KARMA is a short story about the faith of several people, mixed up in a chain of events. This short starts with aggressive comedy, and it kind of works that way, for a while. We see two robbers with stockings on their heads, as they calmly walk out of a building they have just robbed. One is yelling at the other, why did you look at that woman's rear while we are in the middle of the robbing process?! A few solid jokes about the "dominant eye" are then thrown at us, and when I say solid I mean compared to the rest of this awful short of course. The two robbers are still walking very calmly and slowly, even stopping to take a bite to eat, buying some food from a woman who doesn't find it strange or frightening that they are obviously robbers (that's low-key comedy right there, but only for a second). The car that was supposed to wait for them after the robbery isn't there, fast music starts, the two men start running and one falls on the ground with the open bag of money he was carrying They eventually stop a taxi to get away. *Karma or not, from that fall everything is downhill with this movie.<br/><br/>This movie was shown five days ago on the second day of the Belgrade Documentary and Short Film Festival, and the audience laughed at the opening jokes, which is something that's really not hard to do with our audience, especially when the jokes are vulgar. This festival showed 17 short films (besides documentaries, animation and documentary shorts) in three days, in three national categories, and "Karma" is definitely one of the worst. In the same group I would put the unoriginal and boring short "Stuck", and the unintelligent and very manipulative Serbian short "The City". There were some great and interesting films on this festival, but this isn't one of them. Macedonia isn't known for their cinema, but this movie is below every standard.<br/><br/>It's like this short is divided into two parts, the first one being the two comical robbers, and the second one begins when we meet the parents of a sick boy who is lying in the hospital. This simple scene is done horribly, how it is possible for two actors to fail a scene with no words in it, where they just have to show sorrow (for less than two seconds) for their sick boy who is lying in the hospital, is beyond explanation. *Maybe they were making a parody of soap operas, or it is a sick and twisted dark comedy I just didn't notice The worst scene in the movie follows shortly after, and it is one to remember.<br/><br/>The Doctor is telling the father his kid needs surgery, which of course costs a lot, and briefly after that he tries to comfort him by saying everything is going to be okay. This is the precious moment where the father loses it, both the nerves and the acting skills (if he had any to begin with). He yells, as I remember: "What will be OK?! Do I need to have a million euro for you to solve a medical problem?! For what do we pay health insurance when all you are doing is f****ng nurses!" While he is yelling this at the doctor, he is giving everything he's got into this scene (God I hope not). We notice he drool some saliva while he was yelling, and I am immediately reminded of an unforgettable scene in a PTA masterpiece, and one of the best movies from the 21st century, which I saw a few weeks ago. Talking about "There Will Be Blood" of course, and the unrepeatable closing scene with Daniel Day-Lewis. His acting in that movie, and especially in that scene, is beyond all awards and words, and I was the only one who started to laugh at that moment in "Karma". I wonder how many people in the world wouldn't even notice the difference in acting between those two incomparable scenes, if they were shown both scenes, one after the other. Not many I hope.<br/><br/>Before the hysterically funny-awful scene in the hospital, we are granted the knowledge that the missing car that was supposed to wait for the two robbers is in fact the car of the father. He needs the money for his sick son, so he was their driver. While he waited for them in his car, he got a phone call that his kid is in a critical state, so he runs out of the car to the hospital, leaving the door open Four idiots see this and steal his car (they appear in the movie before this, but their characters are so unbelievable and so undeveloped that this isn't worth mentioning). We are again thrown back to the two robbers in the taxi, who crash at the fantastic four in the stolen car, and they all die. Why is this short called Karma? The father hears this crash from the hospital, runs to the cars, sees his chance and takes the bags filled with money for his sick kid, unseen by anyone and everyone All the men in the cars, including the taxi driver, are dead because they have done a bad thing. The father is alive and has the money because he has done a good thing. End of the movie. End of the most banal idea you can think of.
Giotrevi replied
321 weeks ago