Watched good review on Maulers film. Thoughts?
I watched this review of All in Good Time, and honestly, I think it is pretty fair overall. It is not just a lazy “critic made a bad thing, therefore critic bad” type of video. The review actually tries to judge the short on its own terms: story logic, character choices, dialogue, setup, and payoff.
I mostly agree with the main criticism. The short has a cool atmosphere and a decent revenge idea at the centre of it, but a lot of the plot feels arranged around the ending. Hostage 3 is skipped because the story needs him alive, the gun jam happens at the perfect time, and the final trap depends on the Boss making a very specific chain of bad decisions.
The dialogue criticism also makes sense to me. The film clearly wants to talk about death, legacy, morality, and power, but sometimes the characters feel more like symbols debating themes than people naturally reacting to the situation. Hostage 3 especially sounds like he has been handed the Boss’s character sheet at times.
I do not agree with every single point equally. Some things, like the gun jam, are more subjective because short films often need a quick inciting incident. But overall, I think the review gives the film credit where it deserves it while still explaining why the writing does not fully hold together.