Couple weeks ago, I started to
watch short films on YouTube for inspirations. Fortunately, I stumbled upon
this one. The title itself, well, explains the whole theme about this short
feature. The Neighbors’ Window is a short film written and directed by Marshall
Curry. The premise is about a story of Alli (played by Maria Dizzia), a mother
of young children who has grown frustrated with her daily routine and husband (played
by Greg Keller). But her life is shaken up when two free-spirited
twenty-somethings move in across the street and she discovers that she can see
into their apartment. This short film was uploaded on 22 December 2019 on the
director’s YouTube channel, and it was scored with some accolades like winning
an Oscar for Best Short Film.
The presentation is quite simple.
No grandeur storyline or set. Just a simple apartment, two different families,
that’s all! I can say that there is nothing astonishing in term of technique.
But what makes it interesting is the social message that is really powerful and
touching.
Sometimes, we look at the
neighbors’ window and see their “perfect” life, and we slowly invested with
this kind of situation. The cloud of judgment started to appear. At first, we
criticized our neighbors by doing what it seems like to be in happy/joyful
moments, but actually we started to be obsessed with them. We tried to do
something like spying the neighbors and constantly forgot that we are living
our best life, too.
It is actually sad that we live
in such condition like this, every single day. We tend to see others’ success
without seeing that maybe they have been through hell before those moments or
doing some bad deeds that could lead into their own destruction. We always
focus on the good view of life and not the bad ones. And we sometimes forget
that inside our window, the life could be much better than the neighbors’. The
grass may look greener on the other side, but we can make ours greener by
watering them.
I know I’m not supposed to give life
lessons, but I think this topic is really interesting to discuss, and it is
really relatable to our life. We might have a look at the success at the other
and be envied with it. We start to compare our life with them and our mind
starts playing on things that could have been done in the past so maybe we
couldn’t be ended up on this situation. People have different ways in
overcoming problems and in obtaining success. If maybe we look at the positive
side of it, just to make us feel more inspired to do things, that’s fine. But if
it ends up finally judging ourselves for not doing enough and feel useless, gotta
better stop. Stop killing ourselves by making self-comparisons, because
comparison itself the real thief of joy. Things take times. We have the full
control of our own happiness, not other people.
Damn, I almost forgot that I’m supposed to review this film.
The performances of the actors
are really great, they successfully portrayed the emotions of people who envied
to their neighbor. The presentation is pretty simple. The plot is predictable, but
the message of this film is delivered very well. it’s not necessarily one of the
best short films I’ve seen. Don’t get me wrong, it is actually a good short
film with strong messages. It is still enjoyable to watch in free time.
Here is the link if you want to
watch it:
Written,
directed & edited by: Marshall Curry
Starring:
Maria Dizzia, Greg Keller, and Juliana Canfield
Produced by:
Jonathan Olson & Julia Kennelly
Executive
Produced by: Elizabeth Martin
Director of
Photography: Wolfgang Held
Music by:
James Baxter & The National
Comments
Post a Comment