Fantasia 2024 Short Film Reviews: AstroNots, Bangs, Berta, Dirty Bad Wrong, Faces, Hell is a Teenage Girl
The creators behind these six short films watched for Fantasia Festival are all talented filmmakers worthy of keeping an eye on.
AstroNots dir. Andrew Seaton (10 mins)
AstroNots follows two astronauts who are introduced to us in the cockpit of NASA’s Ares 7, waiting for launch, with the mission of solving the crisis of Earth’s depleted natural resources. Before take-off, Pilot Adams (Aaron Glenane) gets nervous and says he doesn’t think he can do this, while Commander Collins (Adam Dunn) reassures him that nerves are common but he deserves to be here. “You trained for this,” Collins says. But he hasn’t. “I bullshitted it,” Adam reveals.
Directed by Andrew Seaton, and written by the film’s lead actors, Glenane and Dunn, AstroNots is full of palpable tension as Adams and Collins debate their dilemma before the launch. It keeps you wondering what will happen — if Collins will report Adams, if they’ll go to space. It also raises questions around qualifications and desperation in more than one way. The production is great, as is the editing, the actors, and their comedic timing. The dialogue is sharp and funny in all the right places. It’s lacking a little something, but it’s effective, getting its message across right at the end.
Bangs dir. Nancy Webb (13 mins)
On the eve of her 30th birthday, Bangs (Emelia Hellman), the unnamed protagonist, gives herself a dramatic haircut before hosting her birthday dinner. Desperate to be recognised for the changes she’s been making in her life, Bangs struggles to enjoy herself when her friends don’t notice her new haircut and her paranoia threatens to ruin the evening.
Turning 30 is daunting for many of us because it makes us reflect on where we are in life. Bangs reminds us that sometimes the only big change you have control over is your hair, and getting bangs has long represented new beginnings, mental breakdowns, and calling attention to ourselves. The production feels rich as it references lavish dinner parties with shots of delicious food, all while creating a superb build of tension with dashes of comedy. The sound design is excellent, expertly balancing friends talking over each other with dialogue that feels very natural and realistic — though it turns out these actors are very talented improvisers.
Written by Hellman and director Nancy Webb, the short also explores the human tendency to seek validation and recognition, but it also offers insight on how we can provide it for ourselves.
Berta dir. Lucía Forner Segarra (17 mins)
Berta (Nerea Barros) tows an illegally parked car and tells the owner, Alex (Elías González), to come along so he can dispute the fine — but it’s all a ruse! Alex wakes up, tied down, and is subject to the torment of Berta, a woman he once raped who is seeking revenge. The man doesn’t know who she is. “You did it to so many that you can’t even recognise me?”
Spanish short Berta, written and directed by Lucía Forner Segarra, is a rape-revenge story that stands out with its excellent cinematography, tense atmosphere, dark humour, and unadulterated revenge. The film’s overall feel, in addition to the styling of its credits and title, feel very Tarantino. Berta offers true catharsis for survivors who share the fantasy of enacting revenge on the monster that gave them trauma. It also has many biting lines of dialogue. “Do you think 15 years of trauma can be fixed with an insincere apology?” is a favourite. Get him, girl!
Dirty Bad Wrong dir. Erica Orofino (14 mins)
Sex worker Sid (Michaela Kurimsky) is a young, single mother desperate to keep her promise to throw her 6-year-old kid, Jesse (Jack Greig), a superhero themed party. While Jesse hasn’t had a normal or easy upbringing, indicated by him telling his mother she never keeps her promises, he is a curious kid who isn’t locked into gender roles. Sid goes to extreme measures to keep her promise and books a regular client who is willing to pay big to engage in his dark fetish.
In Dirty Bad Wrong, writer/director Erica Orofino explores how people’s bad decisions can have good motivations when a mother comes face-to-face with how far she is willing to go to make her kid happy. As a dark drama that slips into body horror, Orofino’s handheld directing, combined with Gabriela Osio Vanden’s clear but dimly-lit cinematography, creates an authentic, gitty slice-of-life that highlights the harsher realities of life and asks deeper questions about making ends meet. Kurimsky shows strength as an actor in her raw, vulnerable, and nuanced performance as Sid, while Jesse’s good natured innocence doesn’t allow Sid to be completely enveloped by darkness. While the dark fetish is unique and intriguing, it’s depicted in a way that’s unclear, though a few guesses can certainly be made. Eager to see what Orofino does next.
Faces dir. Blake Simon (14 mins)
Following the recent disappearance of a local girl, college student Judy arrives in town for the weekend and is invited to a frat party by some jock who seems like the bad guy. We’ve all seen this story before, right? But things take a different direction when Judy bumps into a mysterious, deadly entity who embarks on a quest with violent consequences.
Written and directed by Simon Blake, Faces, stylised as F A C E S, explores modern themes of searching for identity as a violent shapeshifter is desperate to feel comfortable in its own skin. Genuinely eerie, the short evokes Eyes Wide Shut during its masquerade party through its refined filmmaking, with high quality production and rich cinematography. Tonally, Faces references a lot of 80s slashers, but Blake takes it somewhere unexpected as it builds on its commentary of taking inspiration from everything and everyone in an attempt to build an identity and feel complete. But can you ever really escape yourself?
Hell is a Teenage Girl dir. Stephen Sawchuk (15 mins)
Parker (Skylar Radzion) is the most hated teenager in Springboro because her father happens to be the town’s resident masked serial killer. Every Halloween, he slaughters teenagers who break ‘The rules of Horror,’ such as drinking, doing drugs, and having sex. Parker sets out to clear her name and end her father’s reign of terror once and for all.
Hell is a Teenage Girl is a self-aware slasher that pays homage to Scream and Halloween. Stephen Sawchuk is able to effectively balance tension with moments of dark comedy, particularly during scenes with Parker’s mother (Jill Morrison), her best friend Riley (Fali Mevamanana), and fellow student Brody (Kevin Osea). Mevamanana fulfils the archetypal role of BFF perfectly, while Radzion is strong and believable in her part as the final girl. Sawchuk’s script is a little weak but not every slasher has to outwit its predecessors. With the film serving as proof of concept for a feature, I’m convinced he could write a feature-length slasher worthy of sitting alongside Freaky and Totally Killer.
