Ineffable

“Ineffable” is a brilliantly shot short film that revolves around Finn having a night of events reveal more about himself than he would have liked to face after receiving a phone call from his deceased childhood crush, Helie. With music to pace a really trippy ride and beautifully shot sequences to move the story forward, we witness Finn come to terms with grief in a rather touching way and leaves us wanting to know what happens next in his life and how the experience changes him as a whole.

There’s a lot of tension in this film that’s subtle underneath all of the layers it presents to us. A lot of it has to do with how the film is structured. There are three chapters essentially and each one showcases Finn going through trials that act as a segway for him to go deeper into the mystery of her phone call and why. How is it she can call when she’s dead? What does this mean for him once he embarks on his journey? In all honesty, it’s quite compelling and as each chapter goes on, more puzzles of the mystery click into place.

I like to think of each chapter as a level of his subconscious that we are allowed to dive into along with Finn himself. There’s a lot of hidden treasures that can be found in each sequence and I can’t help but think it’s all a dream… That’s the thing though. She’s dead, that much we know, but what it seems the filmmakers play with is the reality vs the mind, because at points it really seemed like what we were witnessing in the surreal sequences was actually a reality – sort of like Ron Howard’s film, “A Beautiful Mind”. I loved making that comparison and at any point in time I was expecting Finn to wake up from his dream; which is yet to be determined (hence the cliffhanger leaving us what happens next).

I think the music is what really sets the tone for the piece. It’s a slow tension builder and when there’s tension, boy does it go full out and intense. I loved it. The moments the music reached a climax and at its peak, I fell in love with whatever scene it was on. It added a nice compliment to the overall experience and I’m super bummed there wasn’t more of it. I have a thing where I’ll search the composer and listen to their other pieces due to the fact a lot of them have a certain style and aesthetic. This is a composer I would very much like to hear more pieces from due to the intensity and the dramatic elements they had introduced.

Overall I really enjoyed this piece. The music and the cinematography go hand in hand to make for a rather trippy adventure as we follow Finn go deeper into a world where misfortune and grief are common. To overcome each chapter and each phase is overcoming the senses of grief alone. I loved how the filmmakers played with that element and really made the whole thing work.