Soft

I watched this film at the Worldwide Short Film Festival (WWSFF) 2007, in Toronto, Canada. I had been generally unimpressed with many of the films in the programme. Some were mediocre, bad, and some were quite good. HOWEVER, no film blew me away like SOFT did. I had never in my life witnessed an audience so enraptured in a film before - to vocally cheer for the characters, and feel such strong emotions.

SOFT won "Best Live Action Short" at the WWSFF, and well deserved! Simon developed the characters extremely well by using tension and raising the stakes (which was defined by subtle choices the characters made). I cannot stress how smart this film was. The film was cinematically beautiful, with interesting visual choices to play with conventional cinema. Most of all, the acting really was superb because of how realistic the dialogue and character choices were.

This is a film I would recommend to anyone who wants to see a short film that can evoke powerful emotions. Those who watch a lot films will appreciate films that make a lasting impression on you. Well, SOFT is one short film that you won't forget.

Previewing a number of short films for Sarajevo Film Festival I was amazed by this one. This mini social drama made me interested in other Ellis' works so I've spent some time exploring his home page. Beautiful photos, funny stories, plenty awards, bright young man...

In this brilliant 14-minute film Ellis shows father who's having a problem with raising his son the way he learns to fight for himself, father who is not able to confront, to stand up even for himself. Being attacked and humiliated by the same street gang, they are both scared. For a boy, it is natural to get terrified by older and violent kids, but father seems even more frightened. Since his father is too weak (soft), the boy takes the role/responsibility of an adult. So vivid and truthful, so excellent story, great actors and superb editing - I could barely name any weak point.

Cannot wait Ellis' first feature film!

Dad (Jonny Phillips) gets home and wants his teenage son "Scott" (Matthew O'Shea) to go get some milk. Ignored, he goes himself and encounters a gang of exhibitionist hoods who knock him to the ground. On returning home, he discovers that his bruised son also encountered these thugs earlier and when quizzing him about fighting back, realises that they and their ring-leader (Michael Socha) are now sitting on a car outside their window, goading them. What to do now? Call the police? Keep quiet and ignore them or confront them? What does happen is hardly expected and really quite effectively thought-provoking.

As a long time contributor to the World of short film and as ever truly representing fine film making. Here is a piece that speaks not just from Nottingham but subtly highlights an epidemic throughout the country. For me it tackles masculinity in away that we do not see too often, there is no football, no boxing none of the usual props that are normally used to reflect what we are supposed to be as men. Simon uses contemporary methods realistic dialogue and performances to reflect what is happening today. The relationships that are shown are also very well played out, within the group of young (asbo) teens, between father and son, even the apathy of the shopkeeper. The fact that all the neighbours are too scared to get involved.

I have no doubt that Ellis & his team can transfer his storytelling ability to a longer form quite easily and i am looking forward to buying my ticket and taking my seat. But i do hope that he will keep his hand, even occasionally in the shorts arena to keep the bar at a level new filmmakers have to try and surpass.

From Telling Lies (the first film of his i saw) to Soft he has consistently got better and shown that there is more than one talented Film maker in Nottingham.

Scott comes home and goes straight to his room, having been attacked by a group of yobs after school. Unaware of this his father pops out for a pint of milk and gets hassled by the same group, who then follow him home as he tries to avoid trouble. The father is halfway through telling his son to try and stand up for himself when he realises that the yobs are outside his door, forcing him to confront his own cowardice while his son looks on.

I've not always enjoyed Simon Ellis' films but as a "doer" he certainly deserves my attention and this film seemed topical and interesting thank to its base in the realm of asbo yobs and "happy slapping". However the reason I found the film interesting was not because of these topics but more because of the two lead characters, who the film is about. It is not brilliant but I found this aspect of the film tot be really well done and interesting in a sort of character driven film. The real story is the unspoken relationship that comes out very quickly between father and son as the cowardice (or common sense?) of the former becomes clear to the latter. It is interestingly done and made me think about the dynamics and the situation beyond the running time of the film.

As a narrative it could have done more but for my money it left the characters at the best place – with a lot of stuff visible in the their faces but not in their words. Credit to the actors then for producing so much of this film in their performances. The father (Philips) is easily the strongest and does justice to the character but the son (O'Shea) and "asbo" (Socha) are both strong. Ellis does well with the crane camera but also uses the mobile phone video feel to be in keeping with his story and provide some visual styling beyond the higher budget stuff (£50k being a big budget in this world) .

Not a perfect film then but it does produce a very interesting character dynamic that drew me in effortlessly and also got an impressive central turn from Phillips despite his rather unattractive character.