Sitter Short Film Review

alexjames96
Nov 7
2 min read

★★★★★

Starring: #IonaChampain, #FrankieWilson, #EleanorGrace

James Arden director of short film Sitter presents the audience with a chaotic and messy protagonist, one with which you cannot trust to do the simplest of tasks such as taking care of a cat. This short is a very realistic portrayal of what it’s like when you start to question yourself, whether this be life choices or just your character in general. Am I a good person? What am I doing with my life? And why do I fall for the same mistakes repeatedly? For main character Aurora, these are questions that she needs to answer. A self-reflective film that escalates intensely but becomes a hard-hitting reality check that forces Aurora to face her true demons and make some crucial changes to her life.

The storyline to this short is simple, however, its one that has deeper connotations and very character based. It’s interesting to see a character spiral into chaos. What seems like a casual and mundane night watching a small cat, can eventually lead to such a messy and troubled night in more ways than one. For Aurora, this night is one she won’t forget and must face the music in terms of the direction her life is going. Boozing, drugs and partying leads her to make reckless and potentially self-harming decisions, but the biggest thing is losing her close friends and eventually isolating herself due to her poor life choices. I think what is great about this short is the imperfect characters. There is so much to explore with a flawed character, the complexities surrounding them, the audience become curious about their backstory and question how they ended up being so wild. We become invested and instantly want to protect them or have hope for them to be a better person and get their life together.

I really enjoyed the way this short was filmed, to feed into the chaos there were a lot of tight close ups to Aurora which created an uncomfortable feel and much like her we remain present within the stress of the situation. Unable to escape her dilemma, she is forced to deal with the consequences of losing a friend for neglecting her cat. Even the music playing in the background added to the stress of the scene, everything was fast paced and stopped Aurora from focusing and clouded her best judgement, it was a clever technique that helped to elevate the messiness of it all.

A completely engaging short film that highlights the realities of facing your true self, focusing on the downward spiral of a character and makes the audience wonder how she is going to escape this toxic and reckless pattern.