XX: Anthology time!
The Box: The spookiest of the four shorts by a considerable margin, and easily the most consistent in tone. The story, adapted from a Jack Ketchum tale, concerns a family that is set upon by a mysterious malady that resulted from the youngest peering into the titular object during a chance encounter. This isn't the kind of story that's overly concerned with what is actually in there and more about the collateral damage that it leaves, with a particular emphasis on the growing distance between those that don't know of its contents and those that do. There's also a rather pointed stab at rampant consumerism in the various meals being presented at various junctures, looking like a little much for a family twice the size the one here, lending it a nicely uneasy sensation that accentuates the mounting doom occurring within the home. This is pretty solid stuff at the end of the day, though I think this could have stood to be a bit more focused on just one character for its entire duration, rather than the last third, as it felt like a missed opportunity to not have a better idea of why the mother feels the way she does about the evolving situation.
The Birthday Party: The things we do to give our kids a nice party! The directorial debut for the woman sometimes known as St. Vincent makes a striking argument for a desire to have it be her last, as this one-joke flop takes an eternity to get to that joke. Along the way is a lot of painfully forced quirky humor that fails to launch, leaving the talented Melanie Lynskey adrift in a sea of bad gags that she can barely keep her head above. It all culminates with a finale that suggests someone's first time playing around with the slow motion button on their camera, along with a setup for a situation that doesn't begin to make sense (no one thought to wonder about the strangely still panda suit sitting at the table, really?) before the film concludes and reveals the joke that it spent nearly 20 minutes setting up. As it turns out, they could have saved themselves a lot of time, effort and hard drive space on their camera by starting with that. Dreadful, but not of the intentional variety.
Don't Fall: College students go where they're not supposed to, then die. Despite a cool title drop, there's really nothing particularly remarkable about this one. It's hardly the worst of its particular type, but it's so dull that it makes it hard to recommend even at its short length. Really surprised at how thoroughly uninteresting this wound up, as director Roxanne Benjamin turned in one of the better segments in Southbound. I honestly wish there was something worthwhile to talk about with this one.
His Only Living Son: Karyn Kusama continues her interesting streak into horror with this one, concerning a mother whose son is starting to grow up into the kind of thing that she was always afraid he'd become. This one plays a bit of a long game, and long enough where suggesting an alternate title would be more than enough to give up the game entirely, but this one does strike me as the one where the story concept seems fairly hobbled by having to fit it all into the 20-ish minutes that it runs. There's a lot of intrigue regarding the setting that gets sidelined almost as soon as it's introduced, and though you get enough of the backstory to be able to piece together what went down and led the mother and her son to the lives they lead, it never really feels like there's quite enough pressure being applied to them to make their situation feel desperate enough (not helping: the supporting cast hams it up to baffling heights, marking too strange a contrast from the more serious drama). The short does well for itself with its unconventional finale that does hit a nice emotional chord, but even as it ends, one gets the feeling that it could have been and should have been even better had it gotten even just 10 more minutes to elaborate. As it is, it's a nice idea that feels compromised enough to impact its effectiveness.
Overall: One of those anthology ideas that's great on paper but perhaps even more uneven than some anthologies have been, thanks to having two outright duds occupying the space between the two better stories.
The Box: The spookiest of the four shorts by a considerable margin, and easily the most consistent in tone. The story, adapted from a Jack Ketchum tale, concerns a family that is set upon by a mysterious malady that resulted from the youngest peering into the titular object during a chance encounter. This isn't the kind of story that's overly concerned with what is actually in there and more about the collateral damage that it leaves, with a particular emphasis on the growing distance between those that don't know of its contents and those that do. There's also a rather pointed stab at rampant consumerism in the various meals being presented at various junctures, looking like a little much for a family twice the size the one here, lending it a nicely uneasy sensation that accentuates the mounting doom occurring within the home. This is pretty solid stuff at the end of the day, though I think this could have stood to be a bit more focused on just one character for its entire duration, rather than the last third, as it felt like a missed opportunity to not have a better idea of why the mother feels the way she does about the evolving situation.
The Birthday Party: The things we do to give our kids a nice party! The directorial debut for the woman sometimes known as St. Vincent makes a striking argument for a desire to have it be her last, as this one-joke flop takes an eternity to get to that joke. Along the way is a lot of painfully forced quirky humor that fails to launch, leaving the talented Melanie Lynskey adrift in a sea of bad gags that she can barely keep her head above. It all culminates with a finale that suggests someone's first time playing around with the slow motion button on their camera, along with a setup for a situation that doesn't begin to make sense (no one thought to wonder about the strangely still panda suit sitting at the table, really?) before the film concludes and reveals the joke that it spent nearly 20 minutes setting up. As it turns out, they could have saved themselves a lot of time, effort and hard drive space on their camera by starting with that. Dreadful, but not of the intentional variety.
Don't Fall: College students go where they're not supposed to, then die. Despite a cool title drop, there's really nothing particularly remarkable about this one. It's hardly the worst of its particular type, but it's so dull that it makes it hard to recommend even at its short length. Really surprised at how thoroughly uninteresting this wound up, as director Roxanne Benjamin turned in one of the better segments in Southbound. I honestly wish there was something worthwhile to talk about with this one.
His Only Living Son: Karyn Kusama continues her interesting streak into horror with this one, concerning a mother whose son is starting to grow up into the kind of thing that she was always afraid he'd become. This one plays a bit of a long game, and long enough where suggesting an alternate title would be more than enough to give up the game entirely, but this one does strike me as the one where the story concept seems fairly hobbled by having to fit it all into the 20-ish minutes that it runs. There's a lot of intrigue regarding the setting that gets sidelined almost as soon as it's introduced, and though you get enough of the backstory to be able to piece together what went down and led the mother and her son to the lives they lead, it never really feels like there's quite enough pressure being applied to them to make their situation feel desperate enough (not helping: the supporting cast hams it up to baffling heights, marking too strange a contrast from the more serious drama). The short does well for itself with its unconventional finale that does hit a nice emotional chord, but even as it ends, one gets the feeling that it could have been and should have been even better had it gotten even just 10 more minutes to elaborate. As it is, it's a nice idea that feels compromised enough to impact its effectiveness.
Overall: One of those anthology ideas that's great on paper but perhaps even more uneven than some anthologies have been, thanks to having two outright duds occupying the space between the two better stories.
