Les Bêtes
Directed by Michael Granberry

Animation

★★★★ (out of ★★★★★)

Sometimes dialogue can help and sometimes it can hinder, so it’s always fun to see a short like Michael Granberry’s Les Bêtes that relies entirely on its visual language to convey a story, which it does so wonderfully. The story involves a creature with all sorts of keys to unlock various places amongst the city, gathering everyone together as they head through a mysterious doorway into a banquet where they perform for a bunch of hungry, impatient aristocrats. But the performance, somewhere along the line, doesn’t satisfy the aristocratic class, and then surreal horror strikes. In the end, only a few are left undevoured. Yet there still may remain some hope.

Sounds a bit wild, right? Les Bêtes is definitely wild. We’re witness to a strange city world in which those weirdos who perform for the ruling class are eventually treated like consumables. Perhaps it’s not that far from reality after all, in spite of the animation taking us into a world not much like our own, filled with weird wonders and the spirit of the underdog class. Granberry unlocks the fires of Hell while his city dweller performers refuse to let their art be unappreciated and gobbled up like food by the rich. And though the strange performers take their revenge, it’s not all about death and fire and brimstone. There are rays of sunshine, there’s colour, and there can be regrowth in the face of death. Maybe that’s a bit heavy for a fun, freakish short. Or, maybe, just maybe, this little film is full of quiet, profound delights.

---

Burn Out
Directed & Written by Russell Goldman
Starring Everett Osborne & Tommie Earl Jenkins

Comedy / Horror

★★★★ (out of ★★★★★)

The grind wears us all down, one way or another, which is what we witness in Russell Goldman’s hilarious and disturbing short Burn Out. Goldman’s short follows a man named Virgil (Everett Osborne) who’s working at some kind of sports management firm and desperately hoping to impress his boss (Tommie Earl Jenkins) with a new report. He’ll do anything at all necessary to get the report done and sent, in hopes of climbing the corporate ladder. He’ll even catch himself on fire, if need be. Although it’s highly likely that Virgil, like most corporate office drones, hasn’t fully considered what it means to become part of the ‘family’ in the workplace, at least in this office. Because once he makes it into the inner circle of his boss’s confidence, he’s shown the true terrors of bureaucracy.

Ever since Office Space there’s been a lovely cinematic tradition of depicting office jobs like one of the lower rungs of Dante’s Hell, and now Burn Out joins that tradition in fine fashion. Everything up until the end, while excellent, feels very expected. We watch Virgil all but literally killing himself in order to get his report done. The rest of the world fades as Virgil pushes his body to the limit in hopes that his boss will reward him for all his literal/figurative pain. After Virgil’s acceptance into the managerial class, it’s revealed to him he’s expected to continue giving up pieces of himself, his very flesh and blood, in order to “share the load” with his colleagues. The ending is a perfect mix of otherworldly horror and corporate madness that bares the ugly soul of office life. Burn Out is at once perfect satire and absolute batshit weirdness that captures all the menial horrors of a 9-5 job in a soul-crushing office.