Reviews-HollyShorts London Recap
A quick look at several films featured at the recent HollyShorts London Film Festival
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The HollyShorts London Film Festival took place this past weekend from December 6th-8th and there were some incredible films that came out of that short weekend. I’ve highlighted a few below and hope to gather a few more reviews as I catch up on the ones I missed.
“My Week With Maisy”
Mika Simmons’s wonderful short “My Week with Maisy” features an elderly woman named Mrs. Foster (Joanna Lumley) who is starting her cancer treatments alongside a spunky young girl named Maisy (Ellie-Mae Siame). Maisy seems to have the world all figured out and gets under Mrs. Foster’s skin at first, but the tale turns heartwarming as Maisy’s brutal honesty (she wants to grow up to be a lesbian) forces Mrs. Foster to rethink her own situation in life.
8/10
“His Mother”
In “His Mother,” director Maia Scalia takes the viewer on a wild ride of a mother trying to reach her troubled son who may be in the middle of committing a terrible act. We ride along with her through a quiet suburban neighborhood as she tries to contact her son while gather fragments of the story from conversations with her husband and radio news. A gripping story that seems ripped directly from real headlines.
8/10
“Anuja”
“Anuja” is a beautiful film that at the same time ends up being difficult to watch. It tells the story of Anuja and her older sister Palak who work in a dress factory, trying to scrape together enough money to send Anuja to school. The sisters are intelligent in different ways, and streetwise too boot, but face such an uphill battle against oppressive forces all around them, that it’s difficult to see them ever achieving what they are capable of. They face angry shop owners, a restrictive (and deceitful) factory manager, and more in their pursuit of a better life.
8/10
“Clodagh”
I love films like “Clodagh” because they provide a look into a world I might never otherwise encounter. Portia A. Buckley’s latest short tells the story of Miss Kelly (Bríd Ní Neachtain) who keeps house for a priest and teaches Irish dance to local girls and her amazing discovery of Clodagh (Katelyn Rose Downey), a dancing prodigy. With a lovely performance from Downey (and excellent dancing as well), it is Neaachtain who shines in the film as Miss Kelly as she deals with her own conflicting emotions over honoring established rules, or bending them just a bit to try and help the young girl.
7/10
“The Heart of Texas”
From the very beginning of “The Heart of Texas,” you are rooting for Janie May Collins (Lauren Noll, who co-wrote the short as well). As a waitress in a diner, she enters a singing contest on the radio and gets off her overnight shift to go play live on the radio as one of the finalists. When she hits an undocumented worker with her car on the way to the studio, he refuses help for fear of being discovered, leaving Janie shaken. Forced to reckon with her actions, she must determine how best to help the man she injured, and her own prospects.
7/10