Change Your Image
frankie-68
Reviews
The Mantis Parable (2005)
Simplicity and the Good Samaritan
What Josh Staub does in eight minutes of wordless animation will amaze you. Technically, the film is remarkable--it has all the sights and sounds of a big-budget production, without all the digressive nonsense.
He creates a gentle, imaginative world in which you can play the part of the observer, or even of God himself. Without overindulgence, he allows you to peep-in on a scene that takes place figuratively every day. On any scale, The Mantis Parable presents a lesson that we should heed daily.
I wish all short films kept it as simple and as unified as this one. It's exciting to hear that Josh Staub put this--his first film--together on his own. I definitely look forward to seeing his next.
Crazy as Hell (2002)
spoiler - the ending
i didn't really appreciate this film. the dialogue was decent but they seemed to tread a thin line between spiritual and emotional, as if the writer was trying to dodge stereotype.
personally, i spent a lot of time trying to figure out the "who-dunnit" scape of the cast. i first thought la salle's character was a figment of ty's psychosis in dealing with the loss of his daughter. at one time i thought that ty was a schizophrenic that killed his family, or whose family was made up to torment him. for a while i was convinced that he was in hell cause he had jumped, and his daughter was a rep of his mortal form. the director i figured as ty's real psychiatrist who was trying to convince him to go on meds for his schizophrenia. then that completely unconnected scene in the club with the girl was ridiculous, and i have yet to realize what significance the video/documentarian crew played except to limit the supernatural in the plot, and maybe develop ty's character (making it more confusing).
i don't know what else to say. i ranked it 4 cause i'd rather watch something that poses intelligent with a promise of depth, than something that's all 8th grade level understanding. i just think they could lead us a little more and not be afraid to wrap it up.