My Wrongs 8245-8249 and 117

If Jam suddenly squatted down and did a massive turd My Wrongs would be the result.

Awful awful piece of film. It just had NO reason to exist. No story, no characterisation and most importantly no jokes. Paddy Considine is normally a great actor but he just wasn't on form here. Morrises voice talents were wasted. The only ray of hope was a brief (and wasted) vocal cameo from Phil Cornwell.

This was billed as comedy but it was just completely devoid of ANY humour. Go on My Wrong fans, tell me your favourite moment?

This from the man who brought us Brass Eye.

Being something of an aspiring filmmaker myself, I thought I was in for a treat when I took home "My Wrongs..." (according to the deliberately vague DVD cover, I had purchased "a short film including scenes"). I should have known better really, and avoided this insipid (and often offensive) piece of twoddle.

The scene in the church is repulsive to watch (especially for those familiar with Morris's warped attitude towards paedophilia from his notorious TV series, Brass Eye) and serves no purpose other than to shock. How this film is labelled a comedy I will never understand.

The runner's commentary sounds like a novel idea in principle (having worked as a runner myself, it's often an interesting and uninhibited perspective on the filmmaking industry), however this is sadly not the case here. Instead, we are treated to some public schoolboy ranting about dogs on film, before concluding that there are no really great movies starring dogs. This is all very interesting, but not worth a single frame of celluloid.

To say that this film goes nowhere would be an understatement. It relies far too heavily upon its heightened style, at the expense of plot, character and dialogue, leaving the viewer strangely perturbed and unfulfilled. Its over-simplified message - that man should take responsibility for his actions - is both glaringly obvious and poorly illustrated.

The film does have its moments of pseudo-Kafkaesque surrealism, but ultimately, it fails to convince, to entertain, to enlighten and just ends up being irritating. If you want to see a really great piece of short filmmaking, I strongly recommend "Franz Kafka's It's A Wonderful Life", by Peter Capaldi.

This is an ingeniously quirky short film. It may be slightly too strange for some viewers - the story and technique (in particular the sound) are barmy - but it cleverly succeeds in arresting the viewer's attention in its short space of time. The film creates a bizarre metaverse experienced from the point of view of Paddy Considine's lead character in which animals talk and think in more logical terms than their human counterparts. Obviously, we believe Paddy is slightly mad, leading to various scenes in which he comically finds it increasingly difficult to relate to the social etiquette he is expected to conform to.

Morris's directorial style makes it hard at times to laugh out loud - he refuses to allow his audience to dwell on "the funny bits" - but think about what you've seen and you'll probably wet yourself. This makes repeat viewings very rewarding, especially with such a sly, wink-wink denouement.

This is the debut film from satirist, surrealist comedian and cult phenomenon Chris Morris, whose fans have levelled criticism at the project as it is a reinterpretation of a story already featured in his dark, late-night sketch show 'Blue Jam'.

As a Morris fan myself, I was somewhat sceptical about the need for a retelling of this tale - a blackly comic piece about a man who is so depressed that he believes his dog is talking to him, and providing some frankly terrible advice.

So I'm happy to report that the film is indeed successful, at least for the most part, and this is largely due to Morris's skill as a filmmaker. The tone is stylish and experimental, and manages to breath new life into the story - Morris has clearly built upon what he started in his last TV series, 'Jam'. And as well as directing the film, Morris has also written the electro-ambient soundtrack, which interplays cleverly with the camerawork to create some neat moments.

However, some of the gags don't translate to the screen particularly well - and this is largely because cinema isn't the best medium to convey the protagonist's reasoning behind his erratic behaviour - described so effectively in the radio version. Therefore, if you plan to watch this film, I'd highly recommend listening to the original Blue Jam monologue on which it is based (included on the DVD now available), which provides some of the detail and il(logic) behind the character's actions.

Maybe next time then, a new story tailor-made for the screen would be more satisfying, but this is still an accomplished debut.

9/10

From Chris Morris, who would later go on to direct the acclaimed comedy on terror 'Four Lions', this short film is...something else. It definitely isn't perfect, but it is so weird and depressing and scary and hilarious that I cannot help but totally embrace everything about it w/great enthusiasm. When I really think about it, this is among the most sad and deranged short films I have seen in quite some time, but it is also one of the funniest, and this mixture of humor, horror, and tragedy is really what makes this a mad masterpiece of surreal pitch-black comedy. It is bleak and sick and so so so so so so dark and I love it!