Sticks of Fury
2022 · 8m · UK
Directed by Yuan Hu
Genres: comedy
Tones: humorous, melancholic, tense
When best friends Mike and Stevie are deep in an intense Street Fighter gaming marathon, Mike's cocky older brother Tobz interrupts to challenge them — only to have his fragile masculinity dismantled when the younger kid beats him at his own game.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Living-room Street Fighter battle as masculinity dissection with esports overlay. Eight minutes, premise barely outlasts the runtime — fine party trick.
Hu overlays Street Fighter graphics and esports commentary onto a living-room masculinity battle — a Scott Pilgrim formal grammar applied to fragile-ego comedy. Slight but well-conceived.
Live-action blended with video-game graphics and esports-style commentary overlay turning the living room into a stylized arena — that's the right formal vocabulary for younger-vs-older-brother ego and the genre conversation. 8 minutes keeps it punchy.
Reviews
Comedy is such a subjective experience and for me this seven-minute short gets it just right, as it never overstays its welcome and the laughs just keep coming throughout.
A visually dazzling, hilarious ode to losing at video games and the egos which get battered along the way.
Festivals
- BFI London Film Festival 2022