With/In: Volume 2

Volume II (3/10): One Night Stand, directed by Griffin Dunne (6/10) Quarantine 101! Fun little short telling about a one night stand that happens during COVID; Griffin returns from the airport, flights cancelled. His paramour from the night before, afraid of what he might have been exposed to, judiciously implements her own quarantine, trapping him when he takes a shower and locking the door. 14 days, right?

I'm Listening, directed by Mickey Sumner (7/10) Imagine Siri becoming a real person with something akin to desires and emotions. Might turn into a horror film? Nay, not a fantasy, but a preview of what it will be like when technology has managed to make smartphones really smart and robots really real. Loved the ending, literally the last few seconds. Siri deletes messages. Cue the horror film! P. S. This is why I am team Google. Alexa when necessary, but never Siri!

Neighborhood Watch, directed by Sam Nivola (3/10) Father and husband becomes paranoid, and feels compelled to keep neighbors away from their fence by standing guard with his binoculars, yelling at possible "trespassers". His son and daughter decide to tie him up and run away, but realize they have nowhere to go with society in quarantine. Emily Mortimer is a familiar face as the mother and wife, but performance is likewise uninspired.

Still Life, directed by Arliss Howard (4/10) Grieving wife imagines her husband coming back to life; alone in the woods, she conversates with him as she buries her dog. Bob Dylan songs featured.

Nuts, directed by Chris Cooper (3/10) Stale nuts, anyone? Implied divorced or separated husband and wife reunite in quarantine over their dog.

20 Questions, directed by Sebastian Gutierrez (3/10) Obviously the director is having fun, trying out different techniques, camera shots, playing with transitions, mixing fantasy and reality. Acting is appalling. The "twist" is not a surprise at all. With an imagined serial killer with a BDSM LGBT side, this is akin to the worst B horror films. One star for the few scenes where she interacts with the postman, another one for two good looking ladies.

The inverse of the popular tendency for "saving the best for last", The last three shorts in this anthology are by far the most disappointing. Ironically, this actually evokes and warrants the most commentary, as if one needs to prove to readers that, yes, this really is all that transpired; indeed, it really was this bad.

**** Spoilers Ahead *****

Touching, directed by Julianne Nicholson (2/10) Indulgent, "how can we get our children to star in a film that will make us all look like such a great family that wants to be socially aware but only ends up looking like idiots?" result.

We begin with an overhead shot in a cabin family room. What appears to be mother, father, daughter, son, each with a book in hand trying to bond. Good thing I had subtitles on, so I knew that this was not only special but, "Special". When the arguing between the kids begin, the father desperately asks for them to work it out so things can go back to being "Special". Without the screens, the mother explains. It is nowhere near as endearing as it sounds. It only wants to be. Because, inexplicably, the son begins to play footsie with his sister on the couch, and even more inexplicably, this turns into him being insightful enough to call her "Israel", because, yes, as the parents chime in, this is now a discussion about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict! Then almost 3 minutes of the mother crying. Nope, not about the aforementioned political topic, which disappeared as arbitrarily and suddenly add it appeared. "I was reading this beautiful thing about someone dying alone. I got scared for that ever happening to us. The people we love," she says by way of explanation. Moments later, they ask Siri to play "Alexandra" by Hamilton Leithauser, "for old time's sake". At last, as they sing along and groove, theenduring family thing finally works, once they finally stop trying so hard. Go figure.

In the Air, directed by Bill Camp, Silas Camp, & Elizabeth Marvel (2/10) Unbearable at times. Watching a family argue, but with little intelligent insight. Two parents are so intently trying to one up each other in blaming each other about the wife's father's medical situation. Then seamlessly shifting to the same thing, one upping, but now it is about their son, who has fled the house they have recently relocated to in the woods. Chasing him, they are so intensively at odds with each other, that they literally lose their son, walking in front of them. They find him, then are wowed by the beauty of their surroundings enough to make up. After seeing the snow white owl blink and hoot, the obligatory sunlight through the trees, a gallanting antelope or deer, literally rolling through the grass down a hill, some changing leaves in their oh so beautiful boldness; concluding at a vast lakeside over the shoulder shot- complete with dusk, cue sunset over the lake with silhouettes scene. The last spoken line has the son, completely deadpan serious to his parents, "Can you show me the way home?". All stars are for the cinematography. Nothing else. Because everything else is obviously masturbatory. Which is not necessarily a bad thing for those behind it, a loving real life father, mother, and son, playing themselves probably.

Shell Game, directed by Gina Gershon Would have been better if we could have seen Griffin Dune. Most interesting things about this predictable short were All the antiques shown in the room where this was filmed; more accurately, they were curio, bric-a-brac, Knick knacks, oddities. Our protagonist looks at them, plays with them, picks them up, puts them down, while she talks to this therapist friend of hers across the room. A friend therapist, whose appearance and exact identity. We, as the audience, are of course not privy to until the very end. The focus of her conversation in this "session" is her ex Lester, who's apparently left her for another woman and one of the stories she tells her therapist friend, she sees the titular shells on a beach, open like butterflies, a "sign", she says. That was last night. This morning, she saw they had all fallen apart. Then we finally get to the climax; the "twist"- but, like other shorts in this Volume II, so obvious it was annoying. This time it has the added vexating effect of cheapening everything we have seen this far. For this woman has been lamenting to Griffin Dunne's always captivating voice- but here it belongs to a cat. Woo hoo.

**** Spoilers End ****

That is all, folks! Those still on their couches or in the theater should feel free to leave immediately. Although a gold star for making it all the way through! Those last three sure didn't make it rewarding.