Some movies are great because of their storytelling, some because of their acting, some because of their cinematography, and some because of their music and sound design. The strength of Colin Bannon’s films is in their editing, no two ways about it. They manage the incredibly complex feat of being fast paced without having cinematic ADHD. They know exactly when the scene should start, and exactly when it should end, and they also know exactly what to show and what to cut out. Bannon always manages to hit that sweet spot, and it makes his stuff a pleasure to watch.
Here’s a perfect example of what I’m talking about: There’s a scene in The Good Worker where the main character comes home after just being fired from his job and his father runs up to him angrily asking what happened. I was expecting, dreading really, one of those long drawn out arguments between the two characters to follow, because that’s where most movies would have gone with the material. Instead, Bannon cuts to the next scene. He knows we’ve seen this sort of thing before, it’s become a cliché, so why show it? Instead, he gives the audience exactly the right amount of information for them to be able to imagine what happens next and fill in the blanks, without having to drag the film down with obligatory dialogue everyone’s heard a million times.
The Good Worker is about a mentally ill drug addict trying to maintain the illusion that he isn’t losing control of his life as he’s being harangued by his father to get his act together. This is not exactly the most upbeat idea in the world, but Worker is never depressing or boring to watch, and it’s all due to the excellent editing work.
This is my third review in a row of a Colin Bannon film, and I have to say I’m impressed with what I’ve seen of the man’s work so far. True, I think he desperately needs a good sound guy, but other than that there isn’t much to find fault with. He gets solid performances out of his cast, has some good ideas, and he certainly knows how to keep things moving at a good clip.
The first one I watched was a documentary called True Stories from Rug City. The second one was a found footage film called Exhibit A. This is the first time I’ve seen him do a traditional narrative driven story, and he nails it rather nicely, although I’m not sure about the ending; I felt it wasn’t necessary. I think Bannon got concerned that not enough was going on and was trying to “perk” things up a bit. Personally, I think he was doing fine, and that a lower key ending would have a worked much better. However, that’s just my own personal taste speaking. I’m not married to that opinion. If a viewer watched it and said they felt the ending worked great, I’d agree that it could be seen that way as well. Mine isn’t the only correct opinion.
In any case, this is a pretty interesting way to spend ten minutes. You have good, solid acting, an intelligent story and some very, very good editing. Bannon crafted a great little film here, one that’s worth a look.
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