★★
Directed by: Eddie Bammeke Starring: Lynn Lowry, Eddie Bammeke, Paul Sutton, Eirian Cohen, Rachel Brownstein and Ricky Matthews Short Film Review by: Rachel Pullen
Being an actor must suck in the early days, audition after audition for roles you don’t even want, people rejecting you time and time again, always the small fish in a big pond of thousands, all wanting the same thing, easy to say I would never do it.
Short film First Impressions Can Kill is Eddie Bammeke’s tale of the highs and lows of trying to make it on the big screen through the eyes of one hopeful actress who for some reason does not seem to understand her own range in regards of the roles to audition for.
We see our leading lady facing an audition for an aggressive male role within a film, yet she is a meek middle aged women, and after some disagreement with the casting director, she gets the chance to strut her stuff...which is not a lot.
Yet not wanting to take no for an answer she is aided in murdering the other actors as well as the casting director to ensure that she is able to score the part she wants, we see her go on to repeat this pattern throughout Bammeke’s short film.
Confused, yeah you should be, sadly there is little to explain the reasoning behind this desperate actress’s desire to be cast in roles she cannot play, this becomes frustrating, distracting and leads to the attention from the viewer becoming strained and distant.
There are a lot of things that seem to fall short with First Impressions Can Kill; sounds quality being the main issue. I viewed the film on different devices to ensure it was not my software, but sadly no, it seems muffled and lacks consistency, and if anyone knows anything about making film, it’s ensuring a high quality of sound production as it can make or break when it comes to keeping the attention of the viewer.
As for the performances from the actors, they are acceptable across the board, no one in particular stands out as a new and upcoming talent but at the same time they are not unbelievable to watch, we are able to get a sense of the world they are living in and their enthusiasm for the storyline which makes for a comfortable watch.
This short is not something I would jump to watch again, but that’s not to say it’s terrible, with its quirky sense of comedy and interesting, if not somewhat confusing storyline. It’s hard to deny the originality of the script, and in a day and age where so many things are remade or storylines are churned out over and over in the same manner originality speaks volumes.
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