Wake Up (2020) follows a woman who is forced to rediscover her humanity in an increasingly digital world. This short film isn't bad, but the message is way too obvious and very cliche at this point. However, the cinematography is good and the filmmakers experiment with sound design.
The best part of this film is definitely the cinematography. There's a lot of great camerawork consisting of extreme close ups and good mood lighting. The camerawork also really gives the short a disorientating and uncertain feel.
The sound mixing feels a little off sometimes but I really respect what the short is going for in terms of sound design. In the first few minutes, there's some experimental use of echoes which I liked. However, the soundtrack feels very unfitting and often ruins the overall mood.
There is no proper introduction to the lead, but I think Margaret Qualley does a good job in her role and plays a very likeable character. I also really like the lack of dialogue as it makes the film more impactful and makes it rely on other elements of filmmaking more.
The main thing I dislike about this short is the message and metaphors. The message of 'technology is bad' is way too overdone, and I feel if you're going to make a film with that message, you have to do something very unique. This film, unfortunately, doesn't.
The short is very fast paced, resulting in it feeling a bit under-developed. I found it hard to fully get immersed in the story or characters due to this. However, it's definitely a well made film on a technical level and I respect that.
