Gowanus 83 (2011) watch online HD

It is hard to describe the plot of this short film since it is a bit all over the place in terms of what it is doing and its many characters. In essence two young black men discussing musicals get into the wrong cab and find themselves in the middle of a planned robbery of a local drug dealer in order to get a ransom for a dog being held ransom in a car behind them. The tone is silly but yet full of gun play and shouting and it must be said that it is very much on the line between working and not working for the entire running time.

Although I do not mean it totally as a criticism, the film is a mess, with characters coming and going all over the place, different styles of music showing up and the comedic elements varying from sensitive thugs, serious criminals eating crisps, A Jewish volunteer community security officer trying to make conversation and so on. It does have a basic frame of plot but the content itself feels very scattergun. The advantage of this is that when it works it is pretty funny and energetic, and it is these elements that I enjoyed and found amusing. The down side is that when it doesn't work, it really feels like it doesn't work, coming off as messy and unnecessarily frantic.

The performances are mostly good and there are plenty of examples of good delivery of funny lines, but the delivery from director Wood doesn't make the most of it in a way that is consistent and most effective for the material. I still enjoyed aspects of it and wanted to like it more due to what it does well, but it is too messy and frantic for its own good.