Chocolate (2021) Short Film Review
Chocolate’s ambitions are admirable but exceedingly overstated in a script as sleight as a giant’s touch.
Chocolate is a short film from Million Youth Media, an independent platform for UK youth voices. Their films have an abundance of ideas and look to raise awareness and challenge perceptions. Chocolate has this core ideology with its downtown aesthetic and gritty urban style drama, but crumbles when trying to hold its loosely etched ideas of family and masculinity together.
It is difficult to speak on Chocolate without suggesting plot elements which are best left secret. Pacing is key to this. As a film it drifts at a leisurely pace before exploding into soap operatics in the final moments. Nevertheless, Chocolate opens with Mohammedally Shushtari’s (co-writer with Shehroze Khan who helms the directorial duties) lead Jordan enjoying his two passions, music and football. From here the appearance of Diego, his elusive uncle, sparks disruption among the trio of Jordan, Diego (Gianbruno Spena) and his Mum (Carla Elena Rodriguez) as the pair jostle over Jordan’s affection and respect.
Gianbruno Spena’s turn as Diego is the standout of the three pronged cast. He manages to convey a sharp snap in personality with utter credibility. Shushtari in his debut is given an awful lot to legitimise in a demanding role that is as unpredictable as Spena’s. It is in the moments of the dinner table silences when Shushtari is sat between uncle and mother in sheepish fear and harsh discomfort that his performance truly excels. This is both due to Shushtari’s physical performance and also because the script is noticeably missing in the moments of silence. This is when the film finds success with its dexterous visual storytelling being disproportionately better than a script that shreds upon the ear with thickly laid messages.
At the end, this subtly played-down story loses a sense of understatement, and intent on showing the intricacies between family dynamics which is dominant when Chocolate willingly dwells in the demanding silence. Unfortunately, the film’s final scenes erupt into dramatics and a crescendo of disagreement which becomes a laughable parody in a narrative requiring realism and a youthful urban connection that the finale loses.
Additionally, the script is yearning for a comment on masculinity with the tagline “what does it truly mean to be a man”. This is one of the few instances where the film shows a too delicate touch considering the theme is sparse. Verging on vacant.
In Shehroze Khan’s direction there is a saving grace. He shows a deftness of touch that the script is lacking. He never needs to be explicit as he places the camera with purpose and allows it to do the work from there. With this comfort and trust in himself, he is able to interweave more meaning and backstory that the script ever was. As he raises suggestions of backstory which didn’t feel necessary to be verbally stated because of Khan’s adroit presentation. The portrayal of these silent suggestions is only aided by Shushtari.
And that is the story of Chocolate, direction and performances clawing for the redemption of the script.
You can watch Chocolate for free on YouTube here
