Critics reviews

One has to admire the nuttiness of a film that shows baubles cavorting on a lawn, or rotating in darkness, or that revels in the prismatic patterns they generate—as if we were viewing some alternate universe in which fake jewels have the intentionality to become performers, creating forests of rhythmically vibrating light.

Jodie Mack's SOMETHING BETWEEN US begins abrasively, with shaky images and a soundtrack comprised of warbling electronic tones and manipulated cricket noises, but grows more soothing over its ten-minute duration, ending with steady prisms of light and the sound of bells. It's one of a few shorts in the program that were shot on 16mm, the texture of the image heightening that of the costume jewelry that appears to dance in many of the shots.

In time, Mack is alternating between this "natural" light and its highly artificial facsimile, the trinkets swinging to their own chiming electronic theme song. A game show bell dings mid-film, as though we've found the right answer when the organic is largely vanquished in favor of Mack's pendular, sun-dappled Claire's Boutique of the mind. A breakthrough work by one of the best filmmakers working today.