy served up in a seventeen-minute short film package—just about the perfect length, as far as I am concerned.
But to put AFFECTIONS into just a squirm comedy box is unfair to the film. There is a real sensitivity and understanding given to people stuck in unfulfilling relationships and how they are vulnerable to casually offered, but objectively terrible advice. It also helps that writer/director/star Bridey Elliott gives a warm, funny performance as a young woman looking for the kind of quirky, goofy, and intimate love promised in any number of indie romantic comedies since Zooey Deschanel first stepped in front of a movie camera…whether or not that sort of love actually exists.
Note: Bridey Elliott’s feature debut as a writer/director, CLARA’S GHOST, will play at the Cinepocalypse Film Festival in Chicago later this month. Tickets and all other info can be found here.
–Matt Wedge (@MovieNerdMatt)
Tags: Affections, Bridey Elliott, Cinepocalypse, Clara's Ghost, Short Film of the Week
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