louise writes:

Reviewed by Wendy Davis




Sometimes in creative ventures, the concept outshines the resulting product. I hesitate to state outright that this is the case with Wholphin, the "DVD Magazine" published by McSweeney's, as I know there are many people out there who love and greatly appreciate short films. I just don't know if I am one of them, because at first the most interested I became in Wholphin was when I searched the net to find out just what a "wholphin" might be.

So that is as good a place as any to begin reviewing Wholphin.  Apparently a "wholphin" is a very rare hybrid of a dolphin and a whale.  Therefore the concept of an unusual hybrid is also present in this DVD magazine through its combination of the DVD of short films and the supporting magazine containing interviews and articles about the films. So far so good.

In the spirit of reviewing a magazine, I decided to flip through the writing and see which films sparked my interest.  This is where it all got a little difficult. I knew I should watch Alexander Payne's student film The Passion of Martin, but after reading about it in the magazine I really didn't want to. So naughtily, I skipped it. Much more attractive was the idea of Dennis Hopper blowing himself up with dynamite in The Russian Suicide Chair. Whether you agree that this is performance art, or just plain stupid, it really does make for a tense five minutes of film.

Next I tried Bob Odenkirk's A Bee and a Cigarette.  Following the adventures of two young men who are extremely unlucky in love, thanks to both a bee and a cigarette, it was naively charming, if also a little underwhelming.  However, Never Like the First Time, a Swedish animation by Jonas Odell, made use of various animation styles to tell three very different stories of lost virginity, effectively tracking changes in tone from comic to terrifying and finally to poignant.

With an attractive central character in 13-year-old Najmia, the Yemeni short documentary, A Stranger in Her Own City was well worth watching.  Following Najmia through her daily adventures in Yemen, we get to know a bright, tough girl who is also wise beyond her years, struggling with the expectations of the society which asks she don a veil.  Her refusal to conform is striking and hopeful, although the documentary's afternote offers little optimism for her future beyond the time of the film.

But for me the highlight of this issue of Wholphin was the extremely modest Yeah, Yeah, We Speak English, Just Serve.  For just over three minutes, we watch an impromptu game of beach volleyball take place across the US-Mexico border.  This game of "Walleyball" reinforces the futility of the boundary that stretches some distance into the sea. No sooner does the game begin, than it is finished and players on each side return to their afternoon at the beach.  For me the film underlines the transitory and fleeting quality of modern life, where boundaries are fluid and easily breached, in this case with something as inoccuous as a volleyball. And implicit in this is a question - why is it then, that those in power, hold so steadfastly to such boundaries, as if they were actually enforceable? Or maybe it's just a film about volleyball?

There were some joys to be found in the various films assembled here after all. And this, I think, is the point of Wholphin. In the great variety of short films it collects in each issue - documentary, comedy, performance art, science and more - there is most likely going to something for everybody. My advice, "read" it like you would a magazine by leafing through and stopping to study in detail what takes your fancy. Just as I found a surprising gem in the three minute film about beach volleyball, so too might others take to the early film by Alexander Payne. 


Wholphin
Issue 4 - Summer 2007

Bookmark this article: