By David Dent
As you would expect from being one half of the insane ‘Everything is Terrible!’ tape mashup production duo, Dimitri Simakis’s nuts short The Rainbow Bridge comes across like it was made by a class of culture and tech savvy kids with a collective zero attention span. It’s dumb, it’s silly, but it’s very funny.
When Tina (web favourite Thu Tran) takes her dog ‘Meemoo’ to the vet, its failing kidneys signify that the end is in sight. But once there Dr. Bailey Picadillo (Heather Lawless) and assistant Herb (James Urbaniak) deem that the woman and pooch combo are the perfect match to test out their newly developed technology, allowing owners to travel over ‘the rainbow bridge’ with their furry loved ones for one last goodbye. But as with all great sci fi ideas the idea, great on plan, develops serious problems once made real.
Simakis chucks so much into his 13 minute film it’s difficult to know where to start. That the director has actually developed characters you care about within the audio visual maelstrom is nothing short of a miracle.
Design wise the starting point is the 1980s or 1970s (or even further back – older readers may remember Sid and Marty Kroftt’s TV work as a guide). Everything is low tech and dayglo, which complements the over the top performances perfectly. Tina’s dog is – of course – a stuffed toy, until it crosses the bridge, and then it’s..bigger.
But there’s a heart beating underneath the silliness, leavening the craziness with a real sense of pathos. This is a very fine short; well worth checking out (pun slightly intended).
The Rainbow Bridge screened as part of SXSW Film Festival 2024.
Bloody Flicks 