Short Film Reviews: "A" Movies

A Prayer:

Starting this list is the quiet and sorrowful A Prayer, which sees Angie (Masey McLain) and her estranged father Mike (Wade Hunt Williams) reunite in the wake of her mother's death. Will Mike make amends to his daughter--and will Angie be able to forgive the father who abandoned her? While it obviously comes with religious themes, A Prayer never feels preachy. As such, a viewer of any faith can watch the film and appreciate its messages about love, forgiveness, and redemption. Masey McLain and Wade Hunt Williams give emotional performances as a heartbroken daughter and a regretful father trying to rebuild the bridge he burned. Once the circumstances of the tragedy are revealed, you'll understand why Angie wants nothing to do with her father. But seeing Mike's deep remorse will make you want to see father and daughter mend their bond and deal with their loss together.

Pacing-wise, A Prayer is a bit on the shaky side, straddling the line between smooth and clunky. Some moments of odd editing, unconvincing stunt work, and awkward dialogue also crop up. Of the vicious criminals who become an unexpected part of the story, Benjamin Bernard's Pipe is the most memorable due to how gleefully sadistic he is. The rest of the gang, while played by competent actors, are generically slimy. But with its touching tale that ends on a poignant twist, A Prayer is an inspirational tearjerker best watched on a reflective Sunday evening.

Score: 6 out of 10 Mick Jagger songs.

A Clean Slate:

A debilitating case of stage fright is what's keeping gifted singer Gianna (Beki Lantos) from making her comeback. Can her friends Sandra and Mike (Allison Graham and Julian Doucet) convince her to shake off the nerves and pick up the microphone again? Admittedly, A Clean Slate gets off to an untidy start. The comedic exchange between Gianna, Sandra, and Mike is pretty good, but it starts to wear thin after a while and Allison Graham's delivery starts out a bit stilted. But it evens out soon after, with Graham and Julian Doucet working together to accurately portray a pair of friends who alternate between supportive and toxic. For all of Sandra and Mike's words of praise to Gianna, there's just as many deprecating remarks that suggest their reasons for wanting Gianna to perform again aren't as pure as they claim. It's very satisfying to see Gianna finally get fed up with it and chew them out.

Beki Lantos gives a strong lead performance, making you laugh with Gianna as much as you feel bad for her as she grapples with her fears and insecurities. Graham and Doucet are similarly funny when their characters aren't being self-absorbed jerks and Jon Welch is refreshingly wholesome as Gianna's husband Rick. Unlike Gianna's two-faced friends, Rick is nothing short of devoted to his wife and encourages her to sing again simply because it makes her happy. This leads to a heartwarming conclusion where Lantos shows her singing is just as commendable as her acting. So while it hits a few sour notes, A Clean Slate is witty, sincere, and melodic enough to drown them out.

Score: 6.5 out of 10 TouchTunes jukeboxes.

A Penny Earned:

Atmosphere is where A Penny Earned rises above its standard script. It's a familiar horror tale of honeymooners Megan and Joe (Samara Lerman and Aaron Washington) visiting an inn supposedly haunted by the spirit of a young boy named Michael. It's a working honeymoon, as Megan is a writer looking to put together a book about the inn. But as Megan will soon see, telling Michael's story may come at a steep cost. From just that synopsis, the average viewer should be able to guess how this film ends. It's in the details that A Penny Earned earns itself a higher score than it would've gotten had it relied solely on its average script to carry it. From the tense music to Michael's tragic backstory to the darkly comedic undertones that Megan and Joe's irreverent attitudes evoke, there's some charm to be found in A Penny Earned's unoriginal plot.

The actors also bring something to the table. Frances Hearn gives the most captivating performance of the movie as Mrs. Baird. As the inn owner recounts the heartbreaking story of Michael's death, Hearn makes it clear that the poor woman is as haunted by the boy's wrathful spirit as the inn itself is. While Megan and Joe aren't nearly as compelling, Samara Lerman and Aaron Washington give solid performances that service the script's surprisingly layered portrayal of the newlywed couple. While they clearly love each other and are overall decent people, the way Megan and Joe react to Mrs. Baird's tale with laughter is pretty gross--especially since Megan knows it's all based on actual horrific events. As such, you might be on the fence between liking the newlyweds and rooting for Michael to wreak his vengeance upon them. It's nothing that reinvents the horror genre, but A Penny Earned still offers more than a penny's worth of entertainment.

Score: 7 out of 10 postponed Maui vacations.

A Hundred Eighty Degrees:

Now for a film that's a lot less deep than it wishes to be. After the death of her boyfriend Tom, Lily (Darcy Miller) attends his funeral. Here's the awkward part, though: Lily has come to realize she never really loved Tom. Will her time at his wake help Lily come to terms with Tom's death and discover some things about herself? "You need to go a hundred and eighty degrees from where you start just to end up ninety degrees farther along." That's a direct quote from Lily's narration as she looks through Tom's old bedroom and it speaks to how the movie's script prioritizes introspective dialogue over interesting storytelling.

A Hundred Eighty Degrees is essentially 13 minutes of Lily walking around Tom's house, musing about her insincere relationship with the deceased, and having a few encounters with the other attendees. Two of these encounters involve a man named Nick and they're fairly amusing thanks to Jonathan Togo's charming performance. But overall, the story is as dead as Tom himself, only eliciting any real emotion for a few brief moments. Darcy Miller (who also wrote A Hundred Eighty Degrees) gives a decent lead performance as a woman filled with regrets. The final scene where Lily opens up to Tom's next-door neighbor--someone Lily has a very vaguely established connection with--is Miller's best work in the movie. But Miller and Togo's combined acting efforts can't save A Hundred Eighty Degrees from being an almost bone-dry journey through one of the dullest funerals ever committed to film.

