Oblivious93

I first saw Harvie Krumpet in my high school science class. That class is amazing at being loud and obnoxious. People are regularly yelling across the room, throwing stuff, blaring music at full blast, and generally making the teacher's job very difficult. In fact, earlier in the class, two students had got into a verbal fight, yelling obscenities at each other for what seemed like ages. So when the teacher told us he was going to show a little animated film that I had heard of, one called Harvie Krumpet, I was a bit weary.

Harvie Krumpet it a claymation short running in at about 20 minutes, that details the life of an extremely unlucky man. The animation is crude yet not without its charm, the music is sparse but quite appropriate, and the story is flat out bizarre. In short, it was something I assumed my class would talk through. But I was wrong.

In the beginning, everybody was a bit weirded out by the style, and didn't really grasp it. They quickly adapted however and were soon laughing out loud at almost every joke the movie flung. People went 'awww' at the cute moments, said 'poor Harvie' at the bad, and as said before, laughed at the funny. But the moment I knew there was something special in this short was near the end. The was a moment of uncertainty where there was complete silence. Not a soul was speaking, or even breathing. For the first time ever in that class, everybody was quiet. You could literally feel different emotions coming from everyone. And when it was all over, as everybody was walking out of class, I didn't hear one person who didn't have something positive to say about Harvie Krumpet.

And I think that's what makes Harvie Krumpet so great; it can invoke feelings in everyone, from all walks of life. Despite being so different from the norm, everybody could appreciate the simple life that Harvie lead. Never before have I seen a movie with such an ability as that. And I'm unsure if I ever will again.

I have to be careful with this review. Part of a reviewer's job is to give a brief summary of the story, so the reader can tell if it's something they'd be interested in. But I feel like I'd be cheating you all if I said just about anything about Audition. So if you are feeling adventurous and don't mind watching something a bit different, check out Audition. If you really want to hear my thoughts, go ahead and read on.

Bizarre is the best word I can think of to describe Audition. We start with a romantic comedy. A father decides to remarry, and so he holds a movie audition to find his perfect woman. Everything is happy, and very enjoyable (I even laughed at a couple scenes). But once he does find his perfect woman, things get a bit weird. Things aren't quite like they should be and you notice an odd tension in the air.

What I'm trying to say is that Audition is a horror movie.

And boy is it scary. I consider myself to be fairly good at stomaching horror. Most movies that my friends find scary I laugh at. Audition is the first movie in years to actually make the walk from the computer to my bed frightening. This movie combines gruesome violence with psychological horror perfectly, so that even if it's difficult to watch, you know that's not what makes it so scary.

This is what makes Audition so interesting. It starts out as a happy go lucky movie, and slowly crescendos into pure terror. By the end, you won't know what happened, where it happened, or when it happened, but you will know that it was intensely interesting, and extremely scary.

Yes, this review is muddled and doesn't really tell you anything. But that's the way it should be with Audition. Go in with as little knowledge as you can, and you'll see.

Movies today seem to have difficulty making something happy. No matter how hard they try, it almost always comes off as being fake. This is where Validation comes in. A short film directed by Kurt Kuenne that oozes joy. And not the fake kind. By the end of this 17 minute film I was beaming. I was so happy that I immediately watched it a second time just to make sure I wasn't imagining it. I wasn't. Then I began showing it to every single person I could, and each one of them was smiling at the end. In fact, I have yet to see one single person who did not care for this movie, or did not feel great at the end of it.

The plot it simple, a man gives out free validation. Yes, the car kind. But he also throws in a bit of the other validation, and brightens the day of everyone he meets. Except as he is going out to get his drivers license renewed, he sees a girl and instantly falls in love. The only problem? She doesn't smile. I won't delve any deeper into the plot, but rest assured, it ends well.

The movie is filmed in black and white for no other reason than that it looks good. And after seeing the whole thing, you really couldn't imagine it in color. The music, to put it simply, is genius. An upbeat Gospel tune rings out throughout almost the entire movie, and every time I hear it I want to dance. The actors of course do a great job, overacted yes, but it's clearly on purpose.

Validation is a movie I believe everyone should see. It's funny, charming, and at the end of it all, a piece of joy. Look it up and watch it. I can guarantee you'll be glad you did.