Horst in Translation ([email protected]) It's 1991, Robert Rodriguez is in his mid-20s and casts a whole bunch of his siblings for his very first movie, a nine-minute short film on a normal brother-sister relationship which takes a turn for the supernatural. It's in black and white just like the majority of his trademark film Sin City roughly 15 years later. When two siblings fight outside the house, the girl falls hard and awakes realizing something happened with her head when her brain hit the ground and all of a sudden she's able to move things with the power of her mind. She uses the newly-acquired ability to go full rampage on her brother and exact her revenge. However, in doing so, she falls again shortly after and may have lost her power again? Or has she?Bedhead is a decent, occasionally funny effort that doesn't really hold a candle to much of what Rodriguez has done afterward though. Actually, I think it's a pretty nice watch for children even, maybe more than for adult, who may find the eating of a cockroach, the girl constantly flying through the air etc. funnier than people our age group. Recommended to Rodriguez completionists, otherwise you can give this one a pass.

bob the moo It was a typical Saturday morning. Rebecca is easting breakfast with her little sister (as ever done up in high fashion). The arrival of her noisy and aggressive brother at the table ruins the peace of quiet as, on top of having the worst bed-head in the world, he is also a typical pain in Rebecca's life. Later in the day, the bullying and annoyance continues, with Rebecca falling to the ground and knocking herself out cold. She comes to quickly but instantly she finds that the knock has given her powers that she could either use wisely for the benefit of mankind, or to take revenge on her brother. What a choice… A curio piece that I found from early in the career of Robert Rodriguez, using his own family as his cast and his own home as his set. The plot is simple and the idea is that it sets up lots of physical comedy as Rebecca's powers come into play. Unfortunately the limitations of the film prevent it being hilarious because the material is not that inspired; if it weren't for the presence of Rodriguez then it would probably not be worth seeing. As it is, it is interesting to see the way that Rodriguez's hyper style was there from the start. Here it needs refining but it is there none the less.The main positive factor in the film is from Rebecca herself. She is cute and charming, with great charisma and she does drive the film forward by her personality. David has less of a character and is not as good because of his role within the film. Overall though, it is quite an amusing short film but it is not as strong as many have said and does benefit from the curiosity value of being an early short film demonstrating the distinctive hyper/cartoon style of Rodriguez.

Polaris_DiB The people most likely to be interested in watching this short film would be fans of Robert Rodriguez and thus would watch it looking for Rodriguez-style independent film-making. For those people, they'll get everything they want... fast-paced action, fast-paced camera movement, fun and funny storytelling, and a general sense of know-how often unseen in first-time shorts (and of course that's because it's not really a first-time short... see "Rebel without a Crew").Those who happen to stumble across this film, though, won't have to be well versed in Rodriguez's style (and also, Rodriguez's style isn't a style that is that difficult to be well-versed in). It's still fun and fast-paced and funny. So there you go.It's available on the El Mariachi DVD if anyone's interested in seeing it.--PolarisDiB

GroovBird Actually a simple, funny, and real low budget "try out" movie, probably his debut as well. The whole thing is in black and white, and it's so low budget he uses his own son and daughter for actor an actress.And they both can act as well!I saw the whole thing (doesn't take more than 30 minutes) on a laserdisc of El Mariachi.