DISPATCH

A 911 operator responds to the emergency call of a woman locked inside her home with a child and a "monster" chasing them. The operator tries to encourage the woman and guide her to safety while the police arrive. "Dispatch" before being a short film is a story by the writer Sean Elwood, from which the director Stefano Argenziano takes declared inspiration. A minimal and engaging story, perfect for a short, whose goal is to strike and attract attention in a few minutes. "Dispatch" on paper was the right story and Argenziano succeeds in bringing to life a tense and exciting film, certainly well managed. The director is at his debut, but the firmness and security that the finished product conveys would not suggest it. Thanks to an evident predisposition to managing spaces and times and to an actor (because we only see one, although we hear three) capable of holding the scene for almost 15 minutes. The plot takes place entirely in a room, with the operator as the absolute protagonist, played convincingly by Paolo Capozzo; the carefully studied camera movements play with the space in order to create a visual rhythm in an otherwise monotonous location. Details of the environment and our protagonist to emphasize a feeling of unease and agitation, to which also contributes a relentless storm that accompanies the entire duration of the film. Incredibly, the short is full of computer graphics effects to recreate the backgrounds of the location and this is practically imperceptible when watching the film; invisible special effects, created by the same director who, as a self-taught, has also specialized in visual effects. During the first minutes, there is the feeling that the narrative simplicity could soon turn into monotony and consequently into boredom, instead "Dispatch" holds up very well its minutes and the plot also turns out to be quite engaging. The tension is palpable and the situation, although sometimes unbelievable, manages to captivate. However, at the end, there is a slight disappointment, a sense of dissatisfaction because at the end of the credits, one realizes that "Dispatch" suffers from that ending that in jargon is called "a mouse tail". You know the tail of a mouse? At the base, the diameter is larger and thins gradually as you approach the end. "Dispatch" is a bit like that, it starts with a bang with an intriguing plot that keeps us glued to the screen and ends a bit too abruptly with a nothing. Excellent the leaden photography of the expert Mirco Sgarzi ("32", "Ultracorpo", "House of Flesh Mannequins") and good the suggestive soundtrack. Working with greater impact on the conclusion would have resulted in a great work, so "Dispatch" is still a short film of notable quality.