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★★★
Starring: #KieranReeves, #ZainUllah, #TeniOsho, #ArchieClark, #OliviaBurley
Directed by: #Shayaan
Short Film Review by: Alexandra James
After Hours is a short crime film that explores some extremely dark themes. The film begins in a flat, people have been drinking, but there is one girl in particular who seems to have taken drunkenness to another level and unfortunately for her, this leaves her in a very dangerous and vulnerable position. The audience at this stage can guess what happens next for this young girl, and its at this point the story takes a sinister turn. Director Shayaan who also created North Nights has a clear passion for crime and gangster theme short films and has created his own cinematic style and its interesting to see this carry through to the film After Hours. You can see there is a particular look and feel to each of his films and its great to see this established style develop within his projects.
Many of the camera angles used throughout this film were diverse and set this film at an impressive level in terms of quality. There were occasions that the film appeared too dark in places so became difficult to make out what was taking place, however, the car scenes and within the parking garage were all fantastic and helped to create this into an action-packed short. Moreover, the main protagonist was a great choice of actor, the character was filled with rage and needed to establish that dominance over others, so it was crucial that he was able to tap into that deep emotion and convey his pain and torment. I would liken this actor to Stephen Graham, who can portray a wide range of emotions in such a deep and raw way that the audience are able to feel that character’s pain. This is a crucial skill to adopt for any actor and makes for an exciting and dramatic film. Unfortunately, not all the actors were up to this standard, and this can simply be put down to inexperience and lack of confidence, this is a skill that can be acquired over time, it meant that some of the characters seemed very detached from the scene and looked somewhat emotionless when dealing with some extremely heavy and dark subjects.
It was also difficult to understand how the characters were connected to one another and the story sometimes became lost amongst the chaos. With a short film, the audience need to be able to connect with the characters and know the link between them to follow the central story. When trying to determine this, the story becomes confused, and it can be hard to remain engaged. Keep it tight and concise, with such an action packed and dramatic piece we need to establish whose who so that we can watch the turmoil unfold and develop.
All in all, there are some great elements to this film and Shayaan should continue to develop his projects further and delve deeper into the world of crime films, this is a clear passion of the directors that should be explored.
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