Trouble – A Short Film Review
I couldn’t quite work out what Trouble was. It wasn’t quite a comedy, although there were funny moments, and it wasn’t quite a drama, although there were dramatic scenes. I feel it was somewhere in the middle and did manage to pass as either.
Trouble is the story of Isaac, a boy who goes to ‘St. Sebastian’s Quiet Academy for Disreputable Youth’. Isaac is getting bullied by Greg and a number of his other classmates. The Headmaster gets the students to act out problems and resolutions using scripts that he has seemingly written, unfortunately none of the students look the slightest bit interested in this. Isaac tries to escape in the boot of a Locksmith’s car but is not successful. Greg continues to bully Isaac outside of lessons and Isaac comes up with a plan at the school dance which is guaranteed to get him out of the school for good.
Unfortunately for me this short film suffered from a bit of an identity crisis. Crossing both genres of drama and comedy was never going to be an easy challenge, but also tackling the subject matter of bullying was making this an uphill battle. At only 12 minutes long I felt as though it didn’t do the story justice. I have a feeling there was a solid story to be told here, but because of the length of the film, most likely due to budget and schedule, the story suffered.
There are some good elements of comedy within this film. My favourite being Isaac and Greg acting out various scenarios in the classroom to the satisfaction of the Headmaster, the uncomfortable attitudes and actions of them both was amusing by how close to reality it is, I remember feeling extremely uncomfortable whenever I had to stand up and speak at school, this brought those painful memories flooding back! Also at the Christmas Dance we get to see Isaac walk through a parade of students ‘grooving’ along to David Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’. The students gathered seemed very enthusiastic about their dancing. It wouldn’t be right if I didn’t mention the dream sequence too. Although it was extremely bizarre it was refreshing, amusing an interesting to watch. Overall a lot of the ideas and themes in here were very refreshing.
The short was written and directed by Daniel Witkin. Daniel took on a huge task with this story and although he does not nail it in this short I do think he was on the right lines and was headed in the right direction. He did have some good ideas and give us a quirky story but I felt it was a little thin in a few different departments. I think if Daniel had more time to spend on this and maybe a longer short, around the 20 – 30 minute mark we could have had a more substantial story that gave us time for the characters to develop a little more and allow us to invest in them. This could have helped us with the middle of movie which seemed to get lost a little between the beginning and the end. There were some good dialogue in there and the story had some interesting ideas so it will be interesting to see more from Witkin as it is clear he has something to offer.
Bennett Kirschner played Isaac and gets to enjoy most of the screentime. Bennett puts in a very strong performance, his look and actions certainly fits this film, slightly awkward and unusual. He is believable as the bullied pupil with issues. I enjoyed his interactions with the bully, Greg, and his fake acting during the headmasters simulations. This was enough to show me that Kirschner definitely has something to offer with his acting. Max Carpenter played the bully, Greg. While his screentime is somewhat limited for the main atagonist, he also puts in a great performance. I thought his fake acting was very believable and I also enjoyed his interactions with Isaac. It was clear there was tension between the two. Unfortunately, I don’t think the character had much time to make the impact required for his character which meant there was not much resentment towards the him as a bully. However, that is no fault of the actor and Max put in a fine job.
Other characters of note were Timothy J. Cox as the Headmaster. Timothy thrives in these authoritative performances and this is no exception. Playing the straight-laced Headmaster to perfection, he encompasses the pompus attitude and is full of his own self-importance. His chat to Isaac about ‘character’ was a highlight. The Headmaster also does an excellent job at delivering some lighter notes and comic relief. Timothy gives us some well-timed body language and facial expressions, that words could never quite manage, particularly in the library. Chelsea Marino played the nurse at the school. Although her appearance was only brief she gave a compassionate performance.
There were one or two sound issues, particularly with the speech in this movie. I am not sure if this was a technical issue while filming or something that happened afterwards It didn’t have too much of a negative effect but it did seem to take you out of the moment at times.
Overall I felt that this story had the right direction and some good ideas but unfortunately was not able to deliver. For this short I would have recommended either going down the road of a comedy or a drama, not trying to do both within the twelve minutes. Trying to do too much had a negative impact on the overall story. However, there were some excellent ideas and I do think that there is a great story in here. Certainly something refreshing and unusual which is always interesting. My hat is off to Daniel for being brave enough to attempt such an ambitious project.
