Danny is locked a battle royale within the slimy walls of his feebly weak alcohol addled mind... booze or daughter... booze or daughter... Sam Mitchinson's searing debut infects our consciousness, giving birth to a wildchild from within the cell of his university dormitory...
Dir:- Sam Mitchinson
Starring:- Eddie Toll
Runtime:- 11 minutes
Our hero, or anti-hero as the case should be, is Danny. A plucky, seemingly likeable guy who has been battling his alcoholic demons for years. Despite the fact he has dragged himself towards the straight and narrow, he is literally drinking in the last chance saloon regarding his daughter, the relationship dangles by the tiniest of threads. We join Danny in a typically graffiti-ed telephone call box, thanking social services for giving him one last chance. His demons remain though, cruelly dominating his mind...
Normally a fan of gritty, short stories, on my daily trawl through YouTube, a flashing thunderbolt belted into my semi slumbered mind... the internet must be awash with short films? My curiosity was well rewarded- there are endless amounts of short films hiding away. Yes some are garbage, but lots are sensational- none other than Mitchinson's thought provoking offering- Depending.
The hand-held camera angles naturally shake and gently move in and out of focus reflecting Danny's fragile psyche as wall after wall is thrown up in front of him. My main reason for choosing to focus on short film was that they have the opportunity to examine difficult concepts and attitudes. Depending does just this- not a minute is wasted as we are thrown into the misfit underworld most cities exhibit. Compounded to this is our anti-hero Danny- an alcoholic struggling to drag himself out of a tough world where most people would this impossible, so how are the weak in society supposed to succeed? Surrounded in a vicious circle of depression and filth, Danny really has no chance whatsoever. I urge you to watch this film- it would represent 10 minutes out of your day- but you will seriously gain so much from it. The pacing is excellent, we are never left bored- I never checked checked the clock once- but was left breathless, my palms sweating as the final curtain came down. I shall be trawling the net to find out more about Sam Mitchinson. Fingers crossed he has made more earth shattering movies.
