Of
the remaining four American shorts, only two -- Dane Picard's "Who,
Me?" and
Courtney Byrd's "Graham's Diner" have the feel of a Hollywood Hallmark
card --
which is not intended as criticism. Rather, each embraces a slick,
stylized format that's
immediately familiar, while delivering a palatable punchline story
that proves formulaic
can still be fun.
Picard's
five-minute discourse on censorship simultaneously plays with the
idea of
the myopic viewpoint while maximizing its melodramatic feel with
high-contrast black
and white, skewed angles and "revealing" closeups from its 35 mm
lens. It's
a film that says on multiple levels there's more to each scene than
first meets the eye.