'YOUR REALITY'
- Directed by Top Tarasin -
Alicia is a lovely girl working as a PR manager and one day, at a coffee shop, she meets the man of her dreams. One thing leads to another, their relationship seems to blossom, and at some point, they decide to move together.
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Based on what the audience gets to that very moment, everything seems warm lightened, all the details seem on point, having a natural cosiness, nothing strange, maybe just the title makes you question if there is any backstory ongoing. The director of photography reaches to shape a perfect world, where the frame pictures are just flawless, and even when Sophie, Alicia's best friends asks her how's it going, she assumes that everything is excellent! Even if we can feel uncertainty in her voice, the unimpeachable picture distracts the attention from the plot twist that will reach just at the end of this storyline.
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Blaming everything on her alcohol addiction, Alicia's boyfriend seems always to blame her for going too far with the alcohol, as she embarrasses him all the time. From the very first objection, things start to feel odd. Up until this moment, the story perspective has been shaped on Alicia's point of view. We were led to empathize with her, as she is pretty, works really hard, and even if sometimes she doesn't get along well with her patronizing boyfriend, the message that she would be an alcoholic doesn't seem right at all. The plot twist coming at the end is well prepared. However, it has a comprehensive explanation so everybody no matter of age or film critique experience will get it and yet remain mesmerized, even there are some hints here and there throughout the movie.
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This short film has such a good flow that this 20 minutes long piece of filmmaking almost feels like the time flies away while watching it, keeping the viewers mesmerized until the very end. The editing creates smooth pacing, having such a good cutting up prepared, the quantity of the frames makes it more natural to watch and fools you in pursuing just certain aspects of the story.
The pursuit for subtlety is the real name of the feeling you get after being hit by the twist. It makes you think about all the possible hints that you may have missed along the journey, and every time you decided to overlook. And that precisely stands for the way mind and the memories of a gaslighting victim work. It's not something violent or evident at a first look, but it's undoubtedly a problem that we don't usually face, as it may seem new or unfamiliar to most of us.
That's why we appreciate this short story told in such an elegant and crafty way, having a complicated, yet less debated topic on the table. The execution and approach are admirable, as the film has a language which is accessible for a viewer of any age.
We can't wait to have a look at other short films made by this crew. We loved the style, the idea and the approach of this one!