Short of the Day
A bold and audaciously funny film from writer-director Zia Anger.
There’s taking your passion seriously, and then there’s making sure everyone around you knows you’re taking your passion seriously. The first is integral to creative dedication, to getting out of the realm of dreams and into the realm of reality, while the second is pretentious, loud-mouth grandstanding and likely says you want to be thought of as whatever sort of artist you’re aspiring to more than you actually want to put in the work and be one.
This kind of self-seriousness is part of what writer-director Zia Anger is exploring in her latest short, a heady comedy called My Last Film that is presented as a diptych about acting, or more specifically, actors.
The first part of the film deals with a pair of young women, played by Lola Kirke (Mozart in the Jungle) and Kelly Rohrbach (Baywatch), the latter of which is lamenting to the former just how hard acting is while they stroll through Brooklyn, while part two focuses on an older actress (Rosanna Arquette, Pulp Fiction) delivering a monologue to a bathroom mirror. Both take unexpected twists towards their end, making My Last Film more than observational humor, but something far more devious and artistic.
Anger has been directing music videos for a while now, including a few for the great Angel Olsen and my favorite Strand of Oaks song, “Shut In,” and her short work – which previously includes the award-winning I Remember Nothing – demonstrates a storytelling ability that demands to be expanded into features. Watch this, visit her site, then file her name away in your memory, because I guarantee you there are big, beautiful things coming from Zia Anger.
By the way, if you enjoyed the film Anger suggests you show appreciation by donating to the ACLU, which you should do regardless.
Online premiere at NoBudge.com