When possible, I like to take notes immediately after watching a film. While at a film festival, that process is conversational; I express my initial opinion out loud to someone and then I remember it later. When watching at home, I usually scribble something on a notepad. In the case of Sean Gill’s short film Thursday Night, I scribbled the following: “Not a f*****g clue…”
Luckily, the film is only 4 minutes long and is readily available for viewing online, so I’ve been able to watch it more than once to hopefully see if I can come up with something more critically useful than the above impression. While nothing within the film explicitly states that this is Thursday night, since that’s what it is called, and it appears to be the adventures of a young woman (Jillaine Gill) alone at night, I expect it takes place on a Thursday. Beyond that… what does it all mean?
Who is the letter from? What does it say? Why is she dancing and happy one minute, then staring at a bruised and battered version of herself shortly thereafter? Why is the music so menacing? WHAT IS GOING ON!?!
I’ve watched it a number of times, and I just don’t get it. Maybe I’m not supposed to. Maybe there is iconic imagery there that I’m missing that would give some sort of psychological hints at what’s going on. Maybe nothing is going on. Maybe this is just what a Thursday night is.
This film was submitted for review through our Submission for Review system. If you have a film you’d like us to see, and we aren’t already looking into it on our own, you too can utilize this service.
