40 Seconds
By John Oak Dalton • Mar 2nd, 2006 • Category: Action/AdventureFunky, original short from director Ramiro Hernandez features a guy sporting a mysterious prognoticating device on his wrist, a girl he is trying to pick up at a party, and two drag-racing teens, all whose destinies cross in one fateful night.
Hernandez directs with a lot of energy, and certainly penned an original tale that has a satisfyingly wry twist at the end. He rather deftly blends romantic comedy, sci-fi, and street drama into a story with its own internal logic. A handful of easygoing performances, across a variety of age levels, add to the vibe.
Where Hernandez stalls out a bit is in execution. Hernandez is certainly ambitious in his presentation, and pushes his vision through sometimes challenging shooting and editing. However, I felt the technical mastery wasn’t quite there for Hernandez at times, leaving a few rough edges here and there.
But I enjoyed 40 Seconds and Ramiro Hernandez’s unique voice, and look for more from this director.
Three stars.
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John Oak Dalton is a Community Television Station Manager by day, and a DIY acolyte by night. In the 80s he made Super-8 movies and his own basement mix tapes. In the 90s he hosted a cable-access show and made his own zines and minicomics. In the 21st Century he began working with grassroots video and microcinema and writing b-movies, and has more than a dozen projects on the shelf, on screen, in development, or in production.
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