’ from Chilean director Cristian Rody Medel){kind=link}
Get ready to live in the present. That’s the main premise of this 23-minute short film, ‘Why I’m Recluse (Esp: Causa Ermitaña)’ from Chilean director Cristian Rody Medel. What you are about to witness is a man who is stuck in his boring life struggling to find a job and is ready to give up on life by attempting to commit suicide. He is stopped by a spiritual being who shows him the way of life down a different path he can discover and take to bring himself back to the present.
‘Why I’m Recluse’ short film is this like a hybrid of a live musical and music video. The short film takes you down a journey through the highs and lows to help the bored man navigate his life with a different perspective instead of trying to end it. There will be a lot of religious references to God and his worth to God, where some scenes push a bit of the boundaries of falling from grace in his beliefs to bouncing back from him simply just being.
The music videos played throughout often repeated the line “God is dead” in an upbeat tempo. It sounds a bit controversial in the manner it was presented, as it takes both extreme ends to return to the idea to remind the man to “live as if God himself had need you his life to live”.
Many of the scenes pulls out several trippy visual effects backed with guitar riffs and a vocalist singing out the lyrics as a form of expression of letting themselves out of their body to do whatever they want. This dark undertone of playing with the themes of suicide, religion, and atheism is backed by some of the wacky sequences the spiritual being and the bored man do throughout the short film.
The silliness of the bored man trying to be free of himself is expected given how he was very used to the mundane routine he was living for years. When someone discovers a new path that they can take in their life to deviate away from what they know, it is generally taken to an extreme action to push the limits of how far they can experience the feeling of freedom to oneself, until they reach a balanced level of calm being back in the present.
The bored man’s actions might be drawn from some of the influences of Charlie Chaplin, as his picture can be seen in one of the scenes the bored man was in. His movements are often comedic and cartoony to help exaggerate the struggles of him trying to understand his spiritual self by doing the absurd things without a care. Think of it like someone who suddenly discovers they have a case of the FOMOs (fear of missing out) and is now up to trying everything they never tried before to restore balance in their life.
The plot is relatively straightforward. The bored man wants to commit suicide, and spiritual beings stop him and show him a different path. Each scene helps the balance the ups and downs the man have after going to a journey before considering killing himself again, only to be stopped by another person showing him the way. This cycle repeats itself until he finally becomes centered with himself and being back in the present.
In terms of the music, the rock genre is heavy on this one rocking out with guitar and drum tunes, as it plays well to the rebellious nature the bored man is playing throughout each music video. Vocals singing the lyrics help describe the feelings the bored man is going through as he is trying to express himself in many situations. The bored man is learning about life as the music videos take him through his journey.
‘Why I’m Recluse’ is a very interesting take on the themes of suicide prevention and being in the present. The short film somehow manages to find a way to use the fun upbeat tempo on such a sad situation the bored man was going through. While this is a low budget production, the performances, music, and art style come together to help accentuate the positives in this musical style of a story.
by: Trevor Brooks