‘Shorts’ is a Surprisingly Enjoyable Entry into a Dying Genre
-----Director Robert Rodriguez is one of those Directors the average movie buff tends to know. Starting with low budget filmmaking, Rodriguez has since gone on to direct ‘Sin City,’ ‘Planet Terror,’ and ‘Spy Kids,’ among a plethora of others. Which one of those sounds out of place to you? Indeed, the filmmaker known for doing pretty much everything behind the scenes frequently walks a line between bloody R-Rated action pieces, and kid flicks. He does misstep here and there, but ‘Shorts’ is better than one would expect after simply seeing the trailer.
-----‘Shorts’ is a number of short stories revolving around a magic “Wishing Rock” in the suburb of Black Falls. When kids get their hands on the rock, things get silly, but when the adults find it things get downright bad. It is up to the young heroes of the numerous shorts to save their parents and their town from the mayhem the rock brings upon them.
-----Jimmy Bennett has had many roles this summer, including one in the excellent ‘Star Trek,’ and one in the dreadful ‘Orphan.’ Here he is finally the star as Toe Thompson, and his performance is adequate. Most of the kids are just OK, maybe getting a scarce laugh here or there. This is of course the beauty of the movie however, because by the time you get tired of one set of child stars, it moves on to another group. Other kids include Jolie Vanier, Jake Short, and perhaps the funniest of the lot, Trevor Gagnon as Loogie. The grownup cast is a surprising list of names including William H. Macy, Jon Cryer, and Leslie Mann of this year’s hilarious, ‘Funny People.’ They all step in with a sense of fun, and pick up some of the slack left from the many child actors.
-----The main reason that ‘Shorts’ is anything half memorable and bearable in the long run, is the bold decision by Robert Rodriguez to go through with nonlinear storytelling. All of the short stories that make up ‘Shorts’ take place out of chronological order, with Rodriguez literally putting a rewind button up on screen as the movie transitions from one segment to the next. This all leads to a conclusion that ties everything together, and if the young children the film is aimed at are sly enough to connect the dots that are scattered throughout the film then it should be a fun introduction into alternative storytelling for them. As I mentioned, this also keeps what could be a crawling pace moving, and makes sure that none of the kids on screen wear out their welcome. I wish I had seen ‘Shorts’ when I was five, so that when I first watched ‘Pulp Fiction’ roughly ten years later I would’ve been at least somewhat familiar with the nonlinear style, and could have had some idea of what was going on.
-----Other than one of the shorts, involving a giant booger, I actually found most of the film pretty entertaining and even quite funny at times. So shameless and self aware is the film, that it’s hard to hate the many protagonists. The movie is also home to a number of refreshing moral values. While some of these may expressly cater to young children, there is a satirical moment here and there that everyone should pay attention to. With the end-all of cell phones, a device that can do pretty much anything cleverly named a “Black Box,” Toe’s parents find themselves texting each other when they’re five feet apart. This is in addition to staring at screens at the dinner table, and pretty much relying solely on the devices for all of their artificial communication. This isn’t necessarily a new message, but it does amply point out one of the growing trends in modern America.
-----From a technical standpoint, the film is a bit bizarre. Sometimes the CG effects are crisply executed, and at other times they’re downright bad. Nonetheless, the environment created is one that is somewhat reminiscent of Rodriguez’s earlier no-budget work, and even his recent grind-house homage, ‘Planet Terror.’ My favorite part of the movie’s effects spectrum was its near campy level, all real and all pretty funny looking. I’m reminded of one scene where tons of candy bars start flying out of Gagnon’s pockets. Rodriguez also makes it a point to put quality cinematography in his kids’ films, with the occasional silhouette and close-up being surprisingly artful.
-----Ultimately, I was thoroughly surprised that I enjoyed ‘Shorts’ at all. Obviously aimed at kids, I recommend it only for parents with small children. That being said, there’s something to like here if your kids are able to piece the timeline together, and it’s this nonlinear format that makes it bearable for the parents. It’s just so darn harmless and so very shameless that there’s not much to dislike. Throw in the steady hands of a Director not afraid to mix it up in Robert Rodriguez, and you’ve got one of the better films I’ve seen in the nearly extinct genre of live action “kiddy” flicks. With modern animation being the way it is, most movies today strive to be family films capable of earning the big bucks. And when all is said and done I can honestly say, after seeing the likes of ‘Imagine That,’ ‘G-Force,’ and ‘Aliens in the Attic,’ ‘Shorts’ isn’t half bad as children’s entertainment.
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