CELL ADORE FILM FESTIVAL - Only Looking Forward

CELL ADORE FILM FESTIVAL

The film follows violence obsessed Paul (Adam Osborne) as he recounts a long day involving a woman kicking in the side mirror of his car, getting a ticket, witnessing a store robbery and trying to track down the woman who kicked in his mirror. Very early on in the short, it’s made clear that much of what Paul is saying isn’t true – or is only a half-truth.

The viewer is shown multiple outcomes to the events, often calling into question everything Paul says and does. The editing does great work at keeping the film going and not getting lost in Paul's numerous lies. Adam Osborne is wonderful at bringing the immature Paul to life, delivering every line with snarky confidence. Despite the amount of confidence on full display, the short can’t help but feel like it’s trying to homage certain genre staples rather than blaze a path all its own. Only Looking Forward is an engaging and fast-paced short. While it may lean heavily into homage territory, the confidence in front of and behind the camera displays great promise for its first-time writer/director Shaun Stone-Riley.