Abigail

Abigail sees a girl working the pumps in a small town gas station; she has plans after her shift to quit town and head somewhere else, but the sheer lack of change and movement in her life and surroundings just seem to conspire against her.

This is a very minimalist short film which takes its time and is mostly silent and lacking in detail. We follow Abigail through a couple of short scenes whereby we understand both the reasons that she wishes to move on but also the reasons why she has thus far failed to do so. As it delivers slowly and without much energy it is a difficult film to watch, but this also feeds into the tone of the short film, which is one of nothingness and the lack of hope – not hopelessness, which is different, but just the lack of hope. Even as Abigail tries to leave we sense she doesn't even believe it herself. The tone of the film works very well and it complements the otherwise empty scenes.

Peoples' performance is understated but good. She realty doesn't have too many lines but she convinces whether she is pumping gas or just showing the strain of everything on her face or in her body. The washed out cinematography and direction from Reilly adds to this sense of a small place with few options and a lack of inspiration or beauty. It is not a short film that will knock your socks off or hit you in the gut with one punch, but it works because it is difficult and blank – although conversely it does feel difficult and blank because it works, which is a downside. It is an impression or an imprint of a situation, rather than the full situation, but it is worth seeing and a good short film because of it.

ABIGAIL is one of those short films that markets itself as being entirely naturalistic . This is true and you can see the thinking behind that as being a sort of American equivalent as the British social realist drama . Not a lot happens but considering there's so little dialogue what the film does very well is explaining the vain hopes of the eponymous ( Anti ) heroine and the background behind her very unhappy and probably ultimately hopeless life . There's no melodrama involved, just a simple telling of a slice of life in Middle America where the poor working class are destined to remain that way for the rest of their lives

Paradoxically while this may be seen as the film's great strength it also ends up becoming the film's same weakness . The languid pace . the slightly depressing tone and the minimalist narrative that like most realist cinema has an unresolved plot and camera-work might be a turn off for some people and the film lacks a quirky nature indicative of the best short films and ends up being a bit too much like real life , a real world that most of us movie fans are happy to escape from