Film Review

In light of our project, we have researched into existing short films, and studied existing film reviews to look at how films are examined by proffesional film critics. We wanted to know what they look for when watching a film, and how they critisise or praise them. After studying the way that film reviews are written, I produced my own review of our own short film, Toast.

I am focusing my review on the film magazine Sight and Sound, trying to maintain a similar layout and style.

Toast, anyone?
A poignant insight into the life of a teenage girl, dealing with the struggles and pressures that bind her as she moves through every day with that one goal on which she is fixated, pushing her along. We see her traipse through a repetitive lifestyle, blocking out the things around her until she finally breaks; the climactic scene which elegantly portrays the result of all work and no play, and a moving and emotional sequence creating a great deal of empathy from the audience.
There is more to Toast than just a camera following around a mousy girl with a face of dire misery, and at first glance the repetitive sequences containing lack of dialogue or character interaction, may raise the question, “where is this going?” However, the sole intention of the film is successfully reached.
This self financed five minute film acts as a stepping stone for newcomer director Grace Davis, who uses the film to comment on the overwhelming amount of school work issued to young people today, and the generic pressure that comes with it to go to University. Some might argue that the voice of the middle class has no artistic merit, as generally it is the working class who are the focus of short films; however I found that the comment on a different class from the generic and becomming ever so slightly repetative same class that short films seem to circulate, was refreshing and origional.
The film begins with the tender image of the girl clad in childlike pyjamas, with mascara strewn down her cheeks, and then traipsing over a floor blanketed in a sea of books and folders, one specificaly reading "looking to the future." Such images as this convey effectivley the idea that was Davis' objective. The pace of the film I found necassary for the themes, and contributing wholly to the overall tone of Toast. The penultimate scene in which Amelia Jones, who is of around eighteen years of age, breaks down and personally rebells against the pressure and hard work that has been dragging her along the past few days, in the same clothes and an allergy to smiling, was moving and very well captured.

I don't think anyone with a heart can look at this origional short film and not be even the tiniest bit moved by the image of a frail looking girl, curled up on the floor amidst a carpet of books and papers, crying to herself. On a more critical note however, the climax I did find to be a tad predictable, and I was preying for these young budding film makers to create a more dramatic, twist perhaps for the ending. I thought there could have been more of an alteration in Amelia, as we see her looking exactly the same, throughout the entire film.

My final film review layout page;