Short, not always sweet

One advantage to short films is the way they can tackle subjects that wouldn't survive on the big screen and come at them from angles that fit neatly in an hour or less. Unfortunately, most of the filmmakers who contributed to this year's Boston Film Festival's collection of shorts were neither imaginative nor courageous enough to take the path less traveled: the majority are sadly uninspired and annoyingly predictable.

Package 1 (screens September 17 at 11:45 a.m. and 2 and 4:15 p.m.; all "Shorts" screenings are at the Copley Square) offers up two familiar versions of the opposites-attract love story. Daniela Lunkewitz's "Rockin' Good Times" takes the comic route, setting up a blind date between a shy, pretty-in-pink woman and a rock star who wears more make-up than his ex-girlfriend. Cute, but in exactly the same way every happily-ever-after teen movie made in the '80s was cute. Not so saccharine are the star-crossed lovers in Vera Wagman's "Interlude," whose relationship revolves around physical and psychological abuse. A beautiful, rich married woman has an affair with a rough-and-ready working man -- not a new idea, but the power struggle between the two, with the upper hand subtly flitting back and forth, makes for a darkly tense 10 minutes.

The collection's handful of documentaries only partly alleviates the sense of déjà vu. James Sommerville's "Negative Forces, Witchcraft and Idolatry" (Package 2: September 13 at 7:15 and 10 p.m. and September 14 at noon and 2:30 and 5 p.m.) shows 24 hours in the life of the New York subway using the expected random soundbites, foreboding music, and eye-blink passenger shots. In Package 5 (September 12 at 6:30 and 9 p.m. and September 16 at noon and 2:15 and 4:30 p.m.), Carl MacNeal's "Burningman" takes an intriguing topic -- the art-inspired Burningman festival -- and, with boring camerawork and a mindless voiceover, turns it into a Woodstock replica.

Valerie & Wanda Whitmore's "A Nanny's Life" (Package 4: September 13 at 7:15 and 9:15 p.m. and September 14 at 1, 3 and 5 p.m.) redeems the documentary form with its touching profile of a young caregiver. And Mary C. Mazzio's "A Hero for Daisy" (Package 7: September 16 at 6:45 and 8:45 p.m. and September 17 at 12:45, 3 and 5 p.m.) proves that nonfiction can be fun: the story of Olympic rowing champion Chris Ernst -- a Yale graduate who fought for, and won, the same athletic rights as her male counterparts -- is both endearing and entertaining.

The balance (or imbalance) of power dramatized in "Hero" is one of the more popular and rewarding themes among this year's offerings. Mehdi Norowzian's "Killing Joe" (Package 2) is a charming one-sided-lust story set in London in 1963. When 13-year-old Joe Fergal Kennedy's older brother brings home his girlfriend Jackie, Joe's daydreams take a turn for the hormonal. Jackie leaves Joe's brother on the same day President Kennedy is shot, and Joe finally gets to put his arms around her, if only in comfort. Visually pleasing and superbly cast, this film skillfully balances a young boy's crush with worldwide mourning.

A cleverer but not as sophisticated look at power play comes in Jason Sklaver's "The Kidnapping" (Package 1), in which three young people kidnap a famous performance artist as their own performance piece. Forget the obvious bumbling-kidnappers/pissed-off-kidnappee (a funny Robert Wagner) plot -- the smarter switcheroo takes place between the art and the artist. Is there a line between the show and the showman? This movie's answer is surprising and satisfying.

Those filmmakers who could not represent power struggles through intelligent storylines resorted to violence to make their point; the results lack the depth and clarity essential to the short form. Patricia Ibanez's "Mason Dixon" (Package 5) is a pretentiously vague meditation on art, love, and violence. Tim Eberle's "P.J. Gormley" (Package 4), which brings together a man and his girlfriend's stalker, rides high on sharp wit and curious circumstances until it falls back on a bloody ending. Mike Genett's "Big Canyon" (Package 2) is an amusing piece about two lovers who make money by pretending to be disabled so they can sell bogus phone cards to the soft-hearted. One of their irate customers finally chases them down with two buddies and three ferocious dogs -- no prizes for guessing how that ends.

The only film that can be excused for brandishing its weapons as a final act is Adam Lamas's "Cry Havoc" (Package 3: September 14 at 7:45 and 10 p.m. and September 15 at noon and 2:15 and 4:30 p.m.; the final Package, #6, screens September 15 at 6:45 and 8:45 p.m. and September 16 at 11 a.m. and 1:30 and 4:15 p.m.). Set during World War II, this captivating film shows an American sniper who's about to shoot a German soldier until he realizes his enemy has the mind of a young boy. At first the sniper simply watches the German; then he gets closer to him and finally befriends him. A charming piece, whimsical and crushing, "Cry Havoc" spotlights humanity without preaching or melodrama, and it speaks to Lamas's insight into the art of storytelling.

-- Jumana Farouky

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Film Festival Feature Films

| The Minus Man | The Tavern | Black Eyed Dog | The Last September | A Wake in Providence | Man of the Century | Pups | Dreaming of Joseph Leeds | Wisdom of Crocodiles | That's The Way I Like It | American Beauty | Mifune | Black Cat, White Cat | Hit and Runway | All the LIttle Animals | Me Myself I | The Alchemist and the Virgin | Trash | Old Man River | The Poet and the Con | Snow Falling on Cedars | Guinevere | East is East | American Movie | Rivers of Babylon | Two Ninas | Rats | Keepers of the Frame | The Runner |

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More Boston Film Festival information, film descriptions, and show times

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