The Answers
2015 · 8m · USA
Directed by Michael Goode
Genres: comedy, drama, fantasy
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
Immediately after his death, the victim of a car crash gets answers to every question he's ever had about his life — including the most important one of all: what did it all mean?
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Goode trusts the concept enough to let silence and imagery carry the weight — no expository voice-of-God needed, just a man watching the film of his own life.
Posthumous video clips as God's omniscient language. Defending Your Life is the comp, and this sounds like its less-funny, more-Hallmark cousin. Pass on the easy catharsis.
Defending Your Life as a seven-minute short is a genuine high-wire act — God communicating exclusively through projected memories is at least a formal commitment, though the SBIFF/Breckenridge festival pattern signals a polished, conventional sentimentality. Probably wears its premise well within its eight minutes.
Reviews
It's like the ultimate Google vanity search, only with way more accurate and personalized results.
Festivals
- Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2015, Best Live Action Short