The Rattlin’ Bog
2022 · 7m · USA
Directed by Maxwell Hughes-Klaiber
Genres: dark comedy, thriller
Tones: darkly comic, humorous, tense
Three friends retreat to a remote cabin for a weekend of drinking and Irish folk songs, but ego and toxic masculinity escalate tensions between the two men vying for attention in front of their female friend, building like the cumulative verses of the traditional song until things go horribly wrong.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Toxic-masculinity cabin weekend escalating in time with a folk drinking song — the structural conceit is actually clever, and seven minutes is the right length to not overstay. Surprising me.
Using the cumulative structure of an Irish drinking song to escalate toxic-masculinity conflict — that formal mirroring is the gesture earning attention here. Could land somewhere between Sightseers and Cheap Thrills.
Seven minutes built around the cumulative structure of an Irish drinking song as the architecture for escalating male conflict — that's a screenplay-level structural choice that does the work of the runtime. Whether the verses actually map onto the dramatic beats is the test.
Festivals
- Sundance Ignite x Adobe Short Film Challenge 2022