One thing I like to do as part of the Uber-Indie Project is use the space to throw a small amount of recognition to not only the films themselves, but the people who made them, the creative souls who toil in obscurity. Usually this does nothing more than show up when someone Googles themselves, but still, you never know. That's why you always see the list of credits along with the review. But with shorts, it's a little different, because the credits don't hold true from film to film. So what to do? Well, we're going to split the review into parts and see if that works. Unfortunately, I can't get as in-depth with these as I normally would. So it goes.
The Outlaw Son (2006)
Starring: Kyle Williams and Machete
Cinematography by: Nicholas Prendergast
Written and directed by: David Lowery
11 min/Austin, Texas
A flight into Austin. A phone call. Coffee in a diner. A long night in a parked car. Silence. Long, uncomfortable silences. To call The Outlaw Son sparse and minimalist would be something of an understatement. This is a film where, at first glance, nothing happens until the final moments, where it might appear that Lowery is stringing us along until the finale, but I don't think that's the case. The way he films it, in short little clips buffered by a blank screen, almost like flipping through a photo album, it builds ever so slightly. The sort of thing you could easily miss.
It's a film where the tiniest of gestures mean everything, and even thought the film at no point bothers to connect the dots between the ending and the rest of the film, here's my either/or theory: either Lowery is indulging in art for art's sake, the standard student film approach, or (and I hope it's this one) The Outlaw Son is a picture of a relationship in trouble, of some level of heartbreak, of the long sleepless nights working through your problems, and the ending is an act of solidarity, the type of "we're in this together now", team-building thing you see when sports teams all shave their heads for the playoffs. They've come to some sort of resolution and this is the point where they begin to move forward. And even if it isn't, even if I'm completely wrong, it's an effective film regardless.
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