SXSW Film Reviews
By Eli Kooris, Fri., March 18, 2005
'The Death of Salvador Dali'
REEL SHORTS 2
D: Various
A shame "Heavy Mental" ended up in this collection of Reel Shorts, for it is by far the shortest and lowest budgeted. Not to say that Greg Gilpatrick's short isn't entertaining (how can convincing telekinesis effects not be?), yet it stands out – perhaps purposefully – compared to the superb longer subject films. Simbi Hall's "Long Story Short" comes from the AFI director's Workshop for Women, a witty, charming film about declaring your individuality ... and the complications of black women's hair. "The Kings of Christmas" is a tight, fascinating documentary about seven New York City residents who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each winter decorating their homes with glittering dioramas to commemorate America's largest consumer holiday. "Desastre," Jay Field's hilarious featurette, charts the life of a young American boy who speaks and lives like a Frenchman. The best of the group by a thin handlebar moustache has to be Delaney Bishop's "The Death of Salvador Dali," a perfectly executed vision based on an actual meeting between the surrealist painter and world-renowned psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. None of these shorts, though, will disappoint. Alamo Drafthouse Downtown, 1:30pm
