Elevate
2022 · 15m · USA
Directed by Dylan Boom
Genres: drama
Tones: contemplative, tender
A night-shift security guard at a California state government building encounters a depressed agency director on the rooftop, and instead of escalating, simply stays and talks with him. Their unlikely conversation across class lines becomes a quiet study in human connection and social inequality.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A security guard and a depressed director have a rooftop conversation across class lines. I can write this script in my sleep and so could Aaron Sorkin's intern.
A conversation across the building-as-class-system — admirably restrained, though the conceit risks the schematic earnestness of message-cinema. Worth attention for the casting of Tracie Thoms and the discipline of staying with talk.
Building tension across a class divide through conversation alone is the riskiest possible dramatic choice, and the page summary doesn't tell me much about how the rooftop staging holds for 15 minutes. Tracie Thoms and Jason Butler Harner as the leads is real casting weight, though.
Reviews
His leads, Thoms and Harner, are more than up for the task in their performances, giving a simple level of authenticity.
The naturalistic approach in both the visual style and the writing is the film’s key strength, along with the intriguing chemistry between the two leads as their conversation progresses into deeper territory.
Festivals
- Palm Springs ShortFest 2022
- Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2022
- HollyShorts Film Festival 2022
- San Jose International Short Film Festival 2022, Winner
- Phoenix Film Festival 2022, Winner
- Tallgrass Film Festival 2022
- Maryland Film Festival 2022
- Aesthetica Film Festival 2022
- Wisconsin Film Festival 2022
- Tacoma Film Festival 2022