Charlie Goes to London
I love this short film for a few aesthetic reasons however, mostly because it is very short and I wasn’t forced to think, at all, not once. Hit play, sit back, breathe in, breathe out, smile and use the little pep in your step it gives you to just get on with your life. That was my experience of this video. VJ's would get a kick out of this footage if they could get their hands on it. They've only had their channel up for a year, their videos being approved about three months ago as of this review, and they have plenty of views in that time frame, good for them!
Charlie Goes to London sounds a lot like a Chaplin film that goes extremely pop (we all know the little tramp was not) and then pops prematurely. Films Royale (with cheese -jk) boasts lofty ideals, a Company’s unique (albeit ballsy) self-perception, and a vicious goal of bridging Hollywood and Independent film. I will give them credit that their first objective was reached with this silly and at times mildly entertaining silent-era spun short: to boldly entertain. It was indeed bold and even fun at times so if you got a little under two minutes to feel rushed with nowhere to go, then watch Charlie Goes to London. There's really not a whole lot to say about the story and whatever there is, is totally unexplainable. After all, what is your life really going to miss out on in a minute and twenty four seconds? Surely not the entire capital of Great Britain!
The creators at Films Royale are young, gutsy, and on the forefront of a multi-directional and multi-vertical platform of art and film direction, creation, and marketing. I admire their vision of producing the writing, the clothes, the music, and the actors… all in-house as it were, akin to the great luminaries like Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin and his jack-of-it-all style of from the ground up, all in or all out, wearing as many hats as he could.
It reminded me of a really funny Buster film without Buster or the funny, just the black and white and clever. It seems Charlie is Charlie because I noticed no name in the credits, either way, the kid can run… and run he does! Charlie takes us on the Idiot's Guide to smoking crack and going on a London Tour, the Cliff Notes if you will, and does so in record time, like Ferris Bueller did once in a tiny 80's movie. Dominick Gray gives us a narrow, yet powerful slice, of his electro score to amp up the blood pressure and footage just right. It was cute but I wasn't satisfied after watching it and feeling a bit more like I'd forgotten something relatively nearby and had the uneasy compulsion of running there to get whatever it was; so seeing that there are two other videos on Films Royale's channel, one a trailer and the other, a full-length short film (you know? like ten min. or so), I sat there and watched them both and although this by all means should be a channel review, I'll wait till I see more from them before I review the channel because I have a feeling we haven't heard the last of Films Royale or Jesse Barack and Alejandro Lozano. If you want to get a taste, watch Charlie goes to London. If you want to see the future, then watch the trailer to their next film,
Fritz, Francis, and Frederick.
