Blue City (1997) User Reviews

Works through atmosphere and characters

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 5 May 2016]

"Blue City" is an American short film from almost 20 years ago that won quite a decent body of awards. And I can see why. The stories are somewhat interesting and how they are all related and the color, music and general setting contributes a lot to the atmosphere in this one. I would not call it an outstanding achievement, but writer and director David Birdsell shows that he has some talent and it is somewhat sad to see he has not made any new films for almost 10 years now, at least according to his IMDb body of work. The four actors also appeared in pretty much nothing else and they are entirely unknown today, probably working and busy in completely other fields than acting. But at least they left us this interesting little 10-minute movie here. I recommend the watch.

Definitely different

[lefty1 · 7/10 · 7 March 2007]

This is a wonderful example of film-making, probably by a student or young filmmaker early in their career. What can I say? It's about a depressed, suicidal man, a young boy with a basketball and two car thieves. There's no real plot, although the film manages to hold your attention with wonderful lighting, camera angles and the facial expressions of the characters. No filming location is listed, but it has the look of having been filmed in or near Red Hook in Brooklyn. The dialog is minimal. This short is not what I'd call a 'keeper', but it is worth a look-see.

I'd like to see more work by this director.

An Atmospheric Short, Well Made and Interesting

[scotty-37 · 8/10 · 5 July 2004]

I rented a DVD of shorts called "Insanity" and Blue City was the best of the short pieces on the disk. As you can see from the summary, it's about a suicidal man, 2 car thieves and a boy with a basketball. Essentially, the characters keep running into each other over the course of the story and the results are unexpected.

This 12.5 minute film works since it keeps the audience engaged by showing the emotions and motivations of the characters without dialog. It's fun to see the interactions of the characters since the interactions are unexpected, yet humorous and pleasing.

It's probably not a film that will change your life, but it at least makes the audience think and feel. The look is appropriate and it's certainly a very good film for the budget (probably a student film). None of the actors deliver dialog, but they do a good job expressing the emotions and motivations of the characters. The casting is good, and nothing sticks out as being cheap, inappropriate, or particularly pretentious as happens in some student films.

I give this short an 8/10. I hope the people behind this film have created some other things since they have talent that should be used.

The next Scorsese?

[rdh210 · 5 April 2000]

That's a bold statement.

It may be bold to even consider someone as having the potential to be the next Martin Scorsese, but if there's someone who does, it is the director of this film.

Brilliant camera work, an absolutely enthralling story, fine acting, and an eerie "blue" quality will make this one of your favorite films. Watch it, then watch it again.

Strange, but nice

[ElKabong-3 · 5/10 · 16 May 2005]

Saw this on the Independent Film Channel as part of a program of short subjects. Like so many such shorts, it's on the weird side, but at least with short subjects they're, by definition, short. Even if one sucks hard you're only out 10 or 15 minutes of your life. Sometimes it seems to me that shorts shown on IFC are in a continuing competition for "weirdest film ever", but I catch myself being drawn to watching as much to see what will be on next as anything else. I have, on rare occasion, seen interesting and even moving short subjects, but they're mostly just ways to kill 15 minutes. About the only place you're likely to see this short is on one of the IFC's short film collections which run regularly. Since, the program description never specifies which subjects will run, about all you can do is watch and see what turns up.

I rate this short subject 5 out of 10, neither bad nor good, just kinda existing.

Melon-numbing atmosphere

[Benzo · 12 October 1998]

David Birdsell's student film "Blue City" contains more atmosphere than a thousand Hollywood films directed by apt filmmakers and shot by trained professionals. From start to finish, the film maintains a broad, brooding sense of impending "blue" (hence; the title). While a fat man contemplates suicide, two car thieves inevitably steal his car, hit a boy who runs off with the fat man's hat and redemption seems to be obtained. While this may seem kind of hard to grasp, seeing the film will erase that idea. I suppose I felt like a truck hit me. Think of the impact of one of the more powerful films you've seen in your lifetime and imagine it compressed into 12 minutes. A modern mini-masterpiece of subtle intentions and pleasant surprises.