pyrocitor
It's easy to imagine even Alan Rickman's sullen potions master Severus Snape leering his approval for Dust. After all, it's not your average feature or short film that would anchor its climax around the alternative medicinal properties of powdered human body parts. Bleak and grotesque as that may sound, Dust is a surprisingly entertaining, eerie little urban fairy tale. Co-writer/directors Ben Ockrent and Jake Russell have concocted a simple, unshowy, but strikingly shot and tightly executed mini-thriller, content to lean on their peerless lead to summon the requisite sinister atmosphere.Rickman, always excellent, is what makes the film worthwhile, demonstrating his prowess in subtle touches, which colour his work as more than rote sinister posturing. Notice how he trawls his hands across all available surfaces as he slinks between them like Nosferatu, or the little enigmatic quavers in his face, sometimes alarming, sometimes grimly funny, which only become entirely clear on retrospect. As he stalks through the film, forebodingly, it's worth the wait, with a punchline climax (Rickman's supposed stalker is, naturally, a Tooth-snorting Fairy) so wonderfully weird that it leaves you wishing Ockrent and Russell could have worked in such inventive goofiness throughout to fully play the premise to its hilt.Still – for an investment of seven minutes, Dust is creepy, clever, and, with that money shot of Rickman contorting in sensual agony as he flaps/lurches through the night like a bloated, drunken moth, delivers cinematic satisfaction you never knew you were lacking before you laid eyes on its fantastic wackiness. Give Dust a whirl, and try not to picture him pulling out his grinder the next time your child loses a tooth. Do not… disappoint me.-8/10
bob the moo
I'm not really sure where to start with this, but I'll for sure be spoiling it. The mostly dialogue free short film sees an older man follow a young mother and her child home. When he sees the child has gone to bed, he creeps into the house, checking that the mother is naked in the bath before he then sneaks into the girl's room and embraces her as she sleeps. He then mixes up a fine white powder and sniffs it up his nose off her bedroom mirror, before then getting out of her window in a drug-induced frenzy. If that sounds weirdly awful as an idea then you should consider that the man is none other than Alan Rickman and the young mother Jodie Whittaker – two people whom it should be said it is good to see still giving their time to British short films; so it suggest there is something smart or interesting about the film that must have drawn them to it.The twist is that, the man is a fairy (in the winged, tooth-collecting meaning), and we are meant to be caught off guard by this fantastical twist at the end – which you will be, because it comes out of nowhere. Problem is, up till that point the film has delivered some very odd feelings and images and the idea that the man is a fairy really doesn't address the obvious question of why the film felt the need to play quite so dark throughout, pushing emotive buttons all the way? Is there commentary here? No. Is there a link? Not really – it could be argued that the film reinvents the idea of the fairy as being more sinister and needy than kind and female, but if it is trying to do that it doesn't do it well. It bothered me that it so much went for the shock value of showing us things that all but the most innocent of viewer will immediately jump to obvious conclusions about – the child abuse aspect, the abduction aspect, the obvious drug use and so on – why push all these buttons just to have no reason or payoff for them?It doesn't help that the payoff in the film is the rather absurd sight of a grown man flapping away on tiny wings that don't look connected to him at all; all it made me think of was that the last time I saw Rickman fly through the air it was in a much better film than this (Die Hard - albeit not so good an end for his character). I have no idea what attracted him to this project. Was more promised that wasn't delivered on the screen in the end? He seems bored throughout and has nothing to work with apart from the obvious. Whittaker likewise – with a lot of big roles under her belt, this short film seems such an odd and random thing to put her name and time to.I guess some will love it for the twist and the fact that it puts a dark spin on the mythology of fairies, however for me it put too dark a spin on the whole thing – pushing buttons, playing on fears, showing overly familiar scenes, all on the way to a silly image of Rickman with tiny black wings which really makes it seem silly and therefore makes all the very dark suggestive material seem like just audience baiting. It is a mess and it doesn't deserve the cast it got not the attention that they brought to it.
robjmayhew
Wow. I normally find short films a bit self indulgent but this is so beautifully shot and really works as a beautiful piece of story telling. Alan never fails to impress and the soundtrack is more then enough for the lack of dialect. I found it haunting so beautifully shot. Want to see more from the team behind it. Its refreshing to see a story about tooth fairies told in such a cool way. Can not recommend it enough. I have since looked into how they did it and it was a kickstarter project. we should have more of these. It is great that Alan and Jodie could see that it is beautifully written and gave their time to do it. I want to see more from the guys behind it.
