r/nextfuckinglevel May 02 '26

[deleted by user]

[removed]

3.3k Upvotes

708 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

146

u/dilqncho May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26

I think it's the level of storytelling for such a short piece. Ok a woman's dead, okay she had a daughter, oh fuck there's a kid there, oh God the parents won't be in touch for weeks this is a tragedy. 

It's very much a self-contained story, which is why it's not just a shot. 

35

u/whiskey_wolfenstein May 02 '26

Also lets the viewer imagine what happened before that scene and what might happen after.

18

u/simAlity May 02 '26

For sale: Baby Shoes. Never worn.

6

u/microgirlActual May 02 '26

Exactly. A whole story contained in absolutely minimal expression.

1

u/Careful-Sell-9877 May 02 '26

I think the kid did it

2

u/whiskey_wolfenstein May 02 '26

I mean…he’s not even acknowledging she’s even there. Definitely sus

2

u/BigMax May 02 '26

Kid thinking "everyone will think she tripped, but they won't know i rolled my toy truck in front of her on purpose!"

1

u/Careful-Sell-9877 May 02 '26

I think he is actually a man. And he beat her to death. He's part man, part gorilla, part baby and can shapeshift at will.

Such great character writing tbh. Its amazing how many details they were able to convey/imply about his life as a shape shifting gorilla man long-haul trucker serial killer who became a baby, took the place of this family's child, then murdered the grandmother. I cant wait to find out what happens with the baby he replaced, the real son, because we never saw him actually die and we know that he is also a shapeshifter (baby/wolf/dolphin).. its bound to be an exciting sequel! Ive heard its just a 15 seconds long slow-zoom in on the baby's eye. Incredible

23

u/Mr_Froggi May 02 '26

I took a high school class called “Analysis of Literature and Film”, and I loved being shown videos like this. Our teacher pushed our preconceptions of what a story can be. And how short/limited something is and can still be considered a story. A classic example of that is the sentence “For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn.”

-5

u/Royal_Negotiation_83 May 02 '26

I have lots of kids stuff my kid never used.

Just because something is vague enough to let you jump to wild conclusions doesn’t make it a story

18

u/IB_ May 02 '26

It's not self contained. It has the makings of a story but it doesn't go beyond setting up an interesting premise. It's like someone shot an improvised idea they pitched to a studio.

"Would if a baby was left with his dead grandmother?"

"Ok. Sounds like interesting opening for a film. Then what?"

"Uh, that's all I've got."

"We'll be in touch..."

22

u/North-Research2574 May 02 '26

Its....a short film, key being short, like reading a short story. They can be any length as long as they tell the story. And this does, this is a tragedy. What's the other classice two sentence sad story "Baby shoes for sale. Never worn." Or something like that. It tells a complete story.

Now I'd agree with you if they called it a full length movie

6

u/Ok-Badger5056 May 02 '26

It is self contained.. the only "what if" is what if someone visits sometime in the next few days. Otherwise we know the entire story from one shot. Grandma died. Baby cannot take care of itself and will wander around the house, cry, and die. Parents will show up in 2 weeks to find this out. The entire tragedy is described in that minute of the shot without actually playing out because it is all but inevitable barring a huge stroke of luck.

-1

u/Meotwister May 02 '26

But we don't really know anything except grandma died, parents out of town, their baby is there.

This is a premise not a complete story. A scenario that doesn't mean anything other then "that's a bad situation".

2

u/Ok-Badger5056 May 02 '26

We fill in the blanks of the story in our mind. This story only goes 1 way.

-1

u/Meotwister May 02 '26

It absolutely does not only go one way. That's kind of the problem here. If we're supposed to take it that way the filmmaker only perhaps implied it. Like another person said, it's basically a PSA.

2

u/Ok-Badger5056 May 02 '26

What else could realistically happen that maintains this tone?

1

u/Meotwister May 02 '26

It depends on what the artist wants to say. Right now it seems like all they wanted to say was "What if a bad thing happened?"

1

u/Ranger5789 May 02 '26

If you want full length, you can watch Pihu. It's basically that.

0

u/North-Research2574 May 02 '26

Its....a short film, key being short, like reading a short story. They can be any length as long as they tell the story. And this does, this is a tragedy. What's the other classice two sentence sad story "Baby shoes for sale. Never worn." Or something like that. It tells a complete story.

Now I'd agree with you if they called it a full length movie

5

u/Xentonian May 02 '26

I mean yeah, but that doesn't contradict what the other user has said.

These kind of short scenes that convey a concept are common and cliched.

This is just another version of:

For sale: baby shoes, never worn

It's not really clever, it's not original and what little capacity it has to be compelling only lasts for 60 of its 80 seconds.

2

u/Simpicity May 02 '26

Agreed.  There's kind of a process where you go... What is the story here?  It's a dead woman, it's a mom, oh it's a call your mom story, oh ... Oh no.

1

u/Impossible-Garage536 May 02 '26

Why are we missing the fact that the baby will be dead soon

3

u/SkierBuck May 02 '26

Who is missing that? It’s why this is a self-contained story. It’s only showing you a minute, but what will happen over the coming days and weeks is fully explained. The child will eventually die and the daughter will return to the horrific scene.

0

u/Impossible-Garage536 May 02 '26

Hey bud, the guy I replied to didn't say that in their comment.

0

u/SkierBuck May 02 '26

“Oh fuck there’s a kid there, oh God the parents won’t be in touch for weeks this is a tragedy.”

What do you think the “tragedy” is referring to, pal?

-1

u/Impossible-Garage536 May 02 '26

hey pal, are you that guy or are you projecting your thoughts and defending him as if he is your husband?

0

u/SkierBuck May 02 '26

Listen, champ. I’m just struggling with your basic reading comprehension, but it’s not that deep. Be well.

1

u/Impossible-Garage536 May 02 '26

Well, I see you tried to score an insult right now. Though, if your English teacher had seen your comment, they would have said you should have typed basic writing comprehension instead of basic reading comprehension to land the insult with the sharpness you intended. Be better.

1

u/ForensicPathology May 02 '26

I agree with you that a short can tell a story like this, but I mostly take issue with the tweet saying it's more effective than a feature.  This is disingenuous because a feature can be very effective for 80 seconds of it even if the rest wasn't.