Postmortem (2005) Reviews

• Bittersweet

  vampireeat2008-04-22

  I saw this short on the collection of "Boys Briefs 3". The appropriate last entry, the story follows two men who have not seen each in other in a long time after a relationship that ended badly. The story is vague on the details; with good reason, because viewers tend to pay attention a little harder to try and figure them out. This first few minutes are painfully awkward as the two men are unsure how to respond to one another. As the story progresses, we learn that despite really caring about each other, it just never worked out between them. The performances here are excellent, and even the dialogue is spot on. I love the thing with the sugar- "It's just not sweet enough!" which is an obvious metaphor for their entire relationship. The ending was surprising, and sweet, if not bitterly so. It's worth a view by anyone. You forget the men are gay, as I think the story is easily relatable for anyone who had a relationship that didn't end on the best of terms.

• A portrayal of unspoken emotions

  Gordon-112008-09-28

  This short film is about two men meeting each other for the first time after breaking up years ago. The first half portrays the meeting of the two men in a café. They meet to catch up on each other, and to examine why their relationship failed. The meeting is full of subtle emotions and messages. It is plain that they both care for each other still, but things just don't seem to work. Both the actors acted well, as they were both so natural and charming in their role. They also conveyed their unspoken messages well. The second half is less satisfactory for me, as all the previous unspoken tension is lost. I wish the film terminated when the café meeting ended.

• A dialogue-driven gay-themed movie? Think again.

  Horst_In_Translation2017-02-18

  "Postmortem" is an American 16-minute short film written and directed by Eldar Rapaport, a filmmaker who has apparently his focus on gay-themed films only in his career and who has been featured several times already on the (in)famous "Boys on film" short film series. This one here may be his most known short film work as it also got turned into a full feature film a couple years later, with the two same actors that play the main parts here. Now as for this short movie we have here, it is okay until the 10-minute mark, but then it goes south really quickly. The dialogue writing by Rapaport is perfectly fine and I wish the credits could have rolled in then but nope, no gay-themed short film without at least some nudity or sex and this one is no exception. I have no idea why. Sex scenes are maybe in 5-10% of films in general, but I am sure when it comes to gay-themed (short) films, it is probably 1 out of 3 at least. This has nothing to do with homophobia, but just with the fact that these scenes rarely add anything of quality or realistic plot developments to the movies they are in and this is certainly also the case here. Have to correct my rating to a more negative outcome because of that. Such a shame, the film was really decent for the first 60% of it.over the first half. Not recommended.