I’m all for independent, low-budget, student filmmaking. It’s exciting to see things from new perspectives told in different ways. Often, those big budgets and Hollywood actors only get in the way of honest filmmaking anyway. But Rishi Shankardass’s “Girl Du Jour” is bad. It’s really, really, really bad. As practice, this short film is a fine start. Everyone needs to start somewhere. But showing your practice to film critics might not be so appropriate.
In the first few seconds I knew the lighting was terrible, the editing was off, the acting was on par with “The Room” and the writing was expository and laughable. And that was only the first few seconds. It only gets worse, when new characters are introduced and the film becomes nonlinear.
Perhaps “Girl du Jour’s” main problem is the lack of variety. Rishi Shankardass wrote, directed, produced, filmed, edited, recorded the sound, and made the visual effects. One sign of a great producer/director is his or her ability to find talent and delegate tasks. Without any outside perspectives your film remains one-sided and egoistic. Because of the terrible production quality, “Girl du Jour” distracts audiences. The story of an ex-call girl with insomnia could be a potentially interesting subject, but the film just never connects.
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.
