It can be tricky to create a romantic drama that’s believeble without coming across like a needy boyfriend/girlfriend starved for attention. Filmmakers will try to strike an emotional chord with the audience through realistic storytelling and relatable characters without coming across overly sentimental.
Where Fireflies Dance tackles the “lost and found” subgenre of the romantic drama. School teacher Sadie(Billie D. Merritt) returns to her hometown of Little Elm to help her aunt’s art gallery. Although we never really get to see her aunt or the art gallery, we are introduced to her former love, Jack (Brady McInnes). The two soon rediscover old feelings and hash out the emotional wake of Sadie leaving Little Elm and why Jack didn’t try to stop her.
All of the conversations (interrupted by the occasional smooching) are backdropped by copious amounts of country music and picturesque vistas of the midwestern US. Objectively, less music and more dialogue would have gone a long way to flesh out the characters. Fans of the musical genre may find it appealing but at times it felt more like a music video than a cinematic project.
The sparse dialogue in the 70 minute runtime was spread among a variety of supporting characters. Charlotte(Colleen Mooney), Jacks’ sister(?), played a go-between with Jack and Sadie. Benny(Jason Ramirez) was reminiscent of "Jiminy Cricket", giving Jack a mechanism to explore his feelings. Griffin(Deke Anderson) is part of a trio of characters that provided a modicum of levity.
All the actors did well in their perspective roles. Their competent performances aided in allowing the audience to feel engaged in the storytelling. While the cinematography was also very professionally executed, the cross dissolve scene transitions were a little distracting as the film progressed. I understand the intended dramatic impact of the editor/director but sometimes less is more.
Sadie Leggett, a quiet elementary school teacher, is left to return to her small hometown during summer vacation. When she runs into her high school sweetheart, Jack Ryland, she must confront everything that was left unsaid all those years ago.
In Deaf, the Spanish director Eva Libertad explores pregnancy and motherhood from the perspective of a deaf woman. Her movie examines how the world imposes the notion of disability on her main character while she actually does not feel disabled herself.
Diana’s spirit has taken off, ‘No right, no wrong, no rules for me.’ And in that moment, as she runs on the screen, she gets it, her ‘Let It Go’ moment.
I'm bad, and that's good. I will never be good, and that's not bad. There's no one I'd rather be than me.
Disney+ recently released six short films entitled the “Launchpad” collection in which diverse directors tell diverse stories. These shorts are exactly the kind of films we here at Incluvie want to see more of. These are stories of intersectionality, inclusion, and diversity. And every short stars a cluvie!
In ‘The Owl House’ protagonist Luz Noceda stumbles across a portal to another dimension where magic exists, called The Boiling Isles.
I came across Urchin by chance and decided to watch it because of the title. It made me think of the spiky animal that lives at the bottom of the ocean, and the old Dickensian novels, where an urchin was an orphaned, homeless child in shaggy and dirty clothes.
