Short Film Review: “Possessions”
Director: Zeke Farrow
Never will a short film take you on such a wild journey!
We open on Zeke, a man on the verge of a crisis. Unhappy with his life, he decides that he needs to reinvent himself, and in order to do so, he needs to sell all of the possessions in his life that aren’t useful. In the process, he turns this part of his journey-of-change into an art project, documenting his quest to free himself of useless items while encouraging those who purchase his possessions to create pieces of art with them themselves on social media.
And so, we’re initially lured in to the film under the guise of it being a documentary and part of his art project, but instead of seeing Zeke’s journey of reinvention, it’s the film that reinvents itself instead! After Zeke’s friend Christine purchases one of his useless possessions - a piece of the Berlin Wall - and begins to share her new found obsession with it on social media, we’re no longer along for the ride with Zeke’s art project, we’re in the middle of a dark comedic horror film. This subtle change in genre is so brilliantly done, that you almost don’t realise that you’re in the middle of a totally different movie until it’s too late.
As a writer & director, Zeke astutely taps into and parodies people’s obsession with and self-importance on social media. He also uses the faux-documentary aesthetic to great effect, giving him the perfect medium to set-up proceedings but also then acknowledge and document the tonal shift as he skewers all of our expectations as his cute little art project descends into madness. The script is painfully funny, bordering on bad taste, but the complete obliviousness of these narcissistic characters somehow redeems them. They’re all victims in one way or another who will learn absolutely nothing from these events.
Almost everything about this film (the title, genres, performances, story and characters) is about duality, double meanings and contrasting values. Much like as in real life, nothing and no one is one thing or the other - and this becomes the most truthful aspect of the film which cleverly grounds the lunacy of proceedings in some sort of reality.
As performers, Zeke Farrow is brilliant, gently guiding us through his adventure turned mis-adventure while knowingly lampooning his own vanity and inserting killer one liners at the most inappropriate of moments, but it’s Christine Woods who really steals the show as her obsession with Zeke’s former possession gets ahold of her and spirals out of control. Christine effortlessly balances the constantly changing dynamic of her role and seems to relish the opportunity to do so.
Possessions is a bloody funny film about our obsessions with the possessions that possess us.
8/10
Possessions was nominated for Best Actress for Christine Woods and Best Comedy at our 2022 film festival.
Reviewed by Philip Pugh
