Return to Sender (2022) User Reviews

Great

[BandSAboutMovies · 8/10 · 11 October 2022]

Director and writer Russell Goldman and producer Jamie Lee Curtis were inspired by things ordered from Amazon that didn't arrive or the wrong thing came instead. Goldman based Julia, the hero of this story, on his family's history of addiction. She gets no support from customer service as her orders fail and ends up ruining not just her life, but someone else's as well when she doesn't get what she wanted.

Allison Tolman plays Julia and she's great, just falling to pieces as she keeps getting the wrong packages which must be some grand conspiracy against her. This looks incredible and is better than most major movies I've seen this year.

No return address.

[DoorsofDylan · 10/10 · 15 February 2023]

With all of the other wonderful shorts I had seen at the Soho Horror Film Festival, I was surprised to spot one starring a big name actress, which led to me looking for the return address.

View on the film:

Produced by Jamie Lee Curtis, writer/director Russell Goldman (who worked as a assistant on the 2018 Halloween) & cinematographer Matt Kleppner send in a simmering atmosphere of razor-sharp match-cuts to each parcel landing on the doormat,and pushing Julia further into the darkest corner of her home.

Finding no return address on the 1000's of parcels she receives, Goldman packages crisp, clinical dolly shots and whip-pans which land on the paranoia and anxiety of Julia,as the parcels send her in a tailspin.

All alone in the house, Allison Tolman gives an excellent performance as Julia, scratching at Julia's frustration over being unable to find a solution online or on the phone,which Tolman expressively twists into dread, from the sound of each new parcel coming to push Julia further back.

Inspired by Jamie Lee Curtis's sister getting strange parcels which she had not ordered, (which turned out to be a thing companies do called "Brushing") the screenplay by Goldman intelligently uses the 18 minute run time to paint a slow-burn character study of Julia, via her initial curiosity over who is sending her the parcels, getting pushed continuously into a menacing margin, until Julia gets a final delivery.

the trap

[Kirpianuscus · 17 November 2022]

A woman , victim of shopping. A sort of web having her as prey, packages / products not desired coming and coming, the tense created with precise art, the admirable acting of Allison Tolman and the terrible end.

But the basic virtue remains the realism. In a world dominated by shopping, including on-line shopping, this story works more than brilliant. Not only reminding effects of addiction but warning about vulnerability front to different forms of scams and the very easy manipulation, near the lost of intimacy.

The end is just great and makes this short film more than remarkable.

A simple story and beautiful acting - the fundamental good points of this profound inspired Return to Sender..