-Written by Kyle Bain.
2024 HOLLYSHORTS FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW!
What might it mean to be Shouting at the Sea when the sea doesn’t care what you have to say, and the act alone can’t solve your problems? Shouting at the Sea looks into the idea of revisiting your past, addressing the mishaps that may have occurred along the way, and what the vast open of the sea can do for you on your darkest days.
When two, long-time friends meet up, they find that they have unfinished business–that the lives they have led, while successful and relatively fulfilling, aren’t what they had hoped. When the two catch up, when they address the things from their past that still haunt them they find themselves a bit unsure about how to proceed–that’s where the idea of shouting at the sea comes into play.
Shouting at the Sea is a short film that doesn’t do anything fancy to appeal to viewers, and really, there are parts of the film that just didn’t work for me. There were times when things felt too slow. There were times when I felt that we needed some backstory on the history between Joe (Harry Mitchell) and Katherine (Maddie Rice), and some things just didn’t make sense when we didn’t have any context. There are certainly some misses throughout the course of the film–and though emotion was clearly an important part of these characters’ development throughout, I felt that there were some issues with that development as well.
I don’t mind the long, drawn-out scenes–but there are aspects of the conversations between the two friends that are so specific that I struggled to connect with what was being said. Those are the moments in which I found myself struggling to focus. I wish that emotion was built on better as a whole–though the conclusion of the film is emotionally riveting, and one of the best endings I’ve ever seen in a film.
The culmination of emotions, paired with the brilliantly emotional score as the film comes to a close is so powerful. I appreciated much about this film up to its conclusion, but I’m not sure I was emotionally invested. However, with just seconds left I fell in love, I was brought to tears, I was made to feel every bit of emotion present inside of me. It’s everything I could have hoped for, and everything that I needed. Shouting at the Sea dabbles in drama and emotion throughout its majority, but by the end it dives right in. The ending is always the hardest part, always the most difficult aspect of a film to develop–and this is a perfect ending.
By the conclusion of the film all of the things that both work and didn’t work converge, becoming something powerful, useful, effective. I can’t say enough about what this ending means, about how important it is to the film and its audience. Shouting at the Sea, while experiencing some hiccups along the way, ends on the perfect note.
Directed by Benjamin Verrall.
Written by Kate Auster, Ruth Marshall, Amelia Rowcroft, & Benjamin Verrall.
Starring Harry Mitchell, Maddie Rice, & Daisy Haggard.
8.5/10 = WORTH RENTING OR BUYING
Comments