Fish Hook (Short)
Another short, and another tone for the writing team of Nickolas Duarte and Drew Grubich after their previous collaborations, “Joke” and “Sea Change.” A few minutes at a time, Duarte (who also directs) and Grubich are showing themselves as an exciting pair in terms of pushing themselves into different territory with each successive short film, and in “Fish Hook,” they tell a haunting story of confronting the source of past pains, and putting it behind us. From the moment we see him, Brandon (Ryan DeLuca) has the look of someone who has experienced some sort of trauma in his past. He receives an email from a friend, Dewey, asking if he’s heard from a Mr. Mike (Paul Hickert), who, we learn, is an old acquaintance of Brandon’s, I’m guessing a youth counselor or something from his childhood. From their in-person interaction together, it’s not hard to figure out what’s only been hinted at, and what will happen when they meet.
“Fish Hook” isn’t quite as successful as “Joke” or “Sea Change,” but it’s not far off. The emotional pull of “Sea Change” is missing from this film, but that story of two sisters dealing with a truly heartbreaking situation has a more palpable hook that few stories could match, although “Fish Hook” has an atmosphere of pain that, though numbing, grabs you, nonetheless. (As for comparisons with “Joke,” there are none– that subversive look at the subjective nature of comedy is one-of-a-kind.) The ending shows that even when we feel like we make peace with the past, sometimes, we really don’t. It’s that kind of unresolved feeling that Duarte and Grubich do very well, and helps make their movies together unique pleasures.