Score: 3 out of 10 Cheetos.

A Desert Sonata:

A Desert Sonata is a silent movie notable for containing a lovely piano soundtrack and some classic Shakespearean themes: forbidden love, betrayal, and revenge. The film bounces between an interpretative dance symbolizing Antonia and Jacob's (Krystal White and Conrad K. Pratt) passionate affair and scenes of Antonia's husband Mr. Scardino (Massi Furlan) seeking retribution against his wife's paramour. Unfortunately, the time spent on the two sides of this unconventionally told tale is not divided equally. We spend much more time watching Jacob get dragged out to the desert by Mr. Scardino's associates than we do watching his and Antonia's dance of adultery. Krystal White and Conrad K. Pratt do strong work in terms of acting and dancing, so it's a shame we don't get to see them do the latter all that much.

Massi Furlan is just as talented as his co-stars, giving Antonia's vengeful husband some complexity despite having no dialogue to work with. He's obviously a ruthless man and what he does to Jacob is inexcusable. But from the way Mr. Scardino reacts to learning about Antonia's infidelity, it would seem he's genuinely devastated by his wife's unfaithfulness. That splash of depth works in tandem with the acting, music, and swift-footed pace to raise A Desert Sonata above its story's uneven focus.

Score: 7 out of 10 Jackson's three-horned chameleons.

A Tragic Love Story:

When hopeless romantic Chester (Trevor Stines) falls head over heels for his classmate Angela (Cissy Ly), he makes it his mission to win her heart. From the very beginning, A Tragic Love Story establishes itself as a playful satire of romantic comedy tropes and the cringiness that can result from a high school crush. As Chester resorts to all the typical cinematic romantic gestures to get his dream girl's attention, director Chad Masuda allows us to see these gestures through Angela's POV. Instead of romantic and swoon-worthy, she (rightfully) sees them as weird and creepy. As Chester's best friend eventually tells him, he and Angela barely know each other, so his declarations of love naturally come across as delusional.

All three of the film's main stars are funny in their own way. Trevor Stines is hilarious as the insanely dorky Chester while Andrew Stiko employs a subdued brand of comedy as Chester's realistically minded buddy Keanu. He may give Chester a hard time about his crush and at times encourage his stalkerish behavior, but Keanu ultimately proves to be a loyal friend who offers Chester compassion when it counts. Cissy Ly is also quietly comical as Angela quickly becomes bewildered and annoyed by Chester's relentless pining. A fun little sendup of movies like Say Anything... and 10 Things I Hate About You, A Tragic Love Story should get a few laughs out of you--especially if you're someone who doesn't care much for romcoms.

Score: 7.5 out of 10 drunken toddlers.

A Step Toward Heaven:

We end the list with another religiously-themed film. The main players this time around are an unfaithful husband (Samrat Chakrabarti), his scorned pregnant wife (Jen Lilley), and a priest on a decidedly ungodly mission (Charles Wing). While its IMDb synopsis gives off dystopian drama vibes, A Step Toward Heaven is a relatively grounded movie about morality and religious hypocrisy. The first few minutes focus entirely on the priest, with the narration reflecting the man's disturbing idea of what the Lord has called him to do. After that, we follow the wife as her happy marriage is upended by her husband's indiscretion and she contemplates doing the unthinkable. The plot moves at just the right speed to have you wondering what the wife and priest are planning to do and the way their lives eventually intersect proves to be shocking.

As IMDb's synopsis implies, all three of the film's main characters end up losing themselves to moral corruption. SPOILER ALERT The husband betrays the vows of his marriage, his wife resorts to murder to keep her family together, and the priest kills a pregnant woman out of a deranged desire to "punish sinners." There's also some subtle tinges of sexism to be found in the priest's hypocritical actions. We only see him execute the wife, suggesting the priest is possibly letting his victim's lecherous husband off the hook for the sin that pushed her over the edge in the first place. Intentional or not, it's a nice detail that adds to the movie's message against those who twist religion to justify inexcusable acts of violence and cruelty. Spoilers Over The only time A Step Toward Heaven stumbles on a storytelling level is when it ends with intertitles that spoon-feed the message to the viewer and a final shot of a young girl, a cake, and blocks spelling out "Peace." It's completely random and clashes with the film's overall tone.

With the husband and mistress being props more than they are characters, Jen Lilley and Charles Wing are the only actors who get to show off what they can do. Wing is definitely styled to look the part of a psychotic priest, but it's his narration that truly sells the character as a violently self-righteous zealot. Lilley, meanwhile, is given a significantly less depraved character to play. When the wife is silently watching her husband stray into the arms of another, Lilley makes you feel for the poor woman. Even when her broken heart drives her to do something indefensible, the sympathy you have for the wife lingers--especially when you see how conflicted and devastated she is in the aftermath. With a more complex story and smoother pacing under its belt, A Step Toward Heaven is one step above A Prayer on the rating scale.

Score: 7 out of 10 rotten souls.

Overall:

Other than A Hundred Eighty Degrees, every film on this list scores somewhere in the 6-8 range. Three out of the seven movies score a 7 while A Tragic Love Story ranks the highest of the group by half a point. So as long as you avoid the one clinker in this collection of short features, this list should be A good way to pass a lazy afternoon or kill some downtime.