REVIEW: Peter Nichols | B
My Baby Shot Me Down is an award winning short film shot on 35mm about five women who kidnap their partners, and enact revenge for crimes of domestic violence.
Film Noir
I got a real kick from Daniella Daemy’s choices and approach to making My Baby Shot Me Down. The choice to have a female director take on a film noir and one included with not one (as it usually is) but multiple feminine fatales. Her choice to go full 35mm (even though it is a short film) and finally making My Baby Shot Me Down into a silent film (I bet most of your didn’t think it was silent, did you?). I felt and thought I was watching Roman Polanski make Chinatown (I am kinda old school). So, we see a modern era film noir made for men.
Story
The presence of five feminine fatale jacks up the antagonism for the film. The storytelling of most short films moves through in a linear fashion. But, in the language of film noir, the feedback’s tell us more about what had happened previously, to create the opening conflict between the women and men.
Cinematography
From a stylized point of view, My Baby Shot Me Down mixed the theme of film noir with violence, explored the use of color, black and white with subjective camera. It subverted the usual idea male dominance, expressing it thru the use of color. I would say Daniella Daemy took some good lessons off John Alton (the creator of film noir’s stylized images).
Lesson
My Baby Shot Me Down is writer and director Daniella Daemy’s visual-social commentary on the subject of domestic violence against women by their partners. My Baby Shot Me Down is not presented as an approach to dealing with domestic violence, rather it emphasises the violence against women by amplifying the brutality suffered by the characters in the story. Yet we see the kick-off or start of what these girls intend to do the the men who abuse them. Now, I’m thinking these guys don’t stand a chance, and they are not likely to survive this torment, but Daniella Daemy leaves that to our imagination.
So, we may see more women and girls step up to push the #timesup and #MeToo movement.
The message of this film is times up!
Final Grade B
