PopHorror Let's Get Scared
There are literally hundreds of ingredients and ideas that make or break any film of any length. However, in the land of short films, there are two key components: creativity and character, the chocolate and peanut butter of short filmmaking. If you have one, an inventive film full of dull people or a drab film full of talented people, you’re tasty. If you can manage to have both, though? You’ve got yourself a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, the undisputed god of candy. Israeli-Australian filmmaker Itai Guberman’s new short film, Dolphin (2016), is a chocolatey, peanut buttery treat from start to finish.
The plot revolves around a blind date between Erez (played charmingly by Asaf Angel) and Nicky (portrayed by the entrancing and mercurial Inbal Eizenberg) that goes to places no date, blind or otherwise, should ever go.
Guberman is clearly unafraid to play with genres and aesthetics, as the film begins jarringly, with a found footage conversation between a charming woman (Daria Ilein) and the man behind the camera. It’s a well-constructed character beat with natural dialogue and, to my delight, a Dolph Lundgren reference.
That’s where we start with Dolphin, and it only gets more inventive and engaging with compelling visual play, a brisk, winding little script, and truly human performances from the film’s leads.
Guberman, like Tarantino or Eli Roth, is not afraid to wear his references and influences like badges of honor. He filled this short with stylistic and thematic allusions to Grosse Point Blank (1997), Hard Candy (2005), and Basic Instinct (1992), just to name a few.
In twelve short minutes that feel like half that in Guberman’s hands, Dolphin explores ambiguity, sympathy and the capricious nature of justice in today’s world better than most feature length endeavors these days. Dolphin is a film very much worth twelve minutes of your time, and I am already waiting to see Itai Guberman’s name come up again.
