bennymakesgames

Good Company

Visually, stunning cinematography. Also? One of the weirdest @#$%ing movies of the whole lot XD And that has its own thing to be praised for but wow this film lost me even after the first 30 seconds. But it did have a ton of strengths!

Then there were some great comedic chops in there that made me burst out laughing. Some gorgeously shot images, some of the best that I've seen in the comp this year! Some very interesting and eager editing, which is nice to see. Great pacing. Even if overall I was confused by the actual plot of what was happening on-screen XD But the actors were great, the vibes were interesting... overall one of the wackiest entries, and I do like a good experiment :D

Bomb Busters

This one was quite clever, and I imagine it must be hard to take such a strange concept and deliver it. I think the acting was superb. I did like the imagination of the concept.

I do think that maybe it's hard to deliver something like this where an argument escalates within the duration of the short film, because at one point the argument got so loud that I felt I had to cover my ears. It's one thing to have an argument contain conflict in a film, and it's another to have it be actively aggressive to the audience... that said, I can tell this team is full of lots of talent and even if sometimes the absurdism was hard for me to latch onto fully, I could tell it was made with a lot of heart.

Brilliant entry, with some parts that made me not so hot, but I think those can be chalked down to the 48 hour time limit. It's hard to make something as dialogue-heavy and argument-heavy as this resonate within just 48 hours. Great stuff either way :)

NAN!

A Birdman-esque whirlwind of suspense done really well. Loved the dynamic music, the fantastic lead actors, and the general sense of panic that was displayed throughout. The oneshot premise was executed really well, and genuinely the film looked and sounded great. Watched the team receive awards on the night and it was really heartwarming to see this team get the Regional Winner award for Auckland.

Technically, it's a great crisp image with some fun interruptions in there (who eats cake in a bathroom? Only the best of people), and just a hilarious time all-round. The twist ending is a nice funny button on the end, and it all comes together to provide a great hoot. Well done, Taste of Kiwi!

Fill your boots

This was so maximalist XD Someone above said it's a kiwi Guy Ritchie movie and it kinda just clicked for me now. Felt inspired by that for sure, and Kingsman and other grimy crime flicks. I did like the command "well, go run after them" and the henchman is just like "what?" as if they don't understand the instructions lol

I think it's a very hard genre to nail for 48hrs , and especially trying to make Auckland feel like it's a grimy metropolis XD but therein lies some of the comedy too! Some interesting shots, some fun comedic gags. I sometimes found it hard to follow the exact threads but it was funny nonetheless :) A fun romp for sure!

EAR WORM.

Yeah this was quite a funny and cooked concept XD I liked the overall silliness of it, the idea of a person in a song following you and appearing in real life. The original song was great, the framing was great... very funny little ditty here!

Plan B

I watched this with one thought in mind... how in the world do you get kids to act this naturally and fantastically? Well, it turns out you create a film with your extended aiga / whanau and the result is some of the most natural comedy I saw this 48Hrs. I'm floored at this first-timer team and really every time they got on stage to receive an award I was cheering and yelling because I was just so happy, thinking "this is what 48Hrs is all about!"

As for the film itself - great-looking image. Great sound. Lovely script. But the shining part throughout I must say is the fantastic, fantastic acting from the kids and adults both. Definitely feels like these kids have a future in acting, for sure, being able to really feel the script and understand it. And that is a testament to the larger extended family being able to get a great performance out of these kids. Would be fantastic to be a fly on the wall seeing what happened behind the scenes of this film because I'm so curious. Brilliant stuff.

Earl & Muriel's Rural Burial

Based on their previous entries and this one too, I think this was underrated this year. Probably the most beautiful cinematography out of the Auckland competition I saw... the editing was superb, the audio was superb. I think mainly the thing where people didn't connect was it was just a bit sophisticated and strange of a concept that it was hard to immediately lock on, especially in the midst of so many humorous and absurdly silly entries (including ours lol). But this one was funny too, and yet dreadful at the same time.

There were just some great editing moments where the voices cut out and you'd get a sudden, striking image. The perverse nature of the visitors clawing through the dresser of clothes and the seeming incursion that they were imposing into the main character's life. The realisation of the horror that was occurring. All great touches.

It's a strange concept, and I think it works in a lot of areas, but it is also quite hard to pull off such a weird idea in such a short time. I think maybe it's half effective at times, because the other half gets lost in the ambiguity of a draft that would be refined given more time, but mostly I did feel the interesting nature of it and it compelled me.

Technically, though, as for the image, the sound and the editing... absolutely superb. Very interesting and atmospheric piece.

COMMIT

I think joannaodds above commented how the twist was seen from a mile away, but I thought that was intentional... we're supposed to see that it's fake from near the beginning, and the suspense is about when the main character figures that out.

So I thought it was a great concept. Reminded me of "Game Night", actually... one of my favourite modern comedies haha. There's a great setup when the audience knows that it's all a game but the protagonist doesn't... you get to have the audience experience dread and despair as the protagonist gets caught in the web of their own misunderstanding.

Great lead actor, great intro... I could see all the reactions on their face and it was quite lovely to zoom in and see all of those emotions play out. I'm not 100% sure what I could have expected more out of this, because it is a little bit of a hard concept to "wrap up", so to speak. The team did the best they could to get an ending out of it, but maybe it's just because the situation itself doesn't lend to an easy ending within a short film like this. Either way, it's an interesting and funny little comedic situation that was framed very competently and I liked it quite a bit :D