Everything Goes

I saw this lovingly crafted short film at the Sydney Film Festival last week - and I've been thinking about it ever since.

Based on a short story by American author Raymond Carver, "Everything Goes" is a hilarious, touching story of love and loss set amongst the bric-a-brac of a suburban yard sale.

Hugo Weaving, Abbie Cornish and Sullivan Stapleton give memorable and beautifully nuanced performances. The audience I saw it with also loved the "performance" by Hugo's dog!

A good companion film for this little gem would be Sofia Coppola's impressionistic romance "Lost in Translation".

This was such an entertaining and quirky little film!

Hugo Weaving and Abbie Cornish have great chemistry together and the ending is very touching.

It's really a story about how a fleeting encounter with a stranger can sometimes have an indelible impact on our life. I really related to that idea.

I've noticed that the recent Will Ferrell film "Everything Must Go" is based on the same short story "Why Don't You Dance?" - I guess they must have ripped off the title from this film.

I only got to see this little gem because someone I know has a DVD copy, but as far as I know, it's never been released. Which is a shame.

So many people seem to be searching for something they feel they don't have in their love relationship - maybe something that doesn't even exist. "Everything Goes" is a poem about the fantasies and realities of love.

The delicate game of seduction and betrayal between Hugo Weaving, Abbie Cornish and Sullivan Stapleton was handled brilliantly. They all felt like fully developed characters, a real achievement when you consider this is a short film.

This film was screened with Robert Lepage's feature "The Far Side of the Moon", and while I also enjoyed that film, "Everything Goes" left me with more to think on.

This was by far the best short I saw at the Sydney Film Festival this year.

I saw this film at Flickerfest 2005.

Most of the short films I've seen recently have been slick, snappy and ultimately rather empty headed. But not this one. "Everything Goes" is a simple, beautifully executed featurette about the careless way in which people can destroy good relationships and nurture destructive ones.

Most of the film's meaning is sub-textual, but you don't have to be an intellectual to enjoy it! Even though the film is only twenty minutes long, there is great detail in Hugo Weaving and Abbie Cornish's characterizations, as well as richness and clarity in Andrew Kotatko's screenplay and direction.

I can see why "Everything Goes" won Best Short Film at the IF Awards in 2004 - it actually speaks to its audience without pretension or condescension. Imagine that!