{"id":41208,"date":"2023-09-27T19:49:17","date_gmt":"2023-09-27T23:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=41208"},"modified":"2023-09-27T19:49:17","modified_gmt":"2023-09-27T23:49:17","slug":"a-shining-example-2023-fantastic-fest-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2023\/09\/27\/a-shining-example-2023-fantastic-fest-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"A Shining Example (2023) [Fantastic Fest 2023]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/ashiningexample-still.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-41209\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/ashiningexample-still.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"628\" height=\"355\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/ashiningexample-still.jpg 628w, https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/ashiningexample-still-300x170.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/ashiningexample-still-2x1.jpg 2w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 628px) 100vw, 628px\" \/><\/a>Director Clarke Wolfe really has her eye on the ball when it comes to delivering darkly comic horror, and \u201cA Shining Example\u201d seems like she has so much more in store for us. Wolfe\u2019s short horror film is an ode to \u201cThe Shining\u201d that\u2019s set in contemporary times dropping us in to a much more relatable conflict. What\u2019s interesting about Wolfe\u2019s film is that she sets up so much ambiguity that we\u2019re never quite sure what\u2019s fiction and what\u2019s character Aiden\u2019s imagination taking shape when all is said and done.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>After putting her lucrative writing career on hold to raise her daughter Kailey with little help from her husband Jeff, Aiden finally has the opportunity of\u00a0a\u00a0lifetime to get back to work and show run\u00a0a\u00a0new installment in the TV franchise that put her on the map. Up against\u00a0a\u00a0deadline, toxic family dynamics arise and Aiden&#8217;s frustration builds culminating in\u00a0a\u00a0gruesome finale.<\/p>\n<p>Writer Wolfe and co-writer Dylan Guerra manage to create such a relatable film about the pressures of writing and creating and the maddening process of it all. When we meet Aiden she\u2019s a woman already crumbling under the pressure of a successful TV show, but she\u2019s forced to deal with her small albeit time consuming family. Along with a sarcastic needy daughter, Aiden also has to contend with Jeff, a lump of a husband. Jeff is played wonderfully by Andy Cohen, transforming him in to such an irritating, and obnoxious louse whose own neediness begins to test Aiden\u2019s own mental stability.<\/p>\n<p>Wolfe\u2019s direction is fantastic, skirting between the edges of dark horror and domestic satire. To boot, \u201cA Shining Example\u201d packs in a ton of great references to Stephen King\u2019s novel, from the mallet, and the bizarre cut away\u2019s. Wolfe even delivers a great iteration of the typewriter monologue that Jack Torrance gives to Wendy. I was hooked on Wolfe\u2019s own twist on this horror tale, and I love how much she leaves for interpretation, as well as commenting on the inherent mental toll writing can take.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Fantastic Fest 2023 is taking place from September 21<sup>st<\/sup> to September 28<sup>th<\/sup> at Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin, Texas.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Director Clarke Wolfe really has her eye on the ball when it comes to delivering darkly comic horror, and \u201cA Shining Example\u201d seems like she has so much more in store for us. Wolfe\u2019s short horror film is an ode to \u201cThe Shining\u201d that\u2019s set in contemporary times dropping us in to a much more [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1284,12],"tags":[259,477,938,982],"class_list":["post-41208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-indie","category-festivalsevents","category-movie-reviews","tag-dark-comedy","tag-horror","tag-short-film","tag-stephen-king"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41208"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41210,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41208\/revisions\/41210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}