It’s like a movie potluck!

I just rented the DVD Celebrity Mix – a compilation DVD of sorts. It contains eight short independent films. Now, I know independent films are meant to be thoughtful, meaningful, interesting – and short films imply that they are kind of what the short story is to the novel. But, unfortunately, for every Brokeback Mountain there’s a chocolate rabbit out there that I can’t possibly bring myself to eat because of word association with The Brown Bunny. To make a long story short (ha, ha), there’s a pretty mixed batch on this group – a few good ones, a few, well, not so good.

Goldilocks offers a cold shoulder to narcoleptic Sleeping Beauty

My favorite of the batch is Waking Dreams (2004), starring Ben Shenkman (of Angels in America, another one of my favorites) and Tina Holmes. When Becky the temp (Holmes) warns Charles the executive (Shenkman) about his impending death, he takes the news lightly – maybe a little too lightly for the psychic/psycho temp. Another contender is Dysenchanted (2004), Terri Miller’s vision of a fairy tale support group. While Dr. Jim Belushi mediates the session, Goldilocks blathers about OCD while Cinderella harps on Prince Charming; divorced soccer mom Clara thinks maybe she doesn’t belong, but the Disney-esque heroines convince her otherwise. House Hunting (2003), starring Zooey Deschanel, Paul Rudd, and Terry Kinney, follows an argumentative married couple in their search for a house while dealing with a klepto of a realtor.

If this were a studio film, this is the moment when the meteor would smash into the car.

Of course, that’s the whole silver lining. There are five more shorts on this DVD that were subpar or, even worse, mediocre. David Hyde Pierce is admirable as Laud Weiner, but the character sketch is ultimately uninteresting. Media Whore (2002) is simply annoying, while the thriller Curiosity (2005) fails to pique mine. Then there’s Mr. Dramatic (2005), which relies on style rather than substance. Dependable People (2001) may have been interesting, but not really enough to hold my attention (a ten-minute film can’t hold my attention – I wonder what that says about it).

Ali MacLean annoys Coolio too!

I don’t know if I could recommend the DVD since I like less than half the films, but if you like indies you might want to give it a shot. I’m probably being horribly critical – it’s hard to make a short movie, with or without a budget or a big star – but I’m not that easy to please.