Dunny

September 1, 2009 9:30 PM

Dunny - an eleven-year-old boy tries to give a love letter to a girl that doesn't like him and winds up at dinner with her suburban family. This is one of those short films that you either love right away from the opening scene or....well, demand you 10 minutes back. If you are not sure, try other works by the same director: Phillip Van.
posted by Surfin' Bird (24 comments total)

The interior lighting is great.
posted by dammitjim at 9:43 PM on September 1 [1 favorite]

One of the things I love about digital distribution is how it allows all kinds of stories to be told. Ten years ago little poignant pieces like this wouldn't be seen outside a film school, if made at all. Yet a short story like this can get to the essence of young unrequited love and do so with grace and charm, all in a few minutes. It has the same pull for me as well-written short fiction. Thanks, Surfin' Bird.
posted by Hardcore Poser at 10:01 PM on September 1

Kids can be cruel and grown-ups deaf and blind, so it ever was. His name is appropriate considering where he chose to sequester himself.
posted by tellurian at 10:40 PM on September 1

One word sums up the entire film: awkward.
posted by bwg at 11:03 PM on September 1

Sweet hat
posted by threetoed at 11:49 PM on September 1

I can see no reason why this would be shown inside a film school. But, uh, it was aight.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:36 AM on September 2

I liked it, I'm pretty sure, overall. It beats you to death, unbelievably obvious, it makes sure, relentlessly, you see every point that it's got to make -- that I did not like. But the story...

I love the way the house is set up, Ward and June Cleaver except it's how they'd really look and act, esp if they were in a tract home in some faceless suburb. He set this up really well, and yeah, obvious, maybe (almost) to the point of heavy-handedness, but it worked. (For me -- YMMV.)

I like that this kid strikes out against certain defeat, both in telling this girl that he's wanting her and also in fighting the strong, athletic kid; he's a gambler, against stacked odds. He's got jam, for sure; he's got to tell her that he digs her / wants her / needs her / what-EVAH and he stubbornly does so, wearing that lame-ass hat. I've done that myself (sans hat), and more than once, and it does take some grit.

I like the hard eyes on that little girl, knowing her place in society and knowing his place also -- man, have I ever seen those eyes. Jesus. Pretty girls at any age blew my heart apart and I guess they still do, so much power in a pretty smile, a turn of an ankle, a shapely arm, on and on. It's completely unfair of course, a toss of the genetic dice; that die rolled one more roll and that pretty girl would have been awkward and graceless and had big eyebrows, maybe a bum leg, whatever.

So in ten minutes this little film showed both sides, the lucky and the unlucky.

I was lucky, young. And I know that it was luck -- I was not the awkward kid, I was not the kid on the outside, not at that age, though that outside piece damn sure did show up later, and came to stay, seems much of that early luck ran out, and manic depression ran in, and it's such a fucker, it'll spoil your day, and more. I just can't recommend it at all.

So I get to know both sides, too. Maybe another reason I like the movie.

Anyways, I wonder if maybe it's not harder on a person to be on the outside when younger? Maybe no telling, but what happens young shapes a person so, so much.

One of my favorite things about film festivals was the short films, maybe two hours and a half or shorts; I love them as much as I love short stories (a lot) -- if you can tell a story and convince me in short order, well, hey, that's art. I dig it. It's a skill that not every writer has, probably not every film-maker has. I still remember the stories and actors in some short movies from ten, fifteen years ago; when done right, it sticks. I wouldn't call this one of the best but hey, it's free, and right here on my screen.

Thanx for posting.
posted by dancestoblue at 12:45 AM on September 2 [1 favorite]

How was this filmed?

There are not enough movies being filmed this way now. Bless the cameraman, who actually has the balls to compose interesting shots and the wherewithal to see them through.

The subject matter seems a little retready at first, given the popularity of the whole David Lynch suburban gothic thing, but ultimately I liked it; I guess maybe the heart at the end is just ironic, but if so I'll ignore that since I prefer to like it.

Sometimes I think it must be utterly and completely impossible for non-Americans to understand what it's really like in the United States. I try to explain to people that films like this and like all the other dreamy suburban dystopias are like those miniature drawings of animals which you find in dictionaries, pictures which are intentionally drawn rather than photographed because no photograph can cram in every characteristic which typifies the creature; such pictures are so characteristic and thus so realistic in one sense that in another sense they become utterly unrealistic.
posted by koeselitz at 2:55 AM on September 2 [4 favorites]

[well, demand you 10 minutes back.

When and where did this "I want my x minutes back" line (and variants) originate? Any ideas?]
posted by pracowity at 3:26 AM on September 2

My other reaction was:

Geez. The Goonies sure didn't always have lots of fun, apparently.
posted by koeselitz at 3:43 AM on September 2

Pracowcity: I first came across a variant of that line in a review of some Jean Claude Van Damme movie that ran in Sassy around '91 or so.

