Starring:
Stephanie Sylvester, Troy Zitzelberger, Brittany Collins, Heather Dorff
Directed
By: Derek Quint
Grade:
B
Second
Star is
a short film about a homeless woman on New Year’s Eve. We follow her throughout
the night as the lines between reality, fantasy, and past are blurred. It was
inspired by J.M. Barrie’s book, “Peter Pan” as well as old and modern ghost
legends.
Director,
Derek Quint, follows a guerilla film style for a very realistic opening. For
someone living in Chicago, it’s something you witness nearly every day, but are
rarely a part of the way it is shown to us here. Once the party begins I liked
how drastically the tone and atmosphere changed. The noticeable difference
takes us in to a surreal cycle of events. We can’t be completely sure what’s
real and what’s not, much like our protagonist who is scared and lost in the
world she finds herself in.
The
exploration of fiction and reality is among my favorite themes that can be
explored through film. It’s the perfect medium to do so since film itself could
be considered the blurring of fiction and reality. It’s not real, but is
encompassed around reality; part of the reason film exists as a intelligent art
form. Second Star takes advantage of this exploration and experiments
with this character’s psyche.
The
director even says he isn’t completely sure what happens, how it ends, or what
is reality and what is fiction. This really emphasis the importance of the
experience of Second Star; it really doesn’t matter what happens because
the film is about something much larger. It’s up to you to decide what that is.
