Tsunami (2022)is a short film directed by Joel Shafer. The film stars Earl McWilliams and Franchesca Davis as its only cast members. This fifteen-minute film touches the topic of toxicity in marriages and lack of communication between married couples.

Trailer:

Raymond and Janine have been through hell and back. Due to a recent death in the family, the couple have yet to come to terms with this recent event. Both have always managed to weather the storm, however this particular storm may by the demise of their relationship.

The Good:

The film’s main focus is on the sensitive topic of committing infidelity in marriages. Raymond and Janine were once in love, but now they aren’t. With time, both of them have started drifting further apart from their married relationship.
然而,直到珍妮被了解Raymond’s infidelity, that the storm breaks out.

A noticeable aspect of the film was itslong-duration camera cuts。I noticed a fewmonologueswhich were acted out in one gowithout any breaks, something that is quite commendable.
Another thing which I liked was thedirection of the film。Thecamera angleswere not very stable, which gave araw effectto the film. Thecamera shoots felt more real and candiddue to this.

While I could sense something was brewing, theplot twist in the endwas still a breath of fresh air for me. The ending scene added another layer to Janine’s character, and the audience will understand her emotions far better after watching till the end.

Theending scenewith Janine holding her phone to her ear and a single drop of tear rolling out on her cheek was shot beautifully. It perfectly resembled ‘actions speak louder than words’, andone could feel Janine’s emotions through the screen.

The Bad:

While experimenting with the topic of infidelity in under fifteen minutes was a bold step, I feel that theplot lacked in various ways.It feltunoriginal and even slightly unconvincingthat the couple conversed about such a serious topic in barely few minutes.

A major drawback of the film was itsscript。Thedialogues felt repetitive and sometimes overly dramatic。It didn’t help that thedelivery of these dialogueswas also done in an unnatural manner. It contrasted the raw camera shots, and took away the focus from the plot.

While I don’t have any complaints with Earl McWilliams’ performance, I wasn’t particularly fond of the female lead and producer,Franchesca Davis’ acting。我觉得她的交付对话以各种方式缺乏，her dead eyes didn’t convey the emotions properly。

Lastly, I didn’t like theerratic soundtrackthat was added randomly in between scenes in order to give them a more dramatic feel. It felt quitedistracting and unnecessary。

判决：

Tsunami wasdefinitely not one of my favourite short filmsthat I’ve watched this year. Even fifteen minutes of the filmfelt too long, and I got tired of the back-and-forth arguments of the couple, only to end in a dramatic reveal.

Directed By:Joel Shafer
Produced By:Franchesca Davis, Mike Weldon, Joel Shafer
Cast:Franchesca Davis, Earl McWilliams

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