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★★
Directed by: #NormanHuntJr & #ColinDodds
Written by: #ColinDodds
Starring: #BradBarless, #SharonMesmer, #AaronSeward, #GrantCatton
It’s 1991 in New York City. It’s the perfect racket. See the the ‘true’ story of gangsters, extra-terrestrials, consumer electronics and the marketing campaign that brought it all crashing down…
Talking heads, a punchy soundtrack pulled from Vangelis’ discography, and a load of crime. The 6th Finger of Tommy The Goose is set in a gritty 1991 New York, the height of gambling, dealing and merchandising for a gang of criminals. Norman Hunt Jr. and Colin Dodds’ new “documentary” is a fictional take on a disgruntled history. I’m presuming it’s fictional, since I couldn’t find any information on the subjects, and it doesn’t explicitly say anywhere that it’s real. It’s a low budget film, certainly looking the part with its boxy aspect ratio and fuzzy audio recording, which sets it firmly in that early 90s setting, although it plays out sometime in the future since it discloses information about their activities in the past.
Although this is a very well written piece, and pretty expertly performed — it’s really like a documentary — It’s just not very appealing to me. But I will say it was an interesting watch, if only for its wild story. This short runs for 30 minutes and the entire time it’s dialogue. Talking heads and the odd shot of city streets, archival footage and islands for reference points. That’s already a huge undertaking for a writer, to keep a viewer interested that long with only words. It just barely worked for me, but I’m sure others who are more inclined to enjoy the gangster flick to find this thoroughly entertaining.
All of the actors do a fine job with the script — again, I can’t tell if it’s fictional or not, I haven’t been presented with much information in the film — there’s a lot of convincing emotion and visualising through words. Some filler text is added in between certain story beats that just fleshes out the context a little more. It’s a well structured film, alluding to that Scorsese style (you can’t expect me not to refer to him when writing about a gangster flick). The Vangelis soundtrack is a nice addition, a little intrusive from time to time, but a suitable supplement.
Overall, The 6th Finger of Tommy The Goose is an amateur short, with some good performances and a decent script, but not the most engrossing work. If anything, most of what I’m feeling stems from confusion since I couldn’t figure out precisely what was going on, and when this was filmed.
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