That Terrible Jazz (Short)
Private investigator Sam Sellers (Ephraim Davis) is called by a bar owner (Nicky, played by Timothy J. Cox) to track down a sax player who’s gone missing from the house band. The band is going on stage tonight, and need their sax player. Sellers starts tracking down leads, but the truth may not be what he wants to find.
Film noir is a tricky business for modern filmmakers, because more than any other genre, it came out of a specific time and place, and the basic pieces have never really evolved over the years; done the wrong way, it can seem, simply, like play-acting. (See the “Sin City” sequel for an example of how it can go very wrong.) Thankfully, writer-director Mike Falconi has a good ear for the genre’s cadences, and a smart eye at casting (not just for a look, but an attitude) that helps his short, “That Terrible Jazz,” hold our interest. The black-and-white photography, the performances, and the music all work to tell a story that we may feel like we’ve seen before, but still has something to tell us about ourselves.