As for the film itself: WHAT HATH WES ANDERSON WROUGHT?
posted by pxe2000 at 4:25 AM on September 2

Students entering Beloit College this year have always wanted their x minutes back from Jean Claude Van Damme.
posted by pracowity at 5:20 AM on September 2 [2 favorites]

I liked it because Dunny is me. Always and forever; eternally me.
posted by Jofus at 5:33 AM on September 2

Ambrosia Voyeur: The credits mentioned NYU, and the niche of short films was always to be made and watched in film school but never seen in wide release (the best ones all get put in a festival that travels the country and maybe shows in a city near you for one weekend if you are lucky). I think the point was that finally everyone gets to watch short films.

One of the coolest things about the various revolutions in media, starting with VHS, is that these weird formats that never really caught on with an audience or distribution mechanism can all be watched at home. Because who ever thinks "I wonder what is playing at the theater that is about ten minutes long?", that's just silly, it takes longer to get your ticket and pick out a seat.
posted by idiopath at 6:07 AM on September 2

Dunny is Aussie slang for toilet, right? Who would name their kid after a toilet? I am very upset with this kid's fictional parents.
posted by orme at 6:32 AM on September 2

I saw bunnies, but were there any sweet dunnies?
posted by filthy light thief at 6:41 AM on September 2

If you see yourself within the protagonist, please do the following things. You can thank me for it in 6-12 months:

- Stop eating candy.
- Exercise regularly.
- Develop a hobby. Aim to be this guy, bar the beer drinking perhaps.

You will find that you'll start associating with the antagonist before you know it.
posted by dearsina at 6:55 AM on September 2

dearsina: wait, are you saying that by exercising and eating better and having a hobby I will stop having a rich emotional life and will instead:

a) be a sadistic thug
b) be a cold and superficial princess
c) become a boring jock with a long term plan of a career in professional sports

(depending on who you call the antagonist in this film)

because in that case I have some hobbies to give up on, and some junk food to go buy.
posted by idiopath at 7:10 AM on September 2 [1 favorite]

Aim to be this guy , bar the beer drinking perhaps.

Hmmm.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 8:28 AM on September 2

Aim to be this guy , bar the beer drinking perhaps.

Or, perhaps, this guy?
posted by wabashbdw at 8:55 AM on September 2

I'm with Dancestoblue that what really involved me in this film was the young actress who had cold princess down without chewing the scenery. That look she gives him over the dinner table and then suddenly snaps to being the good daughter, smiling as she takes the platter, is spot on.

I would suggest to Dearsina that there may be more than one reason to identify with Dunny. I'm mobility impaired and spent my time in Middle School either in a wheelchair, on crutches, or in leg braces. The popular kids (who were mainly soccer players) were merciless to me so I identify with Dunny, even though I'm not overweight or out of shape. (In fact, I broke the school record for the flexed arm hang in Middle School, but that didn't help my popularity.)

What makes Dunny different from other underdogs is his painful self awareness of how unlikely it is that he will achieve even the tolerance of the cold princess, never mind her affection. Ultimately, this is a tragedy about a child who, despite his youth, is already defeated.
posted by miss-lapin at 9:05 AM on September 2 [3 favorites]

idiopath, my snark might read a little better if I clarified that I'm an MA student at (the really old) film school. I can't imagine putting this on a syllabus or screening schedule, because it's unremarkable, was my point. My diss is based on the gulf between MA level student output and teachable content. Consider that self-effacement or anti-NYU sentiment, or both.

Yeah, naturally, this would be screened on that last, aggravating day of a course when everybody looks at everybody else's work and commences fellatio, but I don't really think those are an absolute good. They're private for a reason, the content of them is only helpful as boosterism for those in the same process, as encouragement and inspiration. This film is all technique and no resonance, so it would probably be really impressive in that context. As a stand-alone piece, I'm still unsure I've discerned its charms.

As for the digital distribution revolution making films like this available to the masses, well, the blogs vs. longform novels and journalism argument springs to mind as an analog. YouTube isn't drawing people by the millions to see Wavelength or Berlin Alexanderplatz, just little easily digested bougie bits like this. Micro-lit, and micro-cinema. It's a revolution for creative expression, surely, but it's working against proper appreciation of forms, in an informed, evaluative sense.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:12 AM on September 2

Ambrosia Voyeur: yeah, sturgeon's law and all that, and the best quality stuff is not going to win the mass market crowd sourced popularity contest.

I am just delighted that we now have a situation where someone with good taste can give me a URL for a good short film and I can go watch it next time I have a spare ten minutes - that is a unique and happy situation for us to be in.

off to look up those titles you mentioned
posted by idiopath at 10:22 AM on September 2

As I was watching this, I definitely identified with the kid a little bit. I respected his resignation that despite reality, he wants to hang on to this little bit of bittersweetness, and that he's fully aware of his situation. And then I was reminded of a great quote that lingered in my subconscious.

And the more I thought about it, the more apparent it became. And then I realized what it was: "We will not go quietly into the night. We will not vanish, without a fight."

And I realized what it came from.

And I realized that this character has more hope than I.
posted by hanoixan at 2:02 PM on September 2 [2 favorites]