Kill the Day (1996) User Reviews

Impressive short

[darren shan · 8/10 · 12 December 2004]

A junkie breaks into a locker and steals a bag, to get money for drugs. Later we see him in prison. He seems like a loner. Guards taunt him and try to make him lose his temper, so that he will be denied parole. When he's released, he tries to go straight. Interspersed with these scenes are flashbacks of his younger life.

Ramsay's second short film is similar in structure to her first. There are long time lapses between the scenes shown, and we learn nothing about what happens during that time. But it's a more ambitious piece, and works more as a whole. It tells a small, intimate, powerful story, and the final scene makes a big impression.

Another step forward for Ramsay. Definitely worth seeing if you can catch it.

Early effort from rising star

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 18 September 2013]

When Lynne Ramsay, at that point in her mid 20s, entered the film industry by shooting "Kill the Day" and another short film in 1996, it was still a long way to where she is today. 15 years before shooting her possibly most known film, "We Need to Talk about Kevin", it's visible that she still has a long way ahead of her. "Kill the Day" stars James Ramsay (possibly her brother?) in a 19-minute crime and prison drama. It's very bleak and rationalist, yet unfortunately neither compelling to watch, even for such a short running time, nor really coherent. It's mostly style over substance and the camera work makes it pretty difficult to follow and appreciate what exactly is going on.

I'd recommend it only to fans of Ramsey's feature films or those interested in the maiden projects of now well-known directors.

Lynne Ramsay, great just great

[urkus · 8/10 · 3 September 2022]

Lynne Ramsay to me is one of the topest directing woman on the world she creates an atmosphere very realistic, very sad and in a very poor eviroment.

Her films are really good. But if you take the first ones she made, the short ones, they are all a way to understand the capacity to travel thru difficult worlds . This is my favourite short film of hers, intense very intense. Like her films. A lot of people talk about Tarantino and his dialogues, but Lynne gives you everything you need to get absorted, start crying or feeling very unpleasant watching violence mixed with poetry like no one elses does. She has an special hability to introduce you by the ambient music, by the techno music, by the landscapes she creates. She is deffinetly one of the best contemporary directors. Her filmography is a must if you like cinema.

8 stars out of 10.