Something Cult, Foreign-Language or Indie #311: Shorts (2009).

 

In Black Falls Community in Austin, Texas, 11-year-old Toby Thompson (Jimmy Bennett) is the second child to find a rock with magical powers. Over a series of "episodes," he narratives, and participates in, the story of how this magical rock transforms his community and its townsfolk, culminating in urban mayhem as literally everybody tries to get their hands on it so it can improve their lives.

Robert Rodriguez may be most famous for his crime movies like Sin City and the El Mariachi trilogy, and indeed those kind of films were the ones he cut his teeth on, but in between them he's also made numerous family movies, like the Spy Kids trilogy and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3D. (He has five children so obviously he's made all these ones primarily for them.) Now, I thought the Spy Kids sequels both sucked but overall, while I still think crime capers are his specialty Rodriguez makes family movies that are more unconventional and creative than anybody else's and this is no exception. Shorts is unabashedly wacky, intentionally ridiculous and energetic, without a trace of condescension towards children but also not too wholesome for their parents to stomach. Rodriguez has evident fun visualising this narrative but also elaborates on it just long enough for it to be somewhat coherent, his own editing and photography are both crisp and fluid and the music score is adequately strange but not bombastic.

Rodriguez also coaxes engaging performances from all his young cast and the adults all also enjoy themselves, particularly Leslie Mann as Toby's mum and James Spader as the villainous Mr. Carbon Black. I did think the novelty began to wear off near the end, but Shorts doesn't overstay its welcome. It's a refreshing, funny and bizarre family science fiction flick like only Robert Rodriguez could, or would, deliver. 8/10.