Smoking Kills Review
Smoking Kills is a 2021 short film written, directed, and produced by Harry Pages.
A smart allegory on the selfishness that smokers can develop from their own bad habits, Smoking Kills is a clever take on the well-established fact that smoking well indeed does kill.
This short is by no means a subtle film, wasting no time to introduce us to this parallel universe to our own. To give away the story in any further detail would be to take away from the viewing experience but let me just say that this is a nice subversion over the usual messages we get with a character trying to quit smoking.
In that lack of subtly there are a few moments that do ring a bit heavy handed though. Not in the story so much as in some of the moments of sound mixing, which were a few times just a bit overmixed, bringing about a bit of modulation. Where the film is strongest is in the lack of dialogue, and the short moments that we do get some it sort of takes away just a small bit for me personally.
Further on the technical aspects I quite enjoyed the very naturalistic lighting implemented by cinematographer Cody Leigh-Stannard. While it took me a second to warm up too, I enjoyed the subtle realism that was used. The score as composed by Oscar Lockey was of special note, it carried the film throughout really well.
The star of the show here is lead Chris Mills who brings a lot of genuine heart to his flawed character, giving us someone we could both empathize with as well as hold a little bit of aggression toward at the same time. His girlfriend in the film as portrayed by Alice Mulholland was solid too, if not maybe a touch underutilized, I almost wanted to see more of her by the end, she brought a good charm to the film.
Overall, I enjoyed this smart take on the dangers of smoking. Lost in a world not unlike our own where the repercussions are all the stronger, Smoking Kills is a solid showcase for the skills of Pages and team. Definitely deserves a look.
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Cheers!
Daniel Hess
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Thanks so much for the review! Glad you liked the film – it’s so nice to see sites like this supporting indie productions. We made Smoking Kills on a bare-bones budget with a dedicated cast and crew from Portsmouth, UK – from a script written during the sleepless hours of 3AM when I was suffering from insomnia due to nicotine withdrawal when trying to quit smoking. It’s amazing to see it doing so well screening at festivals across the globe, and recently winning an award at the Roma Short Film Festival for Best First-Time Filmmaker. Thanks everyone for the support, we can’t wait to see where this journey takes us!
So glad you were able to create such an interesting and well thought out short film. Keep up the great work and I am very much looking forward to sitting down to your further creative endeavors!
If you get a second, please give it a rating on our IMDB!
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt14253488/
Thanks! I would highly encourage anyone who takes a look at the film to, I am not a big fan of putting a numerical score on films personally so I try to keep away from the practice but always encourage anyone to show the love on the IMDB page!!