{"id":11062,"date":"2014-04-13T17:57:59","date_gmt":"2014-04-13T23:57:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/?p=11062"},"modified":"2025-02-15T07:54:11","modified_gmt":"2025-02-15T14:54:11","slug":"food-infidelity-and-self-deception-the-choices-we-make-a-review-of-growing-pains-adolescent-short-films-for-adults","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/food-infidelity-and-self-deception-the-choices-we-make-a-review-of-growing-pains-adolescent-short-films-for-adults\/","title":{"rendered":"Food, Infidelity and Self-Deception: The Choices we make A review of \u201cGrowing Pains: Adolescent Short Films for Adults\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click: \u201cGrowing Pains: Adolescent Short Films for Adults\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing Pains: Adolescent Short Films for Adults\u201d<\/strong><\/a> is a bill of four separate short films with a common theme of taking responsibility for life choices.<\/p>\n

ACQUIRED TASTE
\nShort | 33 mins. | USA
\nDirector: David Ruchman<\/p>\n

In the small town of Sudbury, NY, Nicholas, a teenaged food critic aspires to put his obscure hometown on the fine-dining map by awakening the culinary tastes of the citizens in his self-published \u201cFood Report.\u201d Slow sales of his single page publication cause Nicholas to look for ways to boost interest in his surprising expertise with food taste and preparation.<\/p>\n

When Jameson Gellar – a foul-mouthed, one-star master chef from New York City – mysteriously shows up in Sudbury, Nicholas is desperate to interview him. In a town with no food choices, we have to wonder: Why has the stellar chef come to ply his trade in such an obscure place?<\/p>\n

When Nicholas dares to give Chef Gellar advice on how to improve his osso buco recipe, the Chef refuses to give Nicholas an interview for his Food Report and demands to know why a kid is so interested in food versus other teen-age activities. Many viewers will relate when Nicholas replies: \u201cEvery good memory I have is associated with food.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hard luck causes Chef G to lose his single-star rating and in despair, he wants to abandon his new Sudbury restaurant. His misfortune raises two questions: Will Nicholas help the culinary star return to New York stardom? Or on the flip side, will Gellar help Nicholas put Sudbury on the map?<\/p>\n

\u201cAcquired Taste\u201d is a movie about hard-to-come-by adolescent self-confidence; the characters are well defined and believable. With first-rate acting, particularly by Brenda Thomas (Doris, the Caf\u00e9 cook), the inner story reveals itself as the plot unfolds. When the lights come up, you\u2019ll realize you\u2019ve been educated and entertained.<\/p>\n

Director David Ruchman will be in attendance for a Q& A after the Santa Fe screening of the Growing Pains slate of films.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

In the second of the films in this bill, the tone turns serious in:<\/p>\n

BULLY
\nShort | 24 mins. | USA
\nDirector: Robert Weiermair<\/p>\n

Is bullying ever acceptable? Where does it come from? With a hot-button social issue such as bullying, it\u2019s tempting to editorialize about violence begetting violence. However, that would tend to obscure the point of Director David Weiermair\u2019s \u201cBully:\u201d that the causes of violent intimidation are varied and deeply rooted. The film directs our attention away from adolescent growing pains and instead explores the idea that a household environment sows the seeds of vicious behavior.<\/p>\n

When a video of the diabetic teenage Toby being brutalized by high school thugs shows up on the Internet, the victim and his parents are called before the principal. Toby tries to lie his way out of how serious the situation is; but Russ, his father, sees through the boy\u2019s half truths: \u201cWe don\u2019t lie to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Toby isn\u2019t the only one telling lies. Set within a subplot of infidelity, Russ shouts at his wife that he has a plan to teach Toby how to \u201cman up\u201d and fight for self-respect. \u201cI want you to learn to hit those guys. But you gotta hit \u2019em hard. I want you to hit those guys. Okay? You feel it? Put your hands up. I\u2019m coming atcha.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Toby fails at his first boxing lesson, he accidentally discovers his father\u2019s extramarital affair. The movie viewer learns that Toby has indeed learned from his father\u2019s example. Witnessing his father\u2019s unfaithfulness, Toby yells at Russ: \u201cStop!\u201d In two surprising plot twists, the film reveals what else Toby has internalized and the solutions he uses to stop the bullying.<\/p>\n

