Stephanie Says Review
Stephanie Says is a 2021 short film written by Martina Ferrari and directed by Andrew Brierley.
A look at moving past grief Stephanie Says captures a mood of despair against tremendous loss but feels as if it could have used a touch more world building to draw deeper emotional resonance.
Dealing with losing a loved one, especially a parent, is something that is extremely hard. There is simply no getting around that fact. However, in this film we are given a glimmer of hope and a simple arc that does feel earned despite a simplistic approach to the narrative.
If there is one element, the film could have used more of it would be world building as mentioned. Losing a father is a fairly universal story beat, even if you haven’t lost a parent, losing someone we care about is an experience we will all share at some point in life. So there wasn’t much more that was needed here, but it felt like at times there was too much telling and perhaps not enough showing.
Through watching so many films it is always greatly appreciated when a film can effectively announce a story piece without a character uttering a single word. While this piece is minimalist in the use of dialogue, when it appears it feels a bit forced/heavy handed, as if to really feel a need to convey what we should be experiencing.
The next piece to highlight is an exchange toward the end around mentioning a funeral, something which isn’t shown but seeing only one character on screen at that moment was of course needed due to budgeting/practicality but it could have been condensed down to saying the other day. Mentioning the funeral almost feels like we as an audience might have missed something bigger that should have opened the film, but without it, a simple mention of a few days prior might have worked better.
On the positive side, though, this is a film which nails the emotional lows that we experience with times like this in life, something which can be hard to nail down in narrative productions. Our lead, as portrayed by Hannah Bunker, really carries her own on screen throughout as well.
Stephanie Says nails a simple arc, told with minimal dialogue but the bits we get feel a little forced. Perhaps more moments of slow building happiness would have helped or even a shorter film format than what we got in the end. This is still a solidly put together production from a very creative team.
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Cheers!
Daniel Hess
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