Troma Shorts (2000)

Troma films held their TromaDance festival at Park City on Wednesday 1/26/200. This included many speakers, short films, and guest appearances. The evening was capped by the premiere of Troma's new film, "Terror Firmer" (directed by Troma founder Lloyd Kaufman) as well as a party.

Unfortunately, Wednesday was a busy day for me, so I only got to stop by for a few minutes. I did see one good short and some amusing stuff while I was there.

"Breaking and Entering" by Tommy Bernard was an amusing, one-joke, 6 minute short that was creative and new. It paid homage to "Psycho" while giving us a completely new take on an old vampire cliché. It was filmed beautifully on video and looked quite sharp.

"A Waiter Tomorrow" by Michael Kang was a sort of homage to all those John Woo shoot-em-ups but seemed more cheap imitation than inspired praise. The film, set in a Chinese restaurant, was full of typical moments and really had nothing new to offer. Most of the people in the audience found it amusing, however.

A short PSA type film featuring Julie Strain of "The Rowdy girls" was stupid and featured pointless mild lesbian S&M bondage. (Okay, maybe lesbian S&M bondage wouldn't be pointless for some guys...)

"3 Years of Scary Little Town" was a collection of shorts by the titular Scary Little Town comedy troupe. I believe these air on cable TV somewhere. I only stayed for three of them. There was a claymation piece that was dumb, a spoof of TV's newest genre called "When Inanimate Objects Attack" that was hosted by a funny guy in a bald skullcap playing "Robert Urine." And, finally, a spoof of PBS' "Center Stage" that focused on a modern dance choreographer whose new performance was called "Mittens, Mittens, Mittens." This was amusing but only left me thinking that my friends Rich and Kelly had made far funnier films, including their mockumentary called "Cupcake," which explored a similar set-up with vastly more amusing results.

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