A Wheel & the Moon

It is not an easy feat to transfer such sincerity and personality from another artist's story to your own, but Chris Paradis certainly pulls it off.

From the opening scene, the images in this film exude magic and mystery. Care was taken in developing the visuals in this film, as they should have been considering the subject matter.

The characters are believable and well-developed. The protagonist captured an appropriate dichotomy of sadness over his impending disability and excitement over his project to "remember" what life is like while he still has his full capacities.

The soundtrack also does not disappoint. As a musician, I found myself wanting to collaborate with the film's composer, Michael Yoder, who really captured the style of this film.

I gave the film an 8 out of 10 simply because I wanted more, I was so pulled into the story and the soundtrack and felt a bit sad when it ended.

Watch this film, you will certainly get something out of it.

I really like the art direction in the film. The acting is nice. The main actor was nice looking, but in a very real way. Not some Hollywood hunk with a six pack which was refreshing. The dialog is generally interesting. The angst of the main character kept things moving nicely.

Sure you can see places in it where it could be improved a bit. The opening for me felt a bit off kilter for the rest of the film, but it is based on a short story, so maybe there was just an attempt to be fair to the original material. Overall it is the sort of film I wish there were more of. It was like a whole foods film in a junk food world. Sure I like junk food, but there is not enough healthy film these days for my health. The anxiety of the main character was enough, but not over the top. I like that it kept me interested without forcing me to be on the edge of my sat in every second.

There are some great visuals and really engaging moments. It has a definite psychological component. It felt like its own meditation on aging, mortality, human interactions. Glad I watched it.

"I've never really wondered what it would be to lose part of myself. To not feel like a whole person again. Losing someone I love is one thing…but to go on living while part of me dies…" That inner thought that opens the short film "A Wheel & the Moon" says a lot. What if you knew for sure that you were going to lose your vision? What would you feel? What would you do?

Adapted from Jonathan Carroll's short story, "A Wheel in the Desert, the Moon on some Swings," and made as a graduate thesis film for University of Central Arkansas' Digital Filmmaking Master-of-Fine-Arts Program, Chris Paradis' "A Wheel & the Moon" is about a young man named Norman, who learns he is indeed going blind and tries to imagine his life without eyesight. He finds himself wandering his hometown, hoping to find some way to find something positive about this. The best he can come up with is to buy a camera and take as many pictures as he can that capture the world around him.

"A Wheel & the Moon" effectively tells an interesting tale of how Norman (Justin Pike in an effective low-key performance) continues to try and find the optimistic side to what he fears will come. The people he encounters along the way are interesting and surprisingly, given their short amount of screen time (for a film that is about 20 minutes in running time), have distinct personalities. In particular, there's a homeless man (Tucker Steinmetz) who claims to be blind and tells Norman what he misses most about not seeing (fried chicken); Norman's caring sister (Sarah Holderfield); and a makeup artist (Angy Champine) who manages to give Norman a good idea of what he'll look like "in 50 years"; among others. These are all appealing characters that our protagonist encounters on his personal journey that ultimately results in him finding himself.

The only thing I didn't particularly like about "A Wheel & the Moon," which is otherwise a competently-made film that works as slice-of-life and an effective, non-manipulative feel- good drama, was the ending. I can tell there's a heartwarming message to be said about enjoying the oddness and beauty of life, but it was kind of hard to take it in because it feels somewhat rushed. Although, to be fair, I should note that the sequence that comes before that final bit did an effective job at delivering the necessary emotional drive by itself.

"A Wheel & the Moon" is an effective short drama. It actually kind of reminded me of UCA alumna Sarah Jones' MFA film last year, "John Wayne's Bed," in that each short film treated its story and its audience with enough regard that it didn't have to succumb to melodramatic formulas just to make us care—it just efficiently told the story. "A Wheel & the Moon" is moving, and it's well-done, and it works.

SIDE-NOTE: I love this line about the fried chicken, said in an earlier scene in which Norman encounters the blind homeless man—"Fried chicken is three things—smell, taste, and sight… You gotta see it to really eat it." KFC would probably kill for that slogan.

This very personal journey invites the viewer past Norman's face, on into his head where we get to see a sweet vision of what thankfulness feels like.

Very well done! Lots of eye candy, the color use was striking and vibrant, and gave a very surreal feel to the story. I was engrossed with each haunting scene throughout the film, where I was just desperate to see what happens next.

The adaptation was brought to life very easily by this cast. I appreciate all the effort the team made to bring this film together, their treatment of emotion in a graphic sense was spot on.