One Man and His Dog

A man is driving across country with his dog in the back of a blue van. He is so distracted by the dog that not only does he have to pull over to see to it, but he also misses the precise moment when, a few hundred meters away, an intergalactic peace ambassador and mankind's only hope of salvation lands close by and approaches to make first contact.

There is a lot going on in this funny little short film and most of it works as long as you go with the "switching it up" nature of the delivery. I shan't say too much but it does have an irreverent energy throughout – whether it be towards its lead character and his dog, religious imagery, authority figures or even towards the audience's perception of what is going on. I doubt it would work to well with repeat viewings but I found it quite amusing the way it kept moving things around in ways I didn't expect.

The style of delivery matches the material in this sense, as it is filmed in a very sporadic manner, keeping things a bit frantic and unbalanced and thus keeping the viewer from settling into any aspect of it all. Mackinnon and Milligan are pretty funny in their delivery, with good expressions and physical performances, but really it is the energy of the material and delivery that makes it work and takes you by surprise. I doubt it would stand up beyond the initial impact, but I was quite amused by how well it did what it did.