by ALEX DAVIS USA, 15 mins I've long been a fan of short films, and have had the pleasure of watching and reviewing some absolute beauties in my time reviewing at Film Gutter. Like short fiction, there's often a great deal you can say within a very limited scope of time and the truncated form can often pack quite an emotional punch. Which leads us to today's short entry, The Stylist. Often with short films there are many unfamiliar names floating around, but director Jill Gevargizian is a talent who seems to be gathering a head of steam, and the lead role in this one was played by Najarra Townsend, who showed she was quite an actress with her role in Eric England's alternative zombie movie Contracted. Her presence as an actress also helped to carry this movie, and I expect to see more of her in the future. In The Stylist, Townsend plays Claire, who is waiting for her last client of the day at the hair salon, Mandy. When Mandy finally arrives, she's a gregarious, go-getting, high-flying executive type who needs to look perfect for an office function – and when I say gregarious I mean she really talks. Claire sets to work, even offering Mandy a glass of wine as she unwinds. But of course the wine isn't just wine, and as the haircut goes on Mandy finds herself drifting into unconsciousness... Unfortunately Mandy doesn't stay out cold long, and wakens to find that Claire has already scalped her, leaving her devoid of hair and skin on her head. That's an effectively shot scene, although how Claire silences Mandy in the end is a little hard to believe for me. In our final scene we see Claire getting home to her house, going down to the basement and trying on the 'wig' (IE skin and scalp) that she took from Mandy and spitting out a few of her wealthy, over-privileged lines of dialogue. It's a short film that I want to like more than I do – Townsend has a great presence in the lead, although her only counterpart actress in Jennifer Plas is nowhere near as effective in her role for me. It's also slightly hard to discern what the aim or message is meant to be – maybe there's something about escaping into someone else's life for a while, but it's a fairly muddled message if that's the intention. It's shot well, the colour scheme throughout is great and there's a handful of really potent visuals, it just seems to somewhat lack the substance to go with the style. RATING: 7/10. If a movie ever lived up to its name, it's this one – the director to this one is clearly a stylist and has a great handle on that side of this short film. However an unclear meaning for what we see, and a few other minor quibbles, mean I can't give this one top marks, despite all the promise that is on display. I'd certainly be interested to see what Gevargizian could do in the long form should she ever turn her hand to it, and I'm happy to give this one a 7/10.  BOOK REVIEW: THE THING IN THE WOODS REVIEW BY MATTHEW W. QUINN
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