Flotsam/Jetsam (2005) User Reviews

Not That All That Gripping

[Theo Robertson · 6/10 · 16 April 2014]

A man drifts on a piece of deadwood upon the Ocean and has no hope of rescue . Or does he ?

This comes with bit of hype that " it's trying to be clever " and after seeing FLOTSAM/JETSAM you become aware that this is exactly is exactly what it is - hype . It's not clever at all and the hype surrounding it means it's a case of a self fulfilling prophecy ie it's clever and an outstanding short film because we're told it is . But it's not

I caught this on the shortoftheweek website and you'll never see a negatively written write up on the site and I quickly learned to ignore the write ups for this very reason . I thought perhaps the audience would have been watching the same incident from the same point of view but this doesn't materialise . In effect what the write up said in so many words is that this is an intelligent short down to the fact that it's a film within a film / meta-fiction / post modernism and other hyperbole it doesn't really deserve . To be honest I actually missed this on first viewing and thought the stranded shipwreck survivor was exactly that ,- a stranded shipwreck survivor who gets rescued while being attacked by a shark . But on second viewing it's clear that he's merely an actor taking part in a film . When you have to watch a film a second time in order to understand then that can only be seen as a failure of sorts . From a technical point of view it's by no means bad and the shark does indeed look like a real life shark who'd eat you as soon as look at you but FLOTSAM/JETSAM is not nearly as clever as some people are making it out to be

Too clever by half – deliberately pushes you away just to grab you with nonsense (TOTAL SPOILERS)

[bob the moo · 14 April 2014]

This is a very odd film and, just like the title it is in two parts and it is impossible to discuss without spoilers. I stress this early on because the only way to come to this film is without any knowledge about the content. The setup is this: the first half of the film is a bad art film – a man adrift in the sea with his belongings all around him, lost, middle-aged and just drifting through life. So far, so teenage poetry. This goes on for the majority of the running time before it abruptly cuts to the second act which is in color and is the making of the first half of the film, but a shark attack sees the actor attacked and mauled even though the crew frantically try to get rid of the shark by throwing eggs at it.

There must be something smart in here but I will leave it for the "keen to be in the know" type viewer to gush about it. I'd guess there is a comment here about self important art films as well as the nature of internet viewers of short films to need excess and impact to keep their attention. However for me this film just didn't work, primarily because it made no sense at all and offered nothing apart from a bad art film and then an empty jump punch-line. Even if there was a point to the first half, it does still mean that you are spending about 4 minutes watching a dull, pretentious image that really doesn't change too much. The impact of the shark at least breaks the monotony of that but it feels empty and just a spectacle for the sake of it – and the "egging" of the shark just adds more nonsense to the table, presumably so that even if you are tempted to try to find some sublime wisdom or meaning, the teenage prank of "egging" should warn you off from even trying.

I really have no idea what the makers were trying to do with this but there is really nothing here unless you are looking for a film that has an extreme juxtaposition of tones and content (and nothing else) because then this film delivers. But without any substance or meaning the film is a dull 4 minutes followed by 1 minute of essentially cinematic trolling.