ANNA

Anna, the titular character in director Daniel Brown’s short film, wants to shake up her life. She hates her job and let’s people walk all over her, or at least that’s what I gather having now seen this very cleverly made film. While Anna never complains about her somewhat miserable life, the film itself does all the talking as Anna has a day where she says what she’s always wanted to say and acts how she’s always wanted to act. Anna embarks on her day after staring at herself in a mirror and not liking what she sees. She makes a dramatic move and, all of a sudden, everything is different for her. In fact, it’s all quite opposite of the norm. To give you a hint at what I’m getting at, you might want to note that the name Anna is a palindrome…

Actress Amanda Colianni plays Anna with what is at first a world-weary exhaustion that morphs into an individual toughness. It’s as if she is one moment ready to off herself and, the next, the embodiment of spunky feminism that does what she wants. I enjoyed her performance as she becomes who she’s always wanted to be.

“Anna” is a very cool and rather brilliantly edited while it manages to wring a lot out of a short time frame. Brown is a visual director who has a good eye for composition and a great eye for color. Yet the editing of the piece, which features a very sneaky and clever conceit I wouldn’t dare give away, is the real achievement of “Anna.”

The press notes indicate that this film was made as a part of one of those “film challenges” where filmmakers are given a theme or topic and a short time frame in which to complete their film, which makes the work here even more impressive. I look forward to seeing what Brown might come up with given a proper time frame and freedom to work as he pleases.

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.