Straight for the Kill: Part Three - "The Painter of Skies", "White Radishes", "I Don't Sleep, I Dream"

Back in April, I did a column call Straight for the Kill short film program that took place at the Philadelphia Film Festival. I promised a part three. Oops. I totally forgot until the other day, when cleaning up my computer. Here is the final part to my coverage of that short program. To get get caught up with this here are the links to part one and part two

Part One - "Side Effect", "Treevenge": http://www.filmarcade.net/2009/03/2009-philidelphia-film-festival-and.html

Part Two - "Rite","The Fairy Princess": http://www.filmarcade.net/2009/04/2009-philidelphia-film-festival-and.html

The Painter of Skies
AKA: O Pintor De Ceos
Year: 2008
Director: Jorge Morais Valle
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 25 Mins
Language: Spanish with English subtitles

“The Painter of Skies” (O Pintor De Ceos) is about a painter, who hides in the darkness of the lost cliffs. He and his assistant are trying to find out the solution to the perpetual storms that causing problems his darkly lit house. Soon the two find that the waves in the water are becoming powerful to the point that is destroying their home. The only things that can save them from this potential disaster are a magic boiler and tormented ghosts, if they will be able to see the light.

“The Painter of Skies” is a very visual animated film that adults will love. One of the film’s success is that the fact that all the animation is very visual, which makes it a very good film to watch for a visual stances. Director, Jorge Morais Valle, does a great job making the animation really stand out, as its just great to look at the images that on the screen. He also does a very good job making it look, very vivid. That’s done through the various magical effects that created, in the animation process. It really makes this a very good film to look at from art form standpoint and an animation standpoint.

The screenplay written by Morais and writer Silvia Pazos really goes into the painter character, during the course of this film, which the story come alive. The writers do a very good job of exploring the painter and the struggles that made life, so dark. It examines why the painter is tormented by his past. They explore in a way that you feel sorry for the character, as his life is consumed by the darkness outside and inside of his heart, which makes you feel some sympathy for the character and want him to break through the darkness that’s upon him. The writers also go a good job, going into the painter’s backstory, as it explains how the character became who he is at the beginning of the film. Another thing that I liked about the screenplay was that they added a sidekick for the painter. That character perfectly placed there, so film would have a little dark humor to it, as it helped the film not become too dreary and dull.

“The Painter of Skies” is a very vivid animated film that fans of the Bill Plympton and Mike Judge crowd will enjoy.


White Radishes
Year: 2009
Director: Christina Won
Stars: Jack Dimich, Fairly Tull, Alison Johnson
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 13 Mins

“White Radishes” is about a man, who is obsessive compulsive. He finds that his neighbor next door is hiding a young woman in the attic. The man finds her one day, covered in dirt and roots. He finds a horrifying discovery that she is also growing vegetables out of her own skin. When he tries to rescue her, he going to learn that some things is better left alone.

“White Radishes” is a very dark and twisted story. Director Christina Won does a good job making this film seem like a grim fairy tale. I liked how she directs some of film’s shots. Some of the scenes really brought a sense of intensity of dark atmosphere that is needed for a weird film like this to succeed. Won also does a good filming some the dialoug-less scenes, especially in the beginning, at it helped introduce the film’s characters, which made up for the lack of backstory to one of the film’s key characters. Another reason that this film being dark and fairy tale like, the way that Won directs her actors. She makes all the performance feel odd. It helped bring the oddness that a film like this has to have, in order for it to succeed.

Wou’s screenplay was for the most part good. She does a good job building up the suspense and tension. The moments helped build up everything that was going on in the film, as it kept me interested in the characters and the story. It makes for one interesting and twisted story. Another thing that helped make this film good, the way the film ends. It was one of those films, which I thought something was going to happen, but instead the direct opposite happens. It’s done effectively, so that it provides the twistedness of the story that you just witnessed. If there was one problem that I had with this film, it was the fact that it moves at a pace that you don’t get to know much about the neighbor living next door or the fact that we don’t know how the young woman got be this way. It would’ve been nice to have a backstory to explain how this happened, but I still enjoyed this film, nonetheless.

“White Radishes” is very twisted but entertaining fantasy film.

Review Rating: 3.5 Stars

I Don’t Sleep, I Dream
Year: 2009
Director: J.P. Chan
Studio: Medium 10-12
Stars: Jo Mei, Debargo Sanyal
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 15 Mins

“I Don’t Sleep, I Dream” is about a woman, who is driving on a deserted road, then is stopped when she hits something with one of her tires. Soon her fears come back to haunt her, as things begin to happen mysteriously. Now in order to her

“ I Don’t Sleep, I Dream” is a very imaginative and visually sound film. The visuals helps makes this a very entertaining short. Director J.P. Chan does a great job making all the images that you see, during the course of this film feel dreamlike. It helps make the film come off as dreamlike, with its visual effects. But what makes this film entertaining, the way Chan manages to get not one but two very good performances from Jo Mei, who plays the two main characters in the film. One of the things that I liked about the performances is the fact that they come off differently from one another. It easily helps distinguish the two characters in the film. You had one character, who was the straight one, while the other is pretty much in her own dreamlike world. Another thing that made it work was the fact that they weren’t recognizable, as I thought there were two actresses in the film, not one.

Chan’s screenplay is very imaginative. He does a great job creating a story that’s relies on things that you usually wouldn’t see visually. It makes the films very vivid and darkm while bringing a different tone that makes it interesting for the viewer. The imagery also helped create some of the suspense that this film has. The reason this works, there is a lot tension with the strange things that are happening, during the course of the film. It makes you get into the story and the situation the characters are in.

I Don’t Sleep, I Dream, is very vivid on imagery, while the performances help make this not another effects film.

Review Rating: Four Stars.