JT vs. the Good Guys (Short)
Writer/director Chris Shimojima, whose terrific short, “Madeleine Zabel,” I reviewed last year, has come up with one of the most original ways of approaching the topic of bullying I’ve seen spring up in the past few years. This time around, it’s the bully (JT, played by John Shepard) who is the outcast, surrounded by regular people (the “Good Guys” of the title) who think he goes overboard in his taunting during a game of Ultimate Frisbee, and decide to take matters in their own hands. We don’t get much background information about any of the main characters, although we do get the sense of JT having a previous relationship with one of the girls at the field that day, or at least jealousy that she’s with another man. The idea of having the bully be the main character is, to say the least, an unorthodox one, and indeed, JT is given more depth than any of the other characters in the film. But Shimojima’s point with this film, I think, is to see the loneliness of JT’s existence, and the existence of those who bully, from the inside. He doesn’t sympathize with JT, but rather presents him as he is. Is he changed in the end, after those around him have given him a taste of what bullying is like from their perspective? Maybe, but maybe not; that’s really a story for another film. As the credits begin to roll, JT is still standing by himself in that field.
