TIFF 2013 Review: Roland (2013)
Cast: Dan Beirne, Patricia Vanstone, Alice Moran
Director: Trevor Cornish
Country: Canada
Genre: Short | Comedy | Drama | Thriller
Official Website: Here
Editor’s Notes: The following review is part of our coverage of the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. For more information on the festival visit http://tiff.net and follow TIFF on Twitter at @TIFF_NET.
It doesn’t take much, really, to ruin someone’s day. Bad traffic on the way to work, a spilled cup of coffee on a new shirt, or a rude encounter with a passerby can be enough to throw someone off. Such is the basic premise of Roland, a short film premiering at TIFF that seems to innately understand the advantages of austerity in this shorter, more direct medium. There is a simple elegance to Roland which sets its mood well and navigates its anecdotal plot with style.
There is a simple elegance to Roland which sets its mood well and navigates its anecdotal plot with style.
The film follows the titular retail employee (Daniel Beirne) through a terrible customer encounter. When an old man (Richard Denison) demands to use the restroom, Roland firmly tells him it is for employees only. The man proceeds to berate and belittle Roland, terrifying the young man and throwing off the rest of his work day. Roland goes through the motions of helping other customers, but images of violence flash through his head, his paranoia and fear coloring all of his further interactions.
In covering some of the other TIFF shorts, I have previously discussed the perils of discarding subtlety in favor of directness—it is almost essential to be more obvious in a shorter runtime, yet it can often undercut the greater message. Roland succeeds because its message is a simple one, its story little more than something Roland will probably tell his friends over drinks at the end of the day. It is magnified in the moment, but ultimately nothing we see will change the lives of any of these characters, and that’s to the film’s betterment.
What Roland really allows is for a quick, fun exercise in style from director Trevor Cornish. He gets to play with the horror of blood-red paint, the suspense of a box cutter that lingers around the edges of the story, and some brief looks into Roland’s subconscious, all of which allow him to flex his creative muscles. All of this is fairly obvious symbolism, but where it might grate in a film with delusions of grandeur, it is simply fun to watch in a story built around a few cute gimmicks. Lindsey Clark is over-the-top as Roland’s lazy coworker, and the paint may not be quite as effective as it should be, but both of these things contribute to the larger feel of the piece, and both seem to situate us inside Roland’s head in a way many lesser short films fail to manage.
What Roland really allows is for a quick, fun exercise in style from director Trevor Cornish. He gets to play with the horror of blood-red paint, the suspense of a box cutter that lingers around the edges of the story…
Roland is a blast of cool air on a hot day, a pleasant trifle with low aspirations that manages to achieve much simply by executing well. The story is straightforward, which allows Cornish to color outside the lines and try fun stylistic flourishes that feel of a piece with the work and don’t distract from a larger plot. As Roland, Beirne is a likable and sympathetic presence, a genuinely nice guy having a bit of a bad day. What the film sets out to do, it achieves with ease; this is a slick, fun little movie with style and personality that carries it a long way.
66/100 ~ OKAY. Roland is a blast of cool air on a hot day, a pleasant trifle with low aspirations that manages to achieve much simply by executing well. The story is straightforward, which allows Cornish to color outside the lines and try fun stylistic flourishes that feel of a piece with the work and don’t distract from a larger plot.
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Jordan Ferguson
Staff Film CriticJordan Ferguson is a lifelong pop culture fan, and would probably never leave his couch if he could get away with it. When he isn’t wasting time “studying the law” at the University of Michigan, he writes about film, television, and music. In addition to writing for Next Projection, he is the Editor-in-Chief of Review To Be Named, a homemade haven for pop-culture obsessives. Check out more of his work at Reviewtobenamed.com , follow him on twitter @bobchanning, or just yell really loudly on the street. Don’t worry, he’ll hear.
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