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★★★★
Directed by: Chris Shepherd Written by: #ChrisShepherd Music by: Carl Davis BFI London Film Festival Review by: #ChrisOlson
If you are absolutely saturated with the Brexit discourse going on in the UK, welcome to the club. Population = everyone. Whether you voted Leave or Remain, the likelihood is that you are sick to the back teeth with the news, headlines, and political spinning games that have been the after effect of the referendum. Chris Shepherd’s brilliantly funny animated short film Brexicuted is a refreshing and painfully accurate portrayal of the reasons and excuses people used to vote they way they did.
Presented like a New Yorker sketch come alive, Brexicuted wonderfully captures the insanity of the arguments people had for voting leave or remain. The lack of information and recklessness of the vote in general is represented with sublime cartoon drawings of explosions and increasing levels of anarchy and violence. As the short film progresses, we see the disastrous effects of such a huge decision, one that was made with nothing more than hearsay and unfounded prejudices.
The excellent animation is coupled with a brilliant sound design by Andy Humphreys and music from Carl Davis, who expertly capture the laughable atmosphere needed to accompany the interview dialogue (which is potentially real, though I would need to see proof of such astounding ignorance).
There is a limitation to the effectiveness of the short as we are not being presented with any central character with which to identify or whose eyes we can see the arguments through. Instead, the audience is asked to endure the cacophonous debates which rage on, sometimes simultaneously. There is no particular narrative with which we can see any structure or familiar storytelling. All this feels purposeful, though, in that the filmmakers seem to want us to journey back to the time of the referendum and feel the chaos, a chaos that is sadly still incredibly topical and relevant.
As satirical as 2DTV and just as entertaining, Brexicuted is not quite an antidote to your Brexit fatigue but it will certainly offer some comfort to those who wish to know they are not alone in their baffling bewilderment as to how we got ourselves into this mess.
This short film will be part of the BFI London Film Festival’s Stop Making Sense programme which plays on Thursday 11th and Friday 12th of October. The tickets are currently SOLD OUT :(
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