The production values are high in this tale of falsehoods and distrust; the characters are as complicated as the plot. Disturbing images, excellent cinematography, inspired editing and a first rate script make this a professional production.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

SLOW AND STEADY
\nShort | 11 mins. | USA
\nDirector: Anne Kaempfer<\/p>\n

In \u201cSlow and Steady,\u201d Max, a 20-something, sensitive girl \u2014 finely portrayed by Betty Kaye \u2014 longs for Jean-Louis, her father, to notice her. The film uses a clever device in projecting Max\u2019s internal desire onto Hannibal, a tortoise, whose progressively slow gait sets the film\u2019s emotional tone. When Jean-Louis neglects his responsibility not only for his daughter, but Hannibal as well, it raises the question: Does neglect have consequences?<\/p>\n

Written and Directed by Annie Kaempfer, and produced by Jean Pesce (\u201cThe Place Beyond the Pines\u201d), \u201cSlow and Steady\u201d is entertaining and should garner well-deserved attention for Auriyana Jackson\u2019s art direction and production design.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

GUEST HOUSE
\nShort | 25 mins. | USA
\nDirector: Aaron Wolf<\/p>\n

In the program\u2019s final offering, Michael Gross (\u201cFamily Ties,\u201d \u201cTremors\u201d) co-stars in an adult comedy that could be subtitled \u201cFailure to Launch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rejected by his girlfriend, Lance Wesley spends quite a lot of time pleasuring himself underneath the covers before a juvenile pin-up poster. Fantasizing over what might have been and hounded by his over-controlling Dad (Michael Gross) to get himself together, Lance\u2019s fantasies come to life in the form of comedic life counseling from his boyhood Baseball Trophy and pin-up Poster Girl.<\/p>\n

Trophy and Poster Girl (the Relics) team up to get Lance back on track: \u201cYou always wanted to be the man on the field, impress your dad, be the best one out there. Well, now you can.\u201d And when Lance resists, the Relics call in Lance\u2019s hilarious childhood baby doll for some obscene-mouthed support. Lance finally sees what his real problem is, and the movie makes a pretty cool turning point; the film\u2019s target audience seems to shift from juvenile to a more mature group.<\/p>\n

While Mark Gesner (Lance Wesley) should definitely get further acting jobs based on his \u201cGuest House\u201d work, Michael Gross (as the Dad) continues to show his range. \u201cGuest House\u2019s\u201d dialogue could have been lackluster, but he manages to make it work in an very good piece of acting. Playing a comedic straight man in a few scenes, Gross shows his depth in a crisis midpoint scene in \u201cGuest House,\u201d where with body language only, he manages to communicate that he, too, is doing some soul searching and needs to redirect his anger at his son\u2019s lack of action.<\/p>\n

Michael Gross and Director Aaron Wolf will attend a Q & A session after the screening.<\/p>\n

—
\nWhether it\u2019s the career we pick (\u201cAcquired Taste\u2019) or the actions we take (\u201cBully,\u201d \u201cSlow and Steady,\u201d \u201cGuest House), the choices we make affect all those around us. The movies in this program may amplify Santa Fe\u2019s ability to attract quality films to its festivals and A-list talent to future productions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click: \u201cGrowing Pains: Adolescent Short Films for Adults\u201d \u201cGrowing Pains: Adolescent Short Films for Adults\u201d is a bill of four separate short films with a common theme of taking responsibility […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"festival_year":[],"class_list":["post-11062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11062"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19434,"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11062\/revisions\/19434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11062"},{"taxonomy":"festival_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/festival_year?post=11062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}