Casablanca

What a wonderfully weird, cool film. The ambience alone is enough to make your head spin. The chilling score is best experienced in 5.1, as is the rest of the film- but the visuals alone can stand up on their own.

Kind of freaky (especially the scene with the fingers) but also weirdly familiar. Like a dream. Very well done.

Nadine prepares to play her violin for Stanley and her friends. She also has to cook – but is there a danger that she is too tired to see the rat poison around the stove. Meanwhile she has competition from Wendy who has come to partner her. Can she do it right, can she save the day and stay focused?

I knew not what to expect from this short. The reviews on this site are all very short and only praise it without giving any detail on what it is about or why it is good. So I'll put this right I hope. The story line is very difficult to pin down because it isn't linear or normal. Instead it becomes clear that Nadine is schizophrenic and that the story is in her mind for the most part. She is worried about failing and doing things right.

Her alter ego does bad things that she can't control while she only wants to do good and be praised for `saving the day'. Meanwhile her own mind constantly looks to her for failings and for weakness (as shown by Stanley). All this could have been horribly artsy and pretentious but it almost totally manages to avoid that trap by being inventive and involving visually.

The feeling of being inside someone else's dreams is palatable and very well brought to the screen. The issues Nadine has with herself are well portrayed in the situations without actually saying it's her world and these other people are not real but figments of her own insecurities and failings.

Overall it may lack a bit of direction and clarity but it does bring across the issues well without being too obvious or too artsy in the other direction. Visually it's worth it but it's the underlying themes that make it strong.

Wonderful dreamlike journey. Superb casting, cinematography and direction. Freud meets Dali on celluloid! Disturbing, funny, unsettling and best of all entertaining. When are we going to see more? Because film is in desperate need of original vision like this.