The best thing about director Ramzi Abed’s self-described triptych “Three” is that I can cover the whole collection in one review, rather than have to pick each one of these maddening shorts apart individually. Even calling this collection a triptych seems misleading, as about the only thing they have in common is the videotape onto which they’re copied.
“Flight Zero” is a doomed would-be experimental video poem. A hopelessly muddy audio mix drowns out the video’s rambling monologue with obnoxious sound effects, thus rendering its video imagery all but meaningless.
“Gone” is a slight step up. Perhaps best described as a music video, this grainy black and white short relates a man’s (Jim K.) relentless pursuit of a mysterious woman (Anne Sammon), all set to a haunting and interesting instrumental soundtrack.
“Waking” is the collection’s most accessible piece, which really isn’t saying all that much. In this B&W silent short, a man (Chris Yates) wakes to find two intruders looming over him. They take him outside to interrogate him…but we never really find out why. Indeed, it’s only by careful examination of the credits that we learn that the intruders are actually policemen. “Walking” features a number of interesting visuals, but it’s otherwise a fairly pointless exercise.
Come to think of it, that description pretty much sums up this entire collection.
