Within

Alex Lane shares his vast talent in his short film "Within" as the writer, director, producer and lead actor. He achieved rich production value in many areas such as production design, lighting and locations. There's a bit of the inspiration as we saw in the classic "It's a Wonderful Life" here after Alex took on some very tough and serious subjects. Alex was able to attract amazing actors to join the production. Especially notable were Eric Etebari("") and Elizabeth Bradley (WB's "Vega v. Vega"). Wish real life always had the positive ending like this. I highly recommend seeing this film. Hope to see the full length version soon. Definitely not suitable for children.

While I do agree that there are several elements in this short that could have been better executed and that the dialogue was a bit too much on the nose for me as well, I definitely think it's a good thing that I was left with questions I wanted to ask the filmmakers about the film after seeing it at Hollyshorts. In this day and age where everything is laid out for you, I enjoy films that leave me thinking about life. Isn't that what shorts and indies are about?

Lame to attack Alex Lane's or Angela Gots' age. For the record, both are 31. Easy to find that info: google anyone?

Yes, Alex Lane bit off more than he could chew. This was a complex piece and he probably should have let someone else with more experience direct it. But, unlike the other critics here, I spoke to him after the Hollyshorts screening, and he told me that the short was closely based on a personal story and that it meant too much too him at that time to let someone else direct it, although in hindsight he also believes that he should have stuck to just acting and producing the piece as he hadn't directed anything before it and that, besides the film, he felt that he came way too short on his performance. The man is honest about his shortcomings. Rare for Hollywood filmmakers. We all have to start somewhere. I don't know about you, but a short distributed on VOD, DVD, TV and IPads is a pretty legit start to me.

All in all, I enjoyed the story. It's got a positive message and shows us how we can sometimes be stuck in negative repeating cycles of our parents and their ancestors, and what the consequences of that can be. The tunnel sequence is pure brilliance, and the final scene of the film very Lynchian. Curious to see what he'll do next.