2023 HOLLYSHORTS FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW!
Bertie (Prince Pieters) wants to see his favorite magician, Maya the Magnificent (Donna Simone Johnson) when she comes to town to perform. Bertie is now tasked with coming up with the money on his own in order to purchase tickets. With a can-do attitude, Bertie may just pull it off–but along the way he will learn that there are things more important than money and magic. Bertie the Brilliant is his story.
I don’t think anyone will struggle to understand the point of Bertie the Brilliant, as it quickly becomes clear in the opening moments. The film tells its viewers about being selfless and caring more about helping others than helping yourself. I appreciate the story and its purpose, but I think the tone is often a bit off, and that hinders the story from its first moments.
Bertie the Brilliant leans far too much into being cheesy, into attempting to appeal to the lighter side of things. I don’t believe that Bertie the Brilliant needed to be dark and harrowing by any means–but it feels that the film goes too far in one direction. It will likely turn off a great number of viewers in this regard, and because it never does anything to correct this flaw, the film remains somewhat stagnant as a result. I certainly understand that a child is the main character, and that he adores a semi-silly magician–but the fact of the matter is that this film needs to appeal to a wider audience. I’m not sure that Bertie the Brilliant is really made for kids, meaning that it needs to extend itself, but Writer-Director Gabriela Garcia Medina and Writer Joshua Sanker don’t do anything at all to make this happen. The film falls flat in the opening moments, and it never once finds true balance in regard to the tone.
The characters, much like the tone, are a tad cheesy. They lack the right amount of emotion, and they ultimately fall flat. I don’t blame the actors at all, because that seems to be the film’s MO. The only excusable instance of a character being so lighthearted and cheesy is Bertie himself. Bertie the Brilliant needs this character to work if the film ever has a chance, and I think Pieters breathes enough life into that it may be able to reach some viewers along the way. I can appreciate Bertie being a tad odd, because, well, he’s a child–and that makes sense. In the grand scheme of the film and its story, that is the one aspect that truly made sense to me beyond the narrative. Does Pieters save the film? I’m not quite sure, but he does enough to keep its head above water.
The message present in Bertie the Brilliant is, I believe, meant for adults, and, in turn, the film needs to appeal to adults. The film, however, maintains the hyperreal, overexaggerated, cheesy feel from beginning to end, and I’m not sure that this is the best way to appeal to mature audiences. From the opening moments of the film, whether it was the dialogue, the delivery, or just the content of the film, everything seemed to be developed in a way that steals what vigor it should have held onto–and it never really finds its footing as a result. Bertie the Brilliant, at its core, is attempting to do and say something important and relevant, but that message is diluted as a result of just about everything else. Pieters is ultimately the only aspect of Bertie the Brilliant that I was able to appreciate–and while the film has the potential to appeal to viewers, it constantly gets in its own way.
Directed by Gabriela Garcia Medina.
Written by Gabriela Garcia Medina & Joshua Sankar.
Starring Prince Pieters, Terri Hoyos, Cheryl Umana, Donna Simone Johnson, Andrew Brian Carter, etc.
⭐⭐⭐⭐½/10
Comments