It may not show by the time these reviews are posted on The Crest, but the process of choosing between screenings for this year’s Twin Cities Film Fest was a tough one. Disregarding the fest’s multiple locations and its several screenings per, it’s hard to know just what you’re getting yourself into; who’s to say whether your next 90 minutes will feature a surprise favorite or a total flop?
To answer the question for myself, I took matters into my own hands: I got myself into everything, or a shortened version of everything, at least. This meant diving into the oft-overlooked category of short films on display Sunday, experiencing brief snippets of 14 filmmakers’ distinct styles and tastes.
The drama — or fiction — shorts block was titled “The Body Keeps the Score,” and while I wasn’t exactly keeping score myself, there was no denying which entry was the clear showstopper.
My experience watching “The Singers” began as the person next to me — undoubtedly someone involved with the production — pointed and blurted out, “This is it!” as soon as the opening shot played. And after being swept away in this utterly charming, textured take on Ivan Turgenev’s 1850 short story of a group of miserable bar regulars brought together through song I have to conclude that their initial reaction was lowballing it.
Director Sam Davis fills out the lonely, snow-stricken pub with unending personality, from the dollar bills stuck tauntingly to the ceiling to the mechanized singing fish hanging on a wall in the back. His storytelling is utterly cinematic; the rising action and fake-outs that build up to even the first song are, frankly, the very thing I watch movies hoping to see.
The fact that the entire thing acts as a warm-hearted digestion of masculinity is the cherry on top, and it goes without saying that the cast’s pitch-perfect vocal performances — including face-melting renditions of “House of the Rising Sun” and “Unchained Melody” — are worth several sprinkles.
“The Singers” wasn’t the only source of unexpected grins. “Detlev” employed a practically superhuman sense of comedic timing to pair with its story’s gorgeous stop-motion animation and delightfully European sense of humor. “Over (or How to Save the World)” can be credited with one of the fest’s strongest performances from Adam Dunn as a dad who is befuddled — but also ultimately won over — by his disabled son as he pressures him to save the world via walkie-talkie.
Other narratives allowed the editing to steal the (short) show. “Bloqué”’s sometimes-rhythmic, sometimes-chaotic intercutting of a man’s drum-playing with his memories of his parents made for a fascinating, if blunt exploration of how much we can feel when we allow ourselves to say nothing.
“Knew Love” is another short that was never quite meant to be the unconventional performance video it became, according to director Lydia Jones, but she said in the post-screening Q&A that outside limitations caused the grief-focused dance to become more intricate and, as a result, form the mystical, meaningful final project that I couldn’t tear my eyes away from.
The variety of stories gathered by fest leadership was commendable, as evidenced by the eight-for-the-price-of-one enjoyment that I and the rest of the sizable crowd soaked in on a Sunday night.
What surprised me most about the selection — which totaled out to a not-so-short length of roughly 3 hours — was not simply the variety of stories told, but rather how many of them left a lasting impression from the meager window of the day they occupied on the Theater No. 14 screen.
Every short, even the more limply-received among the sleepier documentary shorts block, flashed to credits with a mutual understanding that it was a story worth telling. I might be salty that the overall film selection didn’t offer me an opportunity to catch “Marty Supreme” or “No Other Choice” as early as the New York pundits, but if you ask me, there’s still no stronger indication of a worthy film festival than a feeling like that.
Kevin Lynch can be reached at lync1832@stthomas.edu.
