Antithesis

Maddie Cobb’s Antithesis places a manipulative relationship at its centre, asking complex questions of its audience as it follows a young woman longing for a first love whose toxic traits threaten to derail her ambitions.

Claire (Mackenzie Cain) is an aspiring writer who meets Aaron (Owen Correll) at a house party. Quiet and reserved by her nature, Claire is swept up by Aaron’s charisma and roguishness. Throwing caution to the wind and embracing the spontaneity Aaron propagates, she is quickly mesmerised by this new love who fuels her creativity. But over time, Aaron’s unpredictability and disregard for Claire’s priorities shows a different side to his character.

Antithesis is an impressive and wizened examination of young relationships. Owen Correll’s Aaron is a poster boy for the type of boyfriend that teenage girls dream about. Exciting, magnetic, mysterious and boasting Chalamet-esque good looks, he is perfection on the surface for a romantic like Claire. Their love story gets off to the perfect start, but even in their early encounters there are red flags flying. The passion and unpredictability that romances her in their early encounters slowly reveals itself as selfishness and indifference for anyone’s wants but Aaron’s own. Maddie Cobb allows the viewer to unravel Aaron’s true self along with Claire – viewers will themselves sense his appeal in the film’s early stages and think that their relationship is something that can be rectified until late in the narrative.

Mackenzie Cain proves a fantastic choice as Claire. Her intelligence, drive and creativity fuel her dream of authorship, yet Aaron’s force of personality convince her to make rash decisions well outside of her character. Cain captures the character dilemma between hesitancy and yearning for excitement, an essential element to show that even the smartest of us are vulnerable to emotional manipulation when the circumstances are right. Even as Aaron’s worst tendencies begin to show, she struggles with casting him aside, torn even when he shows up at her house late at night after ghosting her for hours. Owen Correll is similarly brilliant as Aaron, his attractive qualities clear to see but carrying also a vulnerability that acts as a shield even when his behaviours turn into unacceptable territory.

The film is shot functionally and some scenes are allowed to stand out thanks to their staging – one in which Claire and Aaron speak in Aaron’s bed after she spends the night is a cleverly staged moment that first gives clues that this new mysterious love interest may not be all he sets out to be. A cool tint sits over the film that drains some of the life out of the short – an interesting decision that creates an overtone that events are not as pure and exciting as they initially appear to be. However as we experience the film through Claire’s eyes, it feels like a missed opportunity not to add energy and vibrancy with a bolder palette, at least in the early stages of the film.

Antithesis is an accomplished short film that is destined to move audiences who know the confusion and confounding emotions of a troublesome first love. Lesser filmmakers would opt for a more straightforward presentation of its characters than Maddie Cobb opts for. But the presentation of Claire and Aaron’s complicated lives is what allows this film to thrive.