Wholphin No. 6

Edited by Brent Hoff

I've really come to enjoy watching a short film every day or so as I work my way through the Wholphin collection.  There's something for everyone on each of these, and I found that this issue was yet another excellent compilation, with a nice blend of documentary and fictional works.

Perhaps my favourite entry on this disc was the first film, a thirty-two minute excerpt from a longer documentary called 'Please Vote For Me'.  It follows three Chinese third-graders who are running in an election for class monitor.  While new to the concept of democracy, these kids waste no time in exploiting the others' weaknesses, muck-raking, and using intimidation tactics to secure votes, not to mention using wealth or influence to get what they want.  You would think they grew up watching Fox News.  Brilliant stuff.

There is also a good documentary about Bigfoot hunters and enthusiasts, which, despite it's short running length (sixteen minutes), provides a balanced and complete look at that world.

With this disc, it is the fictional films that are king however.  'Force 1 TD' is a funny and affecting film about a blind teenager in New York, who travels to New Jersey with his friends to buy the right colour Nikes for his seeing-eye miniature horse to wear to prom.  I loved this film, and found myself wishing it would be a full-length feature.

'New Boy' is based on a Roddy Doyle short story, and follows a young African boy to his first day at school in Ireland.  What I particularly like about this film is the evocative facial features of the young man who plays the newcomer - even though he barely speaks, we can understand how he feels as he is taunted and bullied by other kids, who ultimately become friends.

'On The Assassination of the President' is truly bizarre.  It purports to be an instructional video for authorities on who to arrest, and what footage to release to the media, were the President to be assassinated.  It gets a little too caught up in it's own enjoyment of technology, but still, it's a cool idea.

'Lucky' is a very exciting short that has a man regain consciousness to find himself tied up in the trunk of a car that is racing across the Australian Outback, it's steering wheel tied down and the gas pedal weighted with a brick.  It's just about the perfect thriller, with an unexpected ending, and the whole thing is only six minutes long.

We are treated to the dvd-extra style making of the movie 'Safari', which had a New York director collect a huge number of insects and lizards, and film them in a false environment set up in her studio.  While it was interesting, I think I would have preferred to see more of the original film.

'Silence is Golden' is a pretty funny British short about a boy who lives next door to a mentally ill man who likes to bang his head against the wall.  The film is mostly notable for the way in which the filmmakers reconstructed the visual aesthetic of mid-70s council estate decor.

'The Man in the Grey Suit' has some cool shark footage, but that's all it is.

'Darling Darling' annoyed me.  It's basically a movie about Michael Cera waiting for his date to get ready, while he is entertained by her horse-head wearing father, who plays the guitar and shoots arrows in the house.  There are two different versions, each of which feature different dialogue for the father, but in the final analysis, it's silly and irritating.

Still, that's the only thing I didn't enjoy out of ten, so this disc is a winner.