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★★★
Directed by: Christopher Deakin
Written by: Christopher Deakin
Starring: Yas Rehman, Lucinda Sinclair, Jonathan Grant, Joe Wandera
Today video games are everywhere. They offer great entertainment but they can also be very addictive. Moth is a short film that focuses on that issue.
Mo (Yas Rehman) has a young son, Ash (Jonathan Grant), who is constantly playing video games, much to his father's disapproval, although his wife, Joanne (Lucinda Sinclair), does not appear to mind. It is Mo's birthday and his brother Nav (Joe Wandera) has not arrived yet and he hasn't heard from him so he decides to go to his apartment. He finds him sitting on a couch in the dark apartment playing video games. Mo accuses him of being a loner, never going out and never having met his son. Nav replies that he knows his son better than him, because he chats to him online when they play games together, causing Mo to punch him and break his console. Nav is addicted to video games and lives a solitary life in an apartment for which Mo pays the rent. Mo stops covering his brother's expenses and he gets evicted. Eventually Mo gives in and begins playing games himself. He contacts his brother through a gaming headset and they reconcile while playing together.
The film explores video game addicts and the effects their addiction has on the people around them. Wandera's character shows how negative his habit can be. He is always gaming and does not socialise face to face. Ash also spends a great deal of time playing and his father attempts to prevent them both from carrying on with their habits, with no success. The fact that eventually he uses video games to reconnect with them is both a happy and a sad ending. Happy because they now get to spend time together again and sad because they only do so through gaming. This also signifies the scale of the impact the gaming industry has in today's world.
The film opens with a shot of moths flying around near a light. It then dissolves to Nav sitting inside a dark room, playing video games. The moths could be viewed as a metaphor for gaming addicts, because when people become addicted, they appear to be attracted to games in the same way that a moth is naturally attracted to light.
Writer and director Deakin does a great job in creating interesting characters and placing them in well-structured scenes with well-written dialogue. All the actors deliver convincing performances and successfully bring their characters' emotions to life. And they are supported by a rather interesting score.
Moth is a project that many gamers will probably be able to identify with. It addresses the problem of video game addiction very effectively and deserves considerable praise.
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