One of the challenges of programming a film festival about mental health is trying to add enough lighter notes to make it feel less heavy. That doesn’t mean the film has to be frivolous, though. The bright and whimsical Australian short film Something’s Not Quite Right, directed by Tom Cornwall, seems like a frivolous film, but it becomes surprisingly poignant by the end.
The old-school visual invention of Something’s Not Quite Right, replete with costumes and props, make it stand out among other entries and it is a joy to watch. The lyrical Dr. Seuss-inspired narration that is interrupted sets the tone for what is to come, someone desperately trying to order the world around them into some kind of rhythm or rhyme while it is continually spiraling out of their control. Lead actor Mark Saturno does a fine job playing the straight man David Sleet in what has become a topsy-turvy world.
It’s true that Something’s Not Quite Right is one of the funnier and certainly literally more colorful of the short films playing the virtual festival, but its candy-coated shell is somewhat deceptive in a way. I was hit pretty hard by the ending, as its main character David Sleet was, when the scenery started to pull away and reveal its meaning. Despite its absurdity I felt the film did an excellent job of capturing how at times we would rather bury and mask our most unpleasant emotions and turn them into something else, no matter how nonsensical the narrative seems, rather than confronting them. I found a montage of all of the snippets of the bizarre events of the day flashing back with newly revealed truths to be surprisingly powerful and emotionally true to life.
Watch Something Not Quite Right for free in Shorts Block No. 2 of the virtual festival, now playing through 11/5: https://watch.eventive.org/mentalfilmness2023
