Curfew

Well directed and acted by Christensen, and it look out for Kirsten Holly Smith of the off-Broadway hit Forever Dusty!

Someone who knew I was a bit battered by life told me to seek out and watch this short, and I'm so glad they did, because it went under my radar.

Without spoilers I can only say that it captures the feeling of being at the last saloon, and how the smallest thing can make you go one way or another. Trust me on this.

Shawn Christensen deserves so much praise for his understated performance as well as doing pretty much everything else, and what a find Fatima Ptacek is. A solid double header of talent.

Everyone I know that has seen it talks about the fantasy ( or is it ) sequence, that great tune, and the sureal scene in an otherwise dark tale.

Bottom line: WOW. It really is a ten out of ten. 20 minutes of your life, what have you got to loose.

"Curfew" is a nineteen minute short film that gives you enough to understand its breadth. Richie (Shawn Christensen) is a suicidal man in the midst of suicide when his distraught sister Maggie (Kim Allen) called him to ask him to watch his niece Sophia (Fatima Ptacek). It's clear she doesn't trust him at all, but it's also clear that she's desperate.

The little that you get from this drama is solid. I'm not sure if I would watch the same movie if it were a feature length film, but if it were on I wouldn't change the channel.

Really like that short. Kind of feels like an amalgamation of movies I grew up with in the 90ties in a good way. There's a touch of Léon (1994) with that strange colliding of worlds between an adult and a sweet kid (even though she's does not want to become a junkie ;)), there's the bowling alley with musical intermission of The Big Lebowski (1998)and that composed song by Shawn Christensen himself somehow recalling the soundtrack of Drive. Add good acting and a good camera and that mix adds up to movie that has a good length but I still wanted to see more of.

I even tried to get hold of that "bowling alley song". I'm guessing it must be that "sophie so far" song composed and performed by Christensen. Please add this to iTunes. People would buy this for sure.

And congrats to winning the Oscar!

Watching Shawn Christensen's Academy Award-winning "Curfew", I was reminded of Wes Anderson's works. Similar cinematography and characters (but a very different plot). The short has a good balance of comedy and drama, focusing on topics as different as responsibility and suicide. I've been making an effort to see a lot of Academy Award-winning (or even nominated) short films recently, so I'm glad that I got to see this one. I recommend it.