Choosing Sides (Short)
How do you liven up a simple dinner conversation in a film, and in real life? Talk about religion. Lee Loechler’s “Choosing Sides,” written by Yael Green, looks at the always-delightful question of how one should raise their child when it comes to religion, as a Catholic father (Timothy Cox) and a Jewish mother (Rachel Lynn Jackson) try and lay out the pros and cons of each faith for their 12-year-old son (Max Plush). Needless to say, the discussion becomes an argument, although the son has a great reply to both. This is a sharp, very funny screenplay, performed wonderfully by all three actors. The topic is a rich one to mine for a single-scene short film, and Green and Loechler do a great job doing so in a short amount of time (just about 5 1/2 minutes). It’s definitely worth checking out, if you can find it (the place I was directed to was vimeo).
