The Wintress (2008)

Director: Bill Elverman
Stars: Stephanie Johnson, Bill Elverman and Heath Sweatman

Up in the wild winds of Wisconsin, Liz is chopping wood with a black eye when Mike shows up trying to find Sam, her significant other and his best friend. He hasn't shown up for work, he isn't in any of the usual places he goes on a drunk and nobody seems to know where he could have got to. Liz knows though and what she shows Mike (and how he reacts) comprises our plot.

This is an intriguing little film. It's only 24 minutes long, which makes it a decent length for a short, plenty of time to throw out an idea and let things unfold. We find out pretty quickly what's happened but we're still left in suspense wondering where it's all going. We're not sure who's telling the truth and so we try to figure out whether there are any clues in the dialogue. What we know more than anything is that we don't know everything.

It's an intriguing little film, written and directed by Bill Elverman, who also plays Mike. He's best known as an actor, obviously in demand given the string of credits to his name: he made what could well be seven feature films in 2008 alone. Given that this is very much his work I'm really interested to seeing what else he's getting up to. There are a couple of his short films linked from IMDb and I'll definitely follow up by watching those.

This isn't perfect, though it's a neat little picture. The composition of frame is particularly excellent for a small scale film but the camerawork is shaky, especially when it's trying to track. The lighting is a little dim and the sound is inconsistent. I think the crew are working beyond the level that their equipment can take them. I hope they get the budget and equipment to be able to take it all to that next level.