Short Film Review

Film Info:
What would you do if your partner had committed the most heinous of crimes?

Written By: Paul McGowen
Directed By: Mike Clarke
Genre: Thriller
5 Minutes

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LOVE'S INNOCENCE LOST ( 2016 )

  Seldom in the independent film world, or any world for that matter, does a weekend shoot mainly for fun and practice, end up becoming such a nice piece of work. It's always easy to say: Let's get together this weekend and make something cool! But in the words of the great Arnold Schwarzenegger, "I don’t want to hyurt you, donnt publish that or... All Be Bock! " - In plain English, weekend shoots rarely produce anything that people want to see. Rather the opposite, if you're lucky you may have a decent YouTube video. Maybe. "Love's Innocence Lost" is different. For what it's worth, I found this short film written by Paul McGowen more entertaining than most feature length indie flicks I've watched lately. I'm not saying there's been no good independent films this last while, just that this one ended up being a winner in my books. I was very relieved to have something good to type about. Let's leave it at that.
  "Mike Clarke", comfortable in the directors chair, manages to coax out some awesome performances from the talented cast. Jammed into just five minutes, "Love's Innocence Lost" packs the same amount of punch of a film with five times the length. I'm not talking explosions and huge, massive martial arts scenes, complete with some stellar special effects; more like a dramatic kick in the gut with a slight twist at the end. The script, although smart enough to shine through it's paper self, would not have been the same with a mediocre performance from either of the two lead characters. Aside from a few audio drop-outs, that really weren't all that bad, the talent pushes "Love's Innocence Lost" to some nice dramatic heights, finishing off with a slight wind-down by way of the camera work itself. Did I see what was coming? I suspected, but let's not talk about that. You'll have to watch for yourself.
  Complimenting the narrative is a slick edit and some excellent camera work with very few visible flaws. For me, the framing of the film was clearly designed to showcase the actors, and worked for the most part. A slice or two may have went a little soft in the focus department, but that's really no big deal, all things considered.
  "Love's Innocence Lost" is a strong character driven film. The stellar performances taken from a smart script, prove that you can entertain with little to no money, so long as you have a good team backing you up. For essentially a one room short film, this flick feels so much larger than it actually is. If you don't walk away feeling slightly uncomfortable, or maybe a little sick... than you're not human! The real kicker however, is when the credits roll and your imagination begins to take over. Such as it is with a good film, what you see and hear onscreen is only the beginning of the story.

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