Take an awesome trip to somewhere that’s Greene in the fantastic short Beatrix Is Invisible, written and directed by Alex Farias. Beatrix (Ellen Greene) is sitting with her grandson, Eddy (Haiden Pino), who is drawing with crayons. Beatrix’s daughter, Sarah (Taylor Shurte), asks her to go ahead and draw with Eddy, but Beatrix insists she can’t draw. Eddy starts talking about how he heard that while most people think in words, there are some who think in pictures. He asks Beatrix what she is thinking of right now.
At this point, the audience sees some of the pictures in Beatrix’s head. We follow her as she goes through her days, reading old paperback biographies and being ignored by everyone around her. After speaking to Rabbi Rob (Rhys Mitchell) about how insignificant she is feeling, Beatrix sets out to find a way to stop being invisible once and for all.
“…goes through her days, reading old paperback biographies and being ignored by everyone around her.”
Beatrix Is Invisible sets a new land speed record for audience engagement. Within the first minute and a half, you will have had the wind knocked out of you by how well Farias draws you in. Every filmmaker needs to emulate this kind of pacing in the streaming era. Get the hook in quick before the stream dries up and the viewer moves on. In this case, the hook is this brilliant device of seeing the images in Greene’s head and how jarring they are. With this, the short moves up immediately to the big leagues of artistic achievement. Even if it risked turning it into a gimmick, I do wish Farias had milked it mercilessly, Walter Mitty style, all throughout.
I could have used it during the very predictable talk with the Rabbi, but I didn’t miss it in the genius scenes that followed. The climactic events have incredible acting by Greene, who gives career-defining work in a career already so defined. Greene shows why she has always been a major superstar. I should know. I wore out Little Shop of Horrors during its theatrical run in two countries back in the day, as well as playing the musical’s themed slot machine in Vegas recently.
Beatrix Is Invisible won’t stay hidden for long, as it is a cinematic comet that keeps climbing.
"…moves up immediately to the big leagues of artistic achievement."
