Writers: Cara Rosellini, Shannon Ryan-Angel, Cari Haim, Monica Mustelier, Juliet Guillet, Sarah Adams, Maggie Rieth Austin and Angie Mills
Directors:Julie Kettman, Shannon Ryan-Angel, Monica Mustelier, Inga Moren Tapias, Maggie Rieth Austin and Angie Mills
With this sequence of six shorts for the MOM Film Fest 2022 under the heading Mothers Funny, less is definitely more. One of the funnier entries is not quite 5 minutes long. In contrast, the film that tries to extend its joke right up to the 20 minute mark loses impact.
Each film is the product of women writers and (mainly) women directors who are parents and focuses on aspects of modern women’s lives. Possibly the nature of film making mitigates against diversity, and all the films are squarely based on the lives of comfortably off middle class women. Some entries, however, notably the Canadian ones, are successfully diverse in their cast and crew.
The cast of The Real Moms clearly had a ball. Its 14+ minutes include outtakes of them shouting with laughter. But the film’s use of out-dated female stereotypes – the Perfect Mom, Crafty Mom, Hot Mess Mom (overly attached to the wine bottle) – is too hackeyed to be funny. Having introduced each character (the film’s immediate problem is in creating far too many of them) the script then gives up. The women are just ciphers who have to stand around at a women’s get-together with nothing to say. What dialogue there is is awkwardly stilted and the camera work distinctly wobbly. It’s the brain child of director, writer, producer Shannon Ryan-Angel.
Demonstration Sport (director Monica Mustelier, writer Cari Haim) wears out its jokey premise long before its 19 minutes are up. It’s a good-natured idea – tired 40-something mother decides to train for the new Olympic sport of napping and we watch her ‘training’ on a comfortable bed, closely observed by a coach and a sports psychologist. There is a nice cinematographic satire of sports films, including the slow-motion footage of the champion to rousing techno beat as our heroine enters the gymnasium to train. But the film lingers too long over each of these moments and simply runs out of ideas.
At the other end of the spectrum are the short Shorts: Brilliant Bookclubbers (4.45) written by Cara Rosselini,The Interview (9.17) by Juliet Guillet, Doula (5.33) written by Sarah Adams and Maggie Rieth Austin (Austin also directs) and Meagan’s Day (7 mins) written and directed by Angie Mills.
Cara Rosellini’s Brilliant Bookclubbers, directed by Julie Kettman, successfully takes risk, using narrative leaps in the interest of pace. The opening – two mothers finishing espressos and cruising the aisles of a bookstore – seems yet another tale of sophisticated urban life. But it’s quick to turn. Why can’t she get into Jen’s exclusive bookclub? Sarah asks. After all, Jamie Gillespie has just been accepted. Jamie has a PhD, Jen snaps back, and from here on in, there is a pleasingly acerbic tone. A daft but funny tale of revenge then ensues.
The Interview uses the successful new genre of lock-down zoom calls, which worked so well for David Tennant and Michael Sheen’s Staged. This one has a nice twist. Ruth anxiously prepares for an online interview. But the interviewer turns out to be the chaotic Lauren, trying to work with interruptions from a demanding toddler and work-from-home partner. It’s fast-paced and funny with the comforting idea that older woman Ruth has much to offer Lauren by way of mentoring.
Doula is a neat comic sketch about a nightmare doula who visits a heavily pregnant mother. The doula is a mixture of fake smiles and intense eye contact with some bizarre behaviour thrown in – leaping on the sofa and imitating an eagle. Director and co-writer Maggie Rieth Austin takes a risk playing out crucial final half minute of the film on a blank screen. It’s low budget, but fun.
Meagan’s Day written and directed by Angie Mills stands out for its wit, economy and Jessie Turner’s stylish cinematography. On a wet autumn day in a nondescript Ontario town, Meagan struggles to get June to school while manouvering Sam in a stroller, her sister on the phone counselling her to be “a badass bitch.” Her day consists of a series of micro-aggressions – the men barging past her on the sidewalk, the teacher grimfaced at her lateness, the unsympathetic store owner who is banning strollers. Best of all is the entitled mom with her pampered dog, breathlessly reeling off demands to a woman she only knows as “June’s Mom.” Meagan, quietly picking up the dog’s poo, has a brief fantasy about wiping it across this woman’s cheeks. By the end of the day she has indeed channelled her inner badass bitch. A satisfying and beautifully made short film, well edited by Matt West and with two great songs written and performed by Shane Austen.
TheMOM Film Fest 2022runs from 19-21 August.
The Reviews Hub Score:
Less is more
