My America Me America (2012) Online

Written and performed by Greg Allen, it takes a second to get into the rhythm of this short film as it hits us with a lot of dialogue which doesn't appear to make sense, jumping from one sentence structure to the next. After the initial surge, you get used to it and start to understand what is going on – the film continues in this manner, but it works better as it continues. It cheapens the film to describe it thus, but basically the film is satirizing the slogan-heavy and jingoistic nature of America at times – and, in particular, those in the red states and those seeking to appeal to the Republican base.

Probably watching this in the wake of the Republican win in the mid- terms was not a great idea, because some of the mockery does feel unfair (a mid-term where Democrats almost seemed embarrassed to mention anything good they had done), but it still works. There is an element of 'easy target' to mocking the slogans ('don't tread on me', 'freedom' etc) and the general idea of America v's the fact that the ideal is not the reality, but it works, and the reason it works is thanks to the flow. The slogans, the ideals, the reality, the change in tone, the lack of cohesion apart from that of these trigger words all work together really well to reinforce the idea that they are things that people parrot without real meaning or substance.

Allen's delivery of his own words helps a great deal – he has real flow and the edits do not break it up apart from one occasion where it crashes into the previous shot a little more than I would have liked. I do always prefer it in one take, but in fairness I think to do this in one 4 minute take would be a huge achievement! There is an element of the content here being an easy target