From writers / directors Christopher Radcliff and Lauren Wolkstein comes this intriguing, multi-layered short.
It tells the story of a man and a boy who following the breakdown of their car, walk a lonely highway, until the boy chances upon a free swim courtesy of the outdoor amenities of a roadside motel, unaware that a female member, perhaps the sole member of staff is watching them. Making her acquaintance, a faulty drinks machine soon takes up most of the time of the man, leaving the boy alone with the girl to tell her his alarming take of life on the road. It is a tale that differs considerably to the heart-warming explanation offered by the man.
In short, this is a work that explores what lies beneath the surface of everyday events, ones that you take for granted as the norm, but which on closer examination may not be as sweet and innocent as what you first envisaged. For what is real and what is false here? And what of the girl herself? Indeed whose story is the truth, if any?
Yet in a work with multiple possibilities, Radcliff and Wolkstein shy away from pointing you in any set direction, preferring instead to illustrate that once an alternative scenario is known, events witnessed can take on a different, if not always right, interpretation. Well-enacted throughout by its trio of players, in particular by Tobias Campbell as the teen with an unanswered tale to tell, this strange by title, if not strange by narrative piece is clearly not for those who like all their loose ends, neatly tied up. But for those with a-liking for open endings, it sure leaves you with much to think about, backed by an acute "something is just not right" tone and a script that refuses to take the moral high ground over what is right or wrong in what could be viewed as an inappropriate relationship. Or not, as the case could be.
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