Xtraction

I recently saw this short at a film festival in Los Angeles. The directing was superb, and the sound design was top notch. In fact, those two aspects of the film were really the highlight. I hope to see much more work by Marco Santiago in the future.

I thought the major downfall was the lead, who's performance fell flat and was distracting at points. Ronnie was supposed to be a woman fighting for her family, unaffected by the people beating her up, and unfortunately, the actress just couldn't deliver lines in a way that conveyed these things. Her tone was the same when she was talking to her kid and when she was talking to the bad guys.

Finally, the writing was somewhat predictable. Nonetheless, the effects, sound, cinematography and directing all made up for it.