{"id":8734,"date":"2010-08-12T02:00:14","date_gmt":"2010-08-12T09:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moviesharkdeblore.com\/site\/?p=8734"},"modified":"2014-10-23T13:47:34","modified_gmt":"2014-10-23T20:47:34","slug":"captain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/behindthelensonline.net\/site\/reviews\/captain\/","title":{"rendered":"CAPTAIN"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: debbie lynn elias<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are two things that jump out at you during the 13:22 minutes of CAPTAIN, a leading contender in the Short Film Competition at this year\u2019s Dances with Films Film Festival.\u00a0 First, is the exquisite cinematography of Emily Topper and second, although only on screen a scant few seconds, the oh-toooo-cute and adorable CAPTAIN.\u00a0 Both are images and qualities that stay with you after the film\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

A frustrated writer, to make ends meet, Steve has been relegated to the job of a dog-walker.\u00a0 Staring at a blank computer screen for endless hours, he gives new meaning to the term \u201cwriter\u2019s block.\u201d\u00a0 Mentally tormenting himself over the fact that he is 36 years old and written nothing while F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote \u201cThe Great Gatsby\u201d at age 29, you get the idea as to the extent of self-flagellation going on.\u00a0 Making matters worse, a few months earlier he was kicked out of a writing class because, as his instructor Carl put it, he wasn\u2019t living up to his potential and was one of Carl\u2019s greatest failures as a student.\u00a0 So imagine Steve\u2019s surprise when he gets a call out of the blue from Carl and his wife, Trish, asking him to babysit their beloved little baby Chihuahua, CAPTAIN.<\/p>\n

Trish is the epitome of the term \u201cvacuous ditzy blonde.\u201d\u00a0 Prattling on whenever she opens her mouth, she is beyond obsessive about CAPTAIN, not to mention insulting to Steve with little digs about his failures as a writer and as Carl\u2019s student.\u00a0\u00a0 With multiple medications, multiple food groupings and selected toys all lined up on the kitchen counter, plus a myriad of instructions (including singing a Tom Jones song to CAPTAIN), I was waiting to see Trish come down from the dancer\u2019s pole ensconced in her living room to knit little garments for CAPTAIN.\u00a0\u00a0 Carl, on the other hand, beyond bearing a strong resemblance to a bearded Jeff Daniels, is what one might imagine an old school frustrated actor turned writing teacher to be – semi-intoxicated with eyes half open, drink in one hand, dramatic speech patterns and grandiose arm movements flailing about with sloshing drink.\u00a0 \u00a0 Together, they make Steve more than appreciate his companionship and conversation with his dog-walking charges.<\/p>\n

With the puppy-sitting deal in place and Steve confident in his upcoming duties, he heads home for the day.\u00a0 But later that night, a tearful, bedraggled looking Trish shows up at his house yelling, \u201cYou killed CAPTAIN.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Shocked and bewildered, Steve hadn\u2019t even begun his puppy sitting as yet, how could he have killed CAPTAIN?<\/p>\n

Nicole Stuart and Jack Sundmacher are triple threats, wearing hats of not only producers and writers, but also starring as Trish and Steve.\u00a0\u00a0 Conceived as a short story by Sundmacher based on his own weekend of cat sitting for a teacher\u2019s cat, it was Stuart\u2019s idea to bring the story to life as a screenplay.\u00a0 Clearly incorporating her own life growing up in Las Vegas into the story (hence the dancer\u2019s pole and Stuart\u2019s exhibition of her pole mastery), Stuart\u2019s ditziness, while engaging, gets annoying, but she fuels the lighter comedic element of the film which as a whole is a dark, yet entertaining comedy with a wickedly surprising edge.\u00a0 Sundmacher brings a palette of emotion to Steve exhibiting angst, frustration, flippancy, bewilderment, sorrow and mortification in the course of less than 15 minutes, much of which is only enhanced by some excellent camera work.\u00a0\u00a0 Bjorn Johnson steps in as Carl.\u00a0 Former acting teacher and director to Stuart, their familiarity with each other off screen brings an ease and compatibility to their on screen relationship, with each complimenting the eccentric off-beat persona of the other.<\/p>\n

But the real star of the film is CAPTAIN (aka Oro)\u00a0 – the most precious little pup to hit the big screen in a long time (in other words, move over Papi and Chloe, there\u2019s a new top dog in Beverly Hills).\u00a0 Given the rumor that Sundmacher and Stuart are working on a feature length version of CAPTAIN which would undoubtedly include the very extended backstory given in the production notes of this film (but which I will not divulge to you now lest it spoil the feature), I can only hope that we see a lot more of CAPTAIN in the future.\u00a0 He just melts your heart.<\/p>\n

As this is a short film, the \u201cbackstory\u201d is minimal with everything occurring in the here and now, yet the script is well crafted so as to provide enough information necessary to understand the film completely – and leaves you wanting more.<\/p>\n

Director Max Brady came on board just two days before shooting started.\u00a0 Clearly, he got up to speed in record time given the quality of the final product.\u00a0 Interesting camera work, superb cinematography that is crisp, clean and vivid complete the package.<\/p>\n

O CAPTAIN!\u00a0 MY CAPTAIN! The prize you seek should be won (with apologies to Walt Whitman).\u00a0\u00a0 CAPTAIN, a \u201cMust See Festival Film\u201d at not only Dances With Films but every other festival in which it appears, is top dog.<\/p>\n

Trish – Nicole Stuart<\/p>\n

Steve – Jack Sundmacher<\/p>\n

Carl – Bjorn Johnson<\/p>\n

Directed by Max Brady.\u00a0 Written by Jack Sundmacher and Nicole Stuart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: debbie lynn elias There are two things that jump out at you during the 13:22 minutes of CAPTAIN, a leading contender in the Short Film Competition at this year\u2019s Dances with Films Film Festival.\u00a0 First, is the exquisite cinematography of Emily Topper and second, although only on screen a scant few seconds, the oh-toooo-cute […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,9],"tags":[1252],"class_list":["post-8734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movies","category-reviews","tag-captain"],"yoast_head":"\nCAPTAIN - Behind The Lens Online<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Behind the Lens is your home for in-depth movie reviews, filmmaker & celebrity interviews, and more, all by industry professional and film critic debbie lynn elias...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/behindthelensonline.net\/site\/reviews\/captain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CAPTAIN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Behind the Lens is your home for in-depth movie reviews, filmmaker & celebrity interviews, and more, all by industry professional and film critic debbie lynn elias...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/behindthelensonline.net\/site\/reviews\/captain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Behind The Lens Online\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-08-12T09:00:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-10-23T20:47:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"debbie lynn elias\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"debbie lynn elias\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/behindthelensonline.net\\\/site\\\/reviews\\\/captain\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/behindthelensonline.net\\\/site\\\/reviews\\\/captain\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"debbie lynn elias\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/behindthelensonline.net\\\/site\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2d9b602095eb0ce3d363efb75ad0b5d4\"},\"headline\":\"CAPTAIN\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-08-12T09:00:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-10-23T20:47:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/behindthelensonline.net\\\/site\\\/reviews\\\/captain\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":879,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/behindthelensonline.net\\\/site\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"CAPTAIN\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Movies\",\"Reviews\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/behindthelensonline.net\\\/site\\\/reviews\\\/captain\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/behindthelensonline.net\\\/site\\\/reviews\\\/captain\\\/\",\"name\":\"CAPTAIN - 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