The Best of RESFEST, Volume 1

In an almost textbook display of style over substance, this compilation of 16 shorts from the world-traveling digital film festival known as RESFEST offers up an impressive array of young filmmakers showing off their technical chops without, unfortunately, much narrative sophistication. The best of the fest, in my opinion, are: Dean Mermell's "Modern Life," a wonderful piece in which an upwardly mobile workaholic couple's spirits leave their bodies at night to engage in the playful interaction missing from their tired real lives; Thomas Trail's "A Portrait of Harry," a brief but cinematically vibrant portrait of an 88-year-old ukulele player; and Stefan Nadelman's "Latin Alive," a colorful melding of bright animated imagery, clever word-play, and song. Unfortunately, many of the other entries, while absolutely professional looking, are one-trick ponies (such as Zach Schlappi's "Pasta For War," a typical WWII propaganda piece that substitutes pasta for soldiers, Jose Javier Martinez's "Luz," in which a Pippi Longstocking-coiffed little girl wanders into a theater where--cue the endlessly self-referential loop--she sees herself wandering on the big screen). Ultimately, for public libraries, the maker/breaker film will be "Deformer," Mike Mills' bizarre short documentary on skateboarding champ Ed Templeton and his wife Deanna, shot in Huntington Beach, California--the bold bright sunlit colors and edgy guitar soundtrack are appealing, but frequent full frontal nudity (Ed paints portraits of Deanna) and Polaroid pictures of Ed's penis will raise a few eyebrows, and while we might agree overall with Ed's self-assessment ("maybe not normal, but not weird"), audiences are treated to more of Ed's personal life than they might perhaps want to know. Adventurous collections will want to consider; others can safely pass. Aud: C, P. (R. Pitman)