By Modern Measure (2006) watch online HD

"My favorite short film of 2007, Matthew Lessner's By Modern Measure is a masterfully executed gem, which uses beautifully grainy black-and-white film and French New Wave techniques to comment on just how difficult it is to make an honest romantic connection in our commercialized and corny modern world. But there's a sincerity and gravity to the work that makes it more just mere satire and elevates it to greatness. This, my friends, is what short films should be." Michael Tully, Indiewire

"A perfect short film. It's tight, smart, funny and sad. It reaches back to the French New Wave to shed light on the MySpace Generation." Lya Guerra, SXSW

The idea of doing a short film about banality and the gap between consumerism and the tragedies in life is a great idea. The problem, though, was in the execution, as the director chose to go for an artsy-fartsy Godard-like look along with some pointless visuals instead of sticking with what was a great idea.

The film begins with a young couple meeting outside the Taco Bell. As the narrator described how they talked about totally unimportant things (such as which foods they ate or the number of Mountain Dews they consumed), he also often included statistics on tragedies that were occurring at that very moment. So, as the couple frolicked in the countryside, they were oblivious of the wretched things in life--too wrapped up in consumerism and puppy love to look beyond their own little world.

As I said, this is a great idea. BUT, the film takes this wonderful idea and tries way too hard to look like an old French New Wave short film (complete with the obligatory black and white cinematography). And, to further achieve this look, you'll notice that the narration of what the couple are doing and what they actually are doing often doesn't fit at all--making the film look very sloppy and cheap--or exactly like some of the New Wave films that eschewed quality film work or composition. In the end, though, to me it just seemed pretentious and totally lost sight of the goal. Pointless scenes of the girl bleeding or the guy playing with a scorpion just seemed like some person's idea of what a "sophisticated" film should look like, though I just think it looked cheap and dumb--with a good plot idea that unfortunately got lost in the process.