"Miller & Son" is an American live action short film from 2019, so not really now, but still relatively fresh. This one runs for slightly over 20 minutes, so basically just as much as a random television sitcom episode. Director is Asher Jelinsky, a bit of a rising filmmaker as this was only her second filmmaking credit as the one in charge (in addition to many assistant director credits) and her work here actually received a great deal of awards recognition. Too much if you ask me, even if I think this is a decent watch as you can see from the rating I gave the overall outcome. This is a film about a young man working at an automobile repair shop with his dad. This is the basic background. The twist, however, is that said protagonist feels more like a woman and at night goes clubbing with his friend(s) while being dressed up as a female. During one fateful night, however, a colleague from his work sees and recognizes him there and now everything could get destroyed, especially because his father also did not know about his (let's call it) double life. Will he find out from the other guy? Will the other guy maybe understand and don't think it's too serious. How is his father gonna react if it comes out? I must say I was curious about the answers to these questions, which is one key reason why I give the overall outcome a positive recommendation here. I am generally really criticial when it comes to films that really go 100% with the mainstream flow and depict exactly what the media want (us) to see, but here it was done right somehow. I mean with the best friend's highly tolerant ethnicity, it was almost a bit too much once again because the bad guys are obviously White redneck kind of people, but the acting from everybody involved here was good enough for me to like the movie.
Lead performance this time is from Jesse James Keitel. I am never too happy with the idea that people refer to themselves as "they", but I think they can do what they like, fall in love with who they like, wear clothes that they like and it's really none of my business. The difference comes into play for me when biology and genetics are involved. You cannot simply adjust facts and science the way you like it, but here it seems as if this was the case for both lead performer as well as the character portrayed. And also for the director. Oh well. I still think the positive aspects linked to this film are more crucial. These people can act. Keitel is having a solid television career right now. Cutrona, who plays the boy's father, has appeared in pretty famous films on some occasions and the third one (Travis Hammer I believe) is also enjoying a decent career and this film here is probably also gonna help everybody to keep finding work because, as I stated early on, it received so much awards recognition. Not only in America y the way. Okay, ideas like using the title of the company with the verbal son reference are something that seems more smart initially than it really is, but I take it. In terms of atmosphere and tension, especially quiet tension, this film is also a success. They kept it subtle and it worked. The rednecks did not beat up anybody. The colleague at the company is not having a sexist meltdown. The father is not losing it either. It just feels realistic. We have an indicated happy ending with how daddy says bye and until tomorrow at least, but it's an open ending at the same time. The good thing the boy can draw here is that his father still talks to him despite what he just found out. So yeah, this is certainly a bit of a better outcome from those many, many transgender-related or LBGT-themed (short) films out there. Many times, they just rely on the subject to get seen and liked despite lacking creative impact altogether, but it's not true for this one here. The quality is there and the weaker moments (like how they show us the boy is a pro when it comes to his work) are less frequent than the good moments. Thumbs-up, but don't expect greatness because the rating here on imdb is slightly too high and the awards attention is way too high.
Lead performance this time is from Jesse James Keitel. I am never too happy with the idea that people refer to themselves as "they", but I think they can do what they like, fall in love with who they like, wear clothes that they like and it's really none of my business. The difference comes into play for me when biology and genetics are involved. You cannot simply adjust facts and science the way you like it, but here it seems as if this was the case for both lead performer as well as the character portrayed. And also for the director. Oh well. I still think the positive aspects linked to this film are more crucial. These people can act. Keitel is having a solid television career right now. Cutrona, who plays the boy's father, has appeared in pretty famous films on some occasions and the third one (Travis Hammer I believe) is also enjoying a decent career and this film here is probably also gonna help everybody to keep finding work because, as I stated early on, it received so much awards recognition. Not only in America y the way. Okay, ideas like using the title of the company with the verbal son reference are something that seems more smart initially than it really is, but I take it. In terms of atmosphere and tension, especially quiet tension, this film is also a success. They kept it subtle and it worked. The rednecks did not beat up anybody. The colleague at the company is not having a sexist meltdown. The father is not losing it either. It just feels realistic. We have an indicated happy ending with how daddy says bye and until tomorrow at least, but it's an open ending at the same time. The good thing the boy can draw here is that his father still talks to him despite what he just found out. So yeah, this is certainly a bit of a better outcome from those many, many transgender-related or LBGT-themed (short) films out there. Many times, they just rely on the subject to get seen and liked despite lacking creative impact altogether, but it's not true for this one here. The quality is there and the weaker moments (like how they show us the boy is a pro when it comes to his work) are less frequent than the good moments. Thumbs-up, but don't expect greatness because the rating here on imdb is slightly too high and the awards attention is way too high.