Stray Dog Freedom

A love a good two-hander, whether it is on the stage, a short film, or a scene in a bigger film; put two good performers in a small space with some well written dialogue and characters and I'll watch that all day. As a result this film did hold out some interest to me when I read the plot summary on IMDb, because it did seem to be one just like this. And indeed the key scenes in the short are between the rich man and poor man (broadly speaking) and they are mostly dialogue driven. The film proposes to cover very topical subjects and, from the start, it has an sense of impatient anger to it – not only one direction but coming from all places and characters.

This is to its credit but unfortunately it doesn't come together to do much outside of this blunt rage. The scenes shared between the two men didn't convince me that they were really happening, and to be fair the actors don't seem sure of who their characters are, or why this exchange is happening. It is nice in the broad sense, with good markers through the film but it is the writing and the performances that don't make the most of the basic frame of the idea. As a result a lot of it is too blunt and lacking in subtext, and generally viewer and actors alike will probably not believe the scenes or dialogue – even if it is full of energy and grit which I liked, but it just never came off as a thing.