I saw this at the Independent Film Festival in LA last month and it was probably the best short film I've seen. It's about a guy who tries to read every book ever written and how lonely and weird he becomes. It has an amazing atmosphere and really feels at times like you are inside his head.
It's a really cinematic film, in that there is hardly any dialogue and the story is told through images and sound. It has an incredible soundtrack, with really subtle sound design and music by Aphex Twin and the Brodsky Quartet. The music is as good as I've heard in any film, let alone a short film.
The story is quite ambitious, as it is essentially telling a biopic; it's the story of a man's life told in less than 30 mins. In a way it feels like a feature film, because it has a coherent narrative and has a beginning, middle and a (very good) ending, unlike so many shorts that seem like stretched-out gags or sketches. It tells the story in an original non-linear way with long flashbacks to his life as a boy and a young man, when he first sets out on his mission. The film is very well edited, with interesting use of jump-cuts, slow and fast motion and longer, uninterrupted takes.
The direction feels very natural and intelligent - the camera moves around freely and never seems fake or stagey like so many student films. The film uses a full range of different angles, lenses and movements, but never in a gimmicky way. It looks beautiful as well; it must have been shot on 35mm and the colours change in a subtle way depending on where we are in the story.
The director, Dan Wilde, is clearly very talented and I look forward to his next film.
