Fragments

not exactly for a precise reason. sure the talk themes are not comfortable but the spiced ingredient is out of the dialogues. maybe, in images, music and portraits of solitude who are source for a clear and precise view about life. two teenagers, references to sexual life, a lion mascot, beautiful music, gray statues and confessions. fragments of feelings and the state of an unique age for who the masks does not exist. a girl and her strange questions, a guitar and a drone. and surprising good actors. significant - the emotions after the end of film. a kind of melancholia, the bones of words, the Xavier Dolan small marks and, in same measure, a different, not very profound, but clear useful, image of life.

"Fragments" gives us Alex (Connor Jessup), a fed up boy who works as a lion mascot and dates an open minded nice girl who feels the urge to encourage her boyfriend to explore his sexuality with another guy - she senses some gay vibe coming from him and she's totally okay with that. Fate or coincidence, but comes a hypochondriac guy who ironically is going to med school (Douglas Smith) of whom Alex randomly befriends. In between those three characters, there's talks about love, music, sexual double-standards and life.

Stéphanie Anne Weber Biron's short film balances drama and humor with fine and special quality, acted by outstanding young actors (we're hearing a lot about Smith lately) and their characters seem to extract a piece of life that is quite rare these days. Lovely and full of charm, it's difficult to resist to its appeal and honesty. However, Biron needed to find her own voice and her compositions in order to extract something better. She is best known as cinematographer of Xavier Dolan's earlier films and somehow for the most part of the film I've found myself thinking that this was one of his projects, not just the way it was photographed but mostly some stylistic choices, themes and it just loses part of its charm and curiosity because the real author isn't showing her stripes. Not saying it's a copy from Dolan but it genuinely feels like his works though less expanded.

But like many good short films out there, "Fragments" is one of those kind of projects that you truly wish would become a feature film, with further developments, twists and longer running time, obviously. It's inspired, special, very positive and beautiful. 8/10

Very enjoyable to watch but it will leave you feeling empty and wanting more. There's barely enough time to introduce you to the three characters and establish two of their chemistries before a final romance scene that lasts about 2 seconds and is interrupted ominously.