Goodnight Irene (2005) User Reviews

charming story of three generations

[creativeaquariums78 · 9/10 · 8 November 2005]

I saw this short film at Aspen Short Film Festival about 4 months ago. I am not a movie industry person...just a regular Joe. I really think it provides its audience with something that is lacking from independent film, and that is sincerity. This is a genuinely compassionate movie about three generations of people that get to know each other a little bit while sitting in the waiting room of a health clinic. The single setting (waiting room) makes any story difficult to communicate, but Harjo pulled it off. He did so with well-developed character, good dialogue, consistent shots, and believable acting. All in all, a very well- rounded, solid story.

Wonderful for a short

[chaoticstudios · 9/10 · 3 December 2005]

I saw this short film at the deadCenter Film Festival in Oklahoma and found it to be an excellent film. I walked in thinking I was going to see a stereotypical Native American "Smoke Signals" remake but from the opening shot I quickly realized this was something completely different. The story grabbed me from the beginning and kept me interested through the eerie ending. The actors were very well cast and delivered perfectly subtle performances and I couldn't find a single technical flaw (given the obvious limited budget). My only issue with the story was that the end wasn't as powerful as I expected. I wanted something more. Towards the end, once I figured out that the film was a metaphor for the culture, I thought the end should have been... more dramatic. I was fortunate enough to meet with both the Director and DP at the festival and was impressed with both of them. These guys will both go far in the industry.

2 thumbs up!

Dull - Technically Proficient - but Dull

[TechnicolorPhantom · 1/10 · 22 July 2005]

Achingly slow and uneventful, this short is little more than conversation between three characters - none of whom are very interesting, nor have anything interesting to say. It can strike one as particularly pretentious; I would presume since it does so very little, the director would claim he was trying to do so much. A blasé entry aided by a few dolly shots (perhaps a milestone for student or first-time filmmakers, but not something about to dazzle most audiences) that never finds a direction in which to stumble. You could better spend your festival time going to the bathroom or stalking Don Cheadle than dragging yourself through the fourteen minutes of this quagmire.

Technically proficient?

[zuss · 24 August 2007]

Maybe I'm missing something here? I understand what the story was going for and in that light found it to be intriguing. However, the execution of it really just didn't do anything for me at all. I mean three people sitting in a room talking about nothing, and I mean really nothing! There was no subtext to the conversation and nothing about the dialogue gave any sort of arc to the characters or their experience in meeting each other. The only thing I can say good about the script is just the idea of it was kind of cool. Three generations of Native Americans sitting in a hospital and the oldest one is about to die. Thus, symbolizing the death of a culture, not bad right? In my opinion Sterlin Harjo should stick to writing and leave directing to people who halfway know what the hell they are doing. As far as being technically proficient goes, I've worked on a lot of short films that were made for far less money, and were also shot on film mind you; that at least didn't show the entire crew's reflection in an opening 10 second long pretentious wanna be Mike Nichols/Wes Anderson shot!