Speechless (2006) Online

I'm a bit disappointed overall. Apple stuff is what clever folks use, especially the clever in film. Last year, Apple sponsored an instant movie project and this was the winner.

The films had to be three minutes, and there isn't much you can do in those three time constraints: the age of the participants, 24 hours to make, three minutes' viewing.

What this viewer hopes for are narrative explorations. "Brick." "Primer."

What we get here is a one-phrase essay, and the simplest kind: a complaint. So this fails the basic test. But it is cinematic, in that all the elements have a visual expression. But true to youth, they get it backwards, the expression contradicting the content.

The "story" has a girl walking through life. Every communication, every touch is by text message. At the end, we have the first speech: her asking her boyfriend to "just talk to me." Its an appeal for embodiment, richness.

But look where it is. If it were itself embodied, it would be something more than a slogan, something more embodied than graffiti, something more lasting than a Sunday school lesson.

Ah, high school!

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.