Most of the time we get such a backlog of short films and feature length indie films that we work hard to take them all on and review them before the year is up. In what we hope will become a new feature, “Shorts Round Up of the Week” is a column where we’ll be reviewing a round up of short films of varying quality.
If you’d like to submit your short film for review consideration, submissions are always opened to filmmakers and producers.
BOOTLEG FILES 662: “It’s the Girl in the Red Truck, Charlie Brown” (1988 TV special).
LAST SEEN: On YouTube.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: On VHS video.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: It is out of circulation for many years.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely at this time.
Following the dismal reception of his 1988 made-for-television special “It’s the Girl in the Red Truck, Charlie Brown,” Charles M. Schulz lamented that “I wanted this to be my ‘Citizen Kane,’ but it’s not.” From an Orson Welles analogy perspective, the production might have been closer to those infamous drunken outtakes for the Paul Masson champagne – a weird, embarrassing blip in the late stages of a brilliant career.
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Opens at Laemmle Theaters in Los Angeles on December 14th, and at the Quad Cinema in New York City on December 28th. Learn More Here.
Since 1998, “The Animation Show of Shows” has been a small program line up that selects the best in animated short films from all around the world. It’s presented new and innovative short films to animation aficionados at animation studios and schools, as well as theaters in the US and around the world since 2015. 38 shorts since, went on to become Oscar contenders with 11 winning the Oscar. This year, “The Animation Show of Shows” is not bereft of diversity and bold new voices, and it’s all in all a riveting experience, with eyes on personal statements and meaningful ideas.
A young mother does what she can to survive and keep her son fed, including following her boyfriend’s schemes and moving from motel to motel. That is until another option presents itself in a dire hour and she makes a decision to give her son more.
After stumbling on some information, a teenager suspects his Scout leader father to be a serial killer. His investigation will lead him down a path he may regret.
You can pretty much sense that by the time of the sequel, the whole urban legends gimmick had just about wore thin. There aren’t too many menacing urban legends that one can weaponize for a horror film. “Final Cut” pretty much feels like a copy of “Scream 2” where it’s all centered on a film school, film students, and a potential killer that may either be mimicking the movies they’ve seen, or have something so much more personal in mind when it comes to the canon fodder here.
While it’s important to note that Wes Craven’s 1995 horror entry “Scream” was a very influential horror movie that reinvigorated the slasher sub-genre, it’s also important to chronicle the films that it influenced. After the release of “Scream,” every studio far and wide began releasing their own slasher films, and many of them were whodunits, and or based around some kind of gimmick. While slasher movies are the breakdown of taboos and morality tales with the help of folklore, “Urban Legend” cuts right to the chase creating a slasher who uses urban folklore to dispense of hapless victims in a college. The results are, suffice to say, a mixed bag.