Slapface (Short)
Jeremiah Kipp fascinates me as a filmmaker. His films haven’t always landed with me, but when they do, they make quite an impression, such as with his short film, “Berenice” (adapted from Edgar Allan Poe), “Black Wake” (his recent feature thriller), or “Slapface,” which is another short film from the director. All of these films felt like exceptionally-executed examples of vision with the narrative they are telling, and it’s those images that linger. I don’t know if another filmmaker of the many I’ve come to know over the years has been quite as enraptured with creating a powerful sense of style that feels very personal, although a few come close.
“Slapface” begins with a boy (Joshua Kaufman) alone in the woods, and already, I am immediately sucked in. The score by Giovanni Spinelli and the cinematography by Dominick Sivilli set an ominous tone that, I’m not going to lie, as a former Boy Scout always kind of creeps me out, but also makes me immediately fascinated by what terrors we could see happen in the forest being depicted. The fact that it is still light out makes this doubly effective, in this case, as we catch wise to a creature (Lukas Hassel) that is keeping an eye on the boy. The boy later ends up, passed out, in front of his house with his father (Nick Gregory), who has a game he plays with him.
I’m dancing around some key points in the film because it really deserves your attention to reveal some of its surprises on its own. Regardless of how successful I think each film he makes is, Kipp’s attention to character, and the emotions of the story, are always front-and-center, and that is definitely the case with this short, which lands its final impact just as it comes out of the gate- like a slap to the face, intended to get its point across.
