Curfew

So happy to write in detail about this movie. To elaborate on what I said in this post, the other nominees for best Live Action Short of 2012 and their plots were

1) Asad-a Somali boy learning to fish

2) Buckashi Boys-two young men growing up in Afghanistan

3) Death of a Shadow-a WWI era soldier seeks to move on to the afterlife by collecting souls

4) Henry-an old man searches for his wife

#1 and #2 had going for them the political correctness I mentioned. #3 had the originality. #4 had the sentimentality. Curfew had none of those things.

What it did have was the best writing, directing and acting out of any of the nominees. I’m reminded, though, of what the host of that awesome YouTube series Honest Trailers said about Hell or High Water-that it’s a movie so fun, non-pretentious, and straightforward that it had no chance of winning Best Picture. The joking name given to the film was “It’s A Hell Of An Honor Just To Be Nominated”.

Curfew was in a similar position but it won! I was so proud of its writer, director, and star Shawn Christensen.

Now I’m sure you want to know more about the film. The plot concerns Richie, a twenty-something who has used narcotics to cope with depression but is ready to give up and kill himself. However, he gets a call from his sister, from whom he is estranged but who has her own serious problems, about how she needs an emergency babysitter for her preteen daughter.

The girl, Sophia, is precocious but not annoyingly so. In fact, she seems like the perfect person to prod Richie out of his internal dungeon. Does she succeed? Even if she seeks to she’s just a child; Richie has to take charge of his life and WANT to get better.

Trying to find out whether or not he does is the real joy. This isn’t some Greek tragedy marching towards a predetermined ending due to the main character’s fatal flaw. It is a Shakespearean work, where the character is a human in control of his own destiny and we’re riveted by what happens to him.

I’ll add that as a Christian I love seeing stories of people fighting to escape the abyss. That’s the reason I found Luke the most compelling character on Haunting of Hill House (which I might write about when I expand to TV shows).

I found out just now that this film was adapted into a feature called Before I Disappear two years later. Apparently the film only really got a VOD deal (it was released in a mere five theaters) and was panned by critics for adding a bunch of superfluous scenes to the perfection that was Curfew. That said, I still want to watch it, seeing how many awards it won at film festivals!

Before I watch that, though, I want to reiterate how much I love the short. Watch Curfew; you won’t find a better way to spend 19 minutes!

Up next: this year’s documentary short nominees.

Final Verdict: Amazing!