The Karman Line

The Karman Line is a rare delight-- a film both truly poignant and humorous. A treasure of a short film, it uses magical realism to gracefully navigate the issue of losing a family member. The performances are universally excellent, and support a compelling story. I had the privilege of seeing The Karman Line at South by Southwest film festival in March, 2014. Out of several dozen superb short films (and I believe over 1,300 submissions), it was one of the best. The story and pacing were compelling, it did not lag for a moment or succumb to the two common weaknesses of even the strongest short films: the "plot twist/joke ending" or "random slice of life trail off." Instead, the film had narrative integrity and ended with the same grace with which it began. The gently evolving character development and pacing were satisfying, and made me feel like I had seen a good feature length film. It was quirky without being pretentious, emotional without being melodramatic. I am not usually a fan of magical realism, but the heightened reality that shines through this film is why we make the enormous effort to make good film, in any genre. As a filmmaker and actor this is exactly the sort of team I would love to work with. This is a film with heart. See it.

Same old short film problem: writer comes up with an interesting idea but never finds a good way to end it. All premise with no resolution. Acting great. Artistic integrity, great. Olivia: even better than her usual brilliance. Just please do the work required, Original Idea Person, to flesh out, develop and to resolve yours in the shower "cool idea". And please don't say thus is a metaphor for losing a family member, or Alzheimer's, or growth and individual development in a marriage...too easy, too obvious. Just seems to me to be an experiment in magical realism, a little too selective realism (why did this happen? Didn't anyone notice?), but yeah, watch it, it's interesting but pointless and lazily cryptic.

This was not in the least offensive. I just loss my wife, five weeks ago and the kids lost their mum. I could relate to much of it - the adjustments, preparing for the worst, the eventual loss...

But for some it may prove a difficult watch.

And this is why I don't like reviewing movies on this site. The idea of being forced to make ten lines is silly. It's just using words for their own sake. This is a 24 minute 'short' and what I wrote in those first four lines is apparently not enough.

Now I'm looking for two more lines.

So I can reach the minimum.

Really cool seeing Olivia Coleman act in a short film, of course she'd been around for a long while but I like to think she became an international superstar "after" this performance :)

Really looking forward to what this filmmaker - Oscar Sharp - will do next... exciting to think what he can do with a proper budget for a feature or a series.

This film is not one for fans of cinema who like to be afforded their own interpretation of a film, for this film SCREAMS at you from beginning to end. Everything is overt. There is not subtly - "You WILL feel THIS way" says Oscar Sharpe.

As somebody who lost their Father to cancer a long time ago, I found this film deeply offensive and emotionally manipulative, playing on the weight of cancer on all family members. This could have been interesting, but sadly it was frankly saccharine and silly.

Why this is BAFTA nominated I will never know. Good riddance to Virgin Media shorts and the hubris it bred.