This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.
Welcome to the first installment of our Fantasia Shorts Roundup, where we highlight a selection of short films appearing in this year’s slate. In this installment, we will discuss Check Please, Atom & Void, and Love Machine.
Shane Chung’s Check Please is a cheeky martial-arts comedy following two Korean men fighting over who should pay the dinner bill in a hilariously entertaining fashion. Quickly establishing the cultural differences between a Korean-speaking man (Sukwon Jeong) and an English-speaking Korean-American (Richard Yan), their dinner discussion gives us enough interest to engage in their exaggerated battle on this quiet night at a restaurant outing. Chung incorporates dynamic choreography and tightly framed cinematography to highlight the characters’ use of surrounding objects, including kitchenware and cleaning tools, to keep audiences wired to the screen.
Gonçalo Almeida’s Atom & Void is an atmospheric, silent short film following a spider exploring a deliberately ominous and dark setting. Upon exploring its surroundings, the spider’s dreadful circumstances slowly unravel in a profound and eerie fashion. The climax of the film’s final revelations neatly expresses the humanity and helplessness of this fuzzy creature. Almeida creates this distressing setting to depict the importance of all life, whether it be human or animal, and how any of us can be useless in a situation where all we can really do is sit back and watch the evocative actions play out in front of us.
Jon Clark’s Love Machine is a quirky black comedy following a date between two women who get to know each other more deeply with personal questions, revealing the fact that one of them is actually an extremely lifelike AI. Clark balances the relevant discussions of AI, the misconceptions of deep-learning robots, and the awkwardness of modern dating to destigmatize these sensitive topics in a more intimate setting. The effectiveness of his messages will likely polarize audiences depending on one’s viewpoint regarding these topical issues. Either way, the casualty behind Kayla (Clare Cooney), the AI woman, will leave audiences smirking as she deeply tries to break the tension and awkwardness of her date with the hesitant Veronica (Bethany Woodruff).
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