On the Lot

Tonight's On the Lot was a bad night for the ladies.  As viewers know, two of the five filmmakers who screened their films last week would be sent home, just like two of the five filmmakers who screened their films tonight will be going home next week.  Adrianna Costa, in a pre-taped bit from earlier in the week, shows up to give the bad news: Hilary Graham and Shalini Kantayya received the fewest votes from America and have therefore been eliminated.  Those were probably the right choices, although I do think Shalini has potential as a filmmaker.

Tonight, the five filmmakers screened action movies.  It's not the best genre for a short film, but they hadn't done it yet, so I was on board.  Antoine Fuqua (director of The Replacement Killers, Training Day, and Shooter) acted as guest judge tonight and he was relatively insightful.  Here's what we saw:


Director #1 – Sam Friedlander - “Key Witness”

Sam is a polished director with a good visual eye.  He knows how to make movies and that's the only reason is film was salvaged tonight.  The story is a non-existent retread (cop protects a key witness from gang members), but the visuals and action make it passable.  There's a kind of cool jumping-into-a-trash-bin stunt, but nothing else of much interest.  I hope Sam moves on because he's a good director, but this film might put him in danger.


Director #2 – Jason Epperson - “Sweet”

Again, it's not an original premise (a husband forgets that it's the couple's anniversary and has to scramble for a gift) but the execution is great.  Jason brings us his best film yet with “Sweet”, proving that when Jason sticks to comedy, he's a good director.  The husband turns into an action hero while running to get flowers for his wife, doing good deeds.  There are other great aspects (talking to himself, the ending) that make this the best film of the night.


Director #3 – Andrew Hunt – “Zero to 60”

The judges liked this film a lot more than I did.  It's about a car salesman who gets caught up in a high speed chase in one of his dealership's car with a Fed.  The salesman does his best to pimp the car while the Fed is chasing a bad guy.  The car chase part is about as good as one could ask for in two days of shooting, but it just didn't work for me.  There were sever tonal shifts, and the lead actor, while amusing, seemed out of place.  Andrew might be heading home next week.


Director #4 – Kenny Luby - “The Losers”

Another near incomprehensible entry from resident weirdo Kenny.  Kenny has not made one solid, coherent film and has no business being in a directing competition.  Sure, his visuals may be interesting and unusual, but that doesn't make a good film.  This outing is about a skateboarding race down a hill.  A father takes over for his injured son and skates like a champ despite it being his first time on a board.  Kenny should be going home next week. 


Director #5 – Mateen Kemet - “Catch”

I've been disappointed by Mateen for most of the season, but I actually kind of liked his film tonight.  In only two minutes, it gave us a couple unexpected twists, and it all worked well with the characters, because we knew them.  It's about a man who chases after a criminal who robs a woman who sings in public for money.  That's all you need to know.  Visually, Mateen shows his lack of action experience, but it's not bad. 


-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer