A 3 minute short offers a special kind of reviewing challenge: due to its extremely short timeframe, I can’t give you a specific synopsis because that alone would be like showing you the whole short. At the same time, anything too ponderous about the short and we’re talking about me reading a ton into what is on the screen, usually far more than is potentially warranted. So what, then?
“S&M” is a visual metaphor for male/female relations, played out by two children engaged in a harmless competition (with innocent, though basely human, stakes). The cinematography is top-notch, the short obviously moves at a quick pace and it is all brought together by the driving, and infectiously contagious, score of children’s voices. I don’t intend to interpret the film’s undercurrents for you, as I think any viewer could deduce a different conclusion along similar lines, but the film is deep without being pretentious and cute without being saccharine gross.
