A man is served tea by his wife. As he sits in a semi-darkened room, stirring the tea to dissolve the 3 lumps of sugar, he considers why he is distant from his family, and has flashes of events in his life.
With some short films there is sometimes an overly deliberate sense of delivery – particularly with shot selection with focus points edited together hoping that the flow comes out in the edit (it rarely does). With this short however, the deliberate series of clean images is much more intentional and consistent, which means it is less an annoyance and more part of the construct of the film; at first it annoyed me a little, but as I got into the way it worked, I quite liked it. Unfortunately I did not particularly like what else it did. The short seems far too consciously difficult and self- aware, often to the point where it is quite pretentious. This feeling is added to by the stark lighting, set design and the performances – all of which make a striking impression within the frame of the deliberately obtuse film, but this is not the same as saying that it all works, because it doesn't.
The Man is a short that at least knows what it wants to do, and is able to deliver on that; however as a viewing experience it is far too self-aware and conscious of its own deliberateness, which means the viewer is very much left on the outside looking in.
With some short films there is sometimes an overly deliberate sense of delivery – particularly with shot selection with focus points edited together hoping that the flow comes out in the edit (it rarely does). With this short however, the deliberate series of clean images is much more intentional and consistent, which means it is less an annoyance and more part of the construct of the film; at first it annoyed me a little, but as I got into the way it worked, I quite liked it. Unfortunately I did not particularly like what else it did. The short seems far too consciously difficult and self- aware, often to the point where it is quite pretentious. This feeling is added to by the stark lighting, set design and the performances – all of which make a striking impression within the frame of the deliberately obtuse film, but this is not the same as saying that it all works, because it doesn't.
The Man is a short that at least knows what it wants to do, and is able to deliver on that; however as a viewing experience it is far too self-aware and conscious of its own deliberateness, which means the viewer is very much left on the outside looking in.