This Is a Microphone is director Phillip Jordan Brooks' third short film and certainly shows that he is continuing to grow as a director, even though the film lacks the creativeness of the previous Nobody But Her and pulls up short of intent at its finale. Brooks, who also co-wrote the script, takes on the timeliness of the desperation of job loss. A young bank employee (actor Scott Gannon Patton)has been fired and there is a foreclosure on his home from the bank. Frantic, his family has fallen apart and he has has no mortgage money, he returns to the bank to ask for a loan that is denied. Pushed to the limit, he decides to take matters into his own hands and, in the process, expose underhanded practices at the bank. Brooks packs a lot into this intense offering and, for the most part, brings it off. The primary quibble is that the well-created intensity and seriousness runs aground in a sudden move to a happy, and not too believable, finale, therefore, instead of a punch to the solar plexus, it becomes a shove. What does stand out is Brooks' directorial command in focusing the story within the short time alloted. He makes great use of the close-up of eyes and faces to convey quick emotions where spoken dialogue is not needed. His pacing is quick and tight with no extraneous scene setting. One would like to see Brooks get hold of a thriller. Intense is something he does well. Add to that, a wonderful sense of casting. In a short film of this nature, characters have to be drawn quickly, from scared people in a bank and empathetic friends to the nominal villains, in this case a smarmy bank executive (William H. Gallmann) and a bitch bank officer in heels (Mary Alfred Thoma). Both are excellent, as is Patton's frustrated hero, who is barely keeping it together. Patton also was fine in the earlier Nobody But Her as a sympathetic young policeman. This Is a Microphone is slick filmmaking, and its seven minutes are entertaining right to the musical score, which also helps in creating the atmosphere. Brooks has all the equipment to be a first-rate director. One hopes he gets the opportunity of longer fare. LANE CROCKETT, former critic of the Gannett News Service and The Shreveport Times
