Local Director's Film Looks At Life In The Big Small Screen
By Robert Thomas
If you have ever been to a film festival you will know that the festival is more than the premiere of the next great feature film but it is also the breeding ground of some of the new up and comers in the film industry.
These are the film makers who don’t have the large and massive budgets but they use short films to tell a story.
Often they deal with subject matter that big budget feature film makers often do not want to tell or simply ignore.
The same is true of local filmmaker Dustin Hlady in his latest production Miller Goes To Town (A Love Letter To Saturday Night Live). Although not yet entered into a film festival – but I am guessing it, or at least another cut of it, may well be headed for Yorkton this year – the short film tells a distinctive Prairie story.
A distinctive story told by local residents.
And for those of you into the local Moose Jaw arts and music scene there are some local actors you may well recognize.
It is not just a Prairie story but also a critique of some of the aspects of small town life versus the large metropolis.
It is the re-telling of a life filled with abandonment, separation, isolation and dealing with some of the stereotypes which are when you think about it the reality we all live in.
Filmed in black and white with a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera the low budget film breaks some cinematography rules right off the start.
Black and white is not the past for filmmaker Hlady but it is the present with vivid but limited colour clips interspersed to show the past. It in many ways imbues a classic feel to the film.
The film itself portrays one character at a time and there is no actual physical acting.
The cast - supplied photo
It is simply the story told by the actors in their own words with a narrator to help set the scene and carry the film along.
The film tells the story about Miller the local small town odd ball who by sheer accident has moved his life to revolve around a TV show.
And that show is Saturday Night Live.
Saturday Night Live serves as Miller's reason to live. To carry on without it he likely would have no escape from a life of bullying, being an outcast and a rebel to social normality.
It’s all wrapped up in just one goal to actually be part of the show.
In some ways Hlady's Miller can be described as Jim Carrey in The Cable Guy but all to a limit.
Miller's infatuation is not totally driven to the point he fully assumes and plays a role from the iconic show.
He is no Chevy Chase, Steven Martin or Will Ferrell wannabe he is in many ways his own individual. Even if he is unable to admit it.
The characters and skits he sees on Saturday evening’s growing up and into later life is for Miller his only true parent.
Miller should have developed in a regimented life steeped in rural Saskatchewan conformity. But he resists the life his divorced mother and others want for him.
There is no social boundary or religious control of fanatical Pentecostalism which will force his conformity.
Miller is portrayed as a individual fighting back against the system literally taking a physical beating at times to be his own person.
Raised by a mother intent on chain smoking her way to heaven mixed with religious fervour Miller cries out for escape. His father in the city seems to be the only answer out. But it is all an illusion which Miller replaces with the fantasy world of Saturday Night Live.
The show drives Miller forward as he takes the one big chance and goes to New York with the outlandish hope of getting a prized ticket to be in the audience. He only has 24 hours to accomplish his mission.
A mission which fails like so many other things in his life.
Miller's naivety in the Big Apple leads him to seek out Rachel a former lost soul from teenage Pentecostal Bible Camp where the action moves to the past and both confess to their failures and successes.
Rachel has spent years in the metropolis of New York but admits she is still trying to define her life. She is far away from home but cannot shake the hold it has on her.
Miller and Rachel decide to go out for a drink and if you think there is a love affair and one night stand about to happen you may be surprised with the outcome.
Without giving away more of the plot watching to the end is far worth it unless you are overly religious and if so you may pray the film along with the entire cast are things you hope burn in …..
But other than that the short film ends brilliantly as Miller finds out he is not the naïve outsider but his life and ideas are just as good as Saturday Night Live.
As a total film Miller Goes To Town (A Love Letter to Saturday Night Live) is a fine effort for what Hlady says is just a pilot.
But I ask a pilot to what?
More Miller or more stories centered around the lives of those who call the Friendly City home?
It’s something the short film never tells. It leaves the cast, crew and producers open to more storytelling they are simply not revealing to us.
The film is both intriguing and worth a watch – I give it a 3.8 out of 5.0 in the short film genre.
Miller Goes To Town (A Love Letter To Saturday Night Live) is available for free on Vimeo by clicking here.