Ovals: I Don’t Want to Love Myself
Creativity happens when we put our imagination into play. May it be by craft, pictures, words, or a hundred more different ways to execute it. Creativity is everywhere and is happening all the time. But sometimes, with our constant search of creativity within ourselves plus humans’ intrinsic emotion of dissatisfaction creates roadblocks for creativity to transition into work. Yet, there are times when everything is already laid out, but the challenge of putting the pieces together is close to impossible. In today’s featured short film took me closer to the mind of a young filmmaker named Will, as he faces days of creativity block in writing. This movie will let us follow Will as he chooses doors to open to find the path to create an imaginative tale and put his thoughts into writing. If you are ready, let’s enter Will’s world in this remarkable short film by DC Saxton titled Ovals: I Don’t Want to Love My Self.
The movie started with Will faced on three doors. Doors often symbolize entry to a new beginning, an opportunity, or a gateway to the past, or the ‘what ifs’. In Will’s case, he was able to check what is behind the doors. And the moment he picked one to enter, it led him to a day that highlighted his girlfriend Natasha and their artistic consciousness in understanding and executing literary art. What I like about Will’s and Natasha’s characters is that they are in a way with the same kind of personality and almost experiencing the same kind of dilemma, but their reception of what is being thrown at them differs. However, their longingness of recognition is somewhat detached from their connection to each other. And at that moment, Will’s doubt if he entered the right door, boils in.
If you are a fan of literary art, this is the perfect film to watch. This short film is very creative in words and delivery. I was taken away by the profound spoken language that was used in some of the scenes. It was as if by lyrical prose, particularly during the rap scenes where Will was trying to clear off his head, and also when they inserted the homeless man from the street. Everything in this story is connected to literary arts and its importance for us to express ourselves. There was even a point in this film where Natasha, gave her thoughts about her current disposition as a teaching assistant, and she just hit the message to the core. It wasn’t all that serious though, there were some pretty fun bits too, especially the narrative parts from Will and Natasha, and the people they came across, it was as if showing us how we speak our minds from the inside, and I bet many can relate to this and they’ll surely enjoy watching it too as I did.
Overall, this is a very impressive drama/romance short film. I love the way it was written and delivered into a film. The people behind it, director DC Saxton, and his two lead actors, Michael Mann and Candace Keeton, evidently showed their depth understanding with the films’ message because they were able to correlate with the films strong connection with literature and the prowess of creativity in words with the movies’ delivery and the powerful performance of the cast. Great work to this team!
