My 10 star rating is about enjoyment of this, not its cinematic quality.
This is a stage play that's been filmed on the budget of a stage play - it's barely a movie. The 3 actors in the film wrote the play, fyi.
The story is 3 kids (roughly 6 yrs old each) and their parents go into a bomb shelter in 1963...the parents die soon after...the kids raise each other in the bomb shelter. This is NOT about them getting out and seeing the world as fish out of water. It's the world and mythology and culture that they've created within their tiny fish bowl. Microcosm of our reality, and all that.
Shelf Life is commentary upon religion, ritual, entertainment, society, and all the Things. And it comments with a deft and endlessly charming hand. O to be a child forever! One would become quite mad.
It's really dang funny and loveable - provided you're up for watching a silly theatrical production with zero budget.
Director Paul Bartel's added ending is Freudian, literally 4th wall breaking, and cute - but does undercut the actual, rather dark yet meaningful ending of the play. Oh well. It's still cute and lovable!
(Most everyone I've shown this to didn't like it, fyi. Bunch of Scrooges, imao.)
This is a stage play that's been filmed on the budget of a stage play - it's barely a movie. The 3 actors in the film wrote the play, fyi.
The story is 3 kids (roughly 6 yrs old each) and their parents go into a bomb shelter in 1963...the parents die soon after...the kids raise each other in the bomb shelter. This is NOT about them getting out and seeing the world as fish out of water. It's the world and mythology and culture that they've created within their tiny fish bowl. Microcosm of our reality, and all that.
Shelf Life is commentary upon religion, ritual, entertainment, society, and all the Things. And it comments with a deft and endlessly charming hand. O to be a child forever! One would become quite mad.
It's really dang funny and loveable - provided you're up for watching a silly theatrical production with zero budget.
Director Paul Bartel's added ending is Freudian, literally 4th wall breaking, and cute - but does undercut the actual, rather dark yet meaningful ending of the play. Oh well. It's still cute and lovable!
(Most everyone I've shown this to didn't like it, fyi. Bunch of Scrooges, imao.)