Cautionary Tales
2017 · 8m · United Kingdom
Directed by Chris Barrett, Luke Taylor
Genres: coming-of-age, drama
Tones: melancholic, tender
A bizarre childhood incident left Aaron with an unusual facial disfigurement; isolated and vulnerable, he seeks comfort in the friendship of an unexpected group of outcasts.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
The premise wants to be a heartwarming found-family story, which is exactly the kind of well-intentioned sincerity that usually puts me to sleep—but I'd need to see if there's something genuinely weird lurking beneath the melancholy.
A coming-of-age that understands its debt to the tender-outsider tradition; the question is whether Barrett and Taylor have earned their sentiment through formal precision or merely assembled the expected emotional beats.
Eight minutes on a disfigured kid finding belonging could collapse into mawkishness, but something about the casting or a single editing rhythm—a held shot, a sound bridge—might be what keeps this from feeling recycled.