Squash

You would not think that a movie about a racquetball game would be very interesting but this is one of the best short movies I saw at the Aspen short film festival.

Basically a man goes to play a game of squash against his boss...and it soon develops into a physiological mental game of lies, deceit, bluffs, wits, careers, goals, and challenges. It evolves into an intense physical game. The conversations goes for work, to competition, to life, to lovers, and is a game of good versus evil that metamorphosis from a friendly game into a struggle that brings out the best and worst aspects of each player.

The intense rivalry between each player gets you take sides and root for one of the players. This is an amazing film. You have to see it to understand what I mean. This film won an award for best writing at the Aspen short film festival in 2003. I'd give this a score of 9 out of 10.

This is an excellent little sort from France about two high-powered businessmen playing a game of squash. However, instead of being a friendly game, it soon becomes apparent that the boss is Satan. He takes great pleasure in berating his opponent, openly cheating and doing anything to win. At this point I wondered why the other guy put up with this--after all, no matter how important the job, you can't allow yourself to be emotionally and physically abused. But, despite horrible torment, he continues--seemingly willing to debase himself to the lowest levels to keep his job and finish the match. Having played racquetball for years, I just kept expecting the guy to leave--I know I have had to do that with one angry player in particular. But, the game continues on....and win at any cost becomes the mantra for this game--leading to a fitting ending.

Even if you hate squash or any of the similar games (racquetball or hand ball), you can enjoy this game as the actual game isn't that important. What's important is the psychological portrait of a truly evil man...and a man who's willing to continue playing the game with evil. Fascinating and very, very tense--this is one of the better shorts I've seen and I can see why this one was Oscar-nominated.