Movies / Movie Reviews

Now You See Me, Now You Don't review

By Tony Farinella
August 27, 2006 - 12:12

NOW YOU SEE ME, NOW YOU DON'T is a short film by Attila Szász.  Now, short films are tricky.  You have 15-30 minutes to drag your audience in. Which means you have to work fast.  You don't have the time length of a feature film to take your time, build things up, and have a pay off.  You have to start working right away, grab them, and hope they stay for the entire duration of your short film.  If not, you have lost them.  And you have not done your job.

Let me start off by saying that Attila Szász did his job and then some. From the opening frame with the haunting, effective and chillingly intense score along with the top-notch cinematography, I was interested.  With short films, you don't have massive budgets, high-tech special effects, or movie tricks.  So what you have to do is use your imagination.  Write good ideas.  Find the beauty in simplicity.  Attila Szász knows how to use the camera.  He swoops in, and out and taking a look at the nuances of everyday life.

We all have seen this story before or something similar to it.  A father is working hard at the lab, the mother is boiling water, and the kid is playing.  The father comes up with a device that can make things become invisible and disappear.  The son disappears.  The supernatural thriller is nothing new.  But what is new is the added family drama of this.  The marriage of the couple is on the rocks.  When you add the family drama to it, it makes the kid disappearing and everything surrounding it mean that much more.  We have something to invest in.

This is where so many thriller films get it wrong.  Attila Szász gets it right.  This film is a world-wind of emotions.  You are one second scared. Then sad.  Then feeling hopeless.  Then feeling confused.  Attila Szász is going to play us like a piano and he knows just how to do it masterfully. A lot of his shots in this film reminded me of a David Lynch film.  From the shots of outside, to the shots of water, to the blood on the photos, to everything.

Hungarian film-making is something to look out for.  This was my first Hungarian film and it left me wanting to see more.

Grade: A-

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12