Max was the wunderkind of architecture. She had a breakdown, and now, she's back with her greatest design ever. It is an amazing house design, seemingly inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water and works by the likes of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Manuel Clavel Rojo. The weird thing is it also reminded me of the original design for what we were going to build the Computer History Museum ourselves instead of buying the old SGI headquarters. The work is ambitious, and it also has opinions of its own. This is actually a thing among architects. They'll say that the designs talk to them, demand that their designers bend to their will. It's a thing.
Taylor is magnificent. When she could have gone hard, she went soft, and when she had to ratchet things up, she not only did, but she did it without losing either reality or continuity of emotional connection. She was present, in a sense, though what she was present in is a very different question, and in essence, it is the entirety of the film.
Incredible direction is what made this more than an actor's piece. Matthew Dixon, our director in this endeavor, had an incredible challenge: an inanimate prop as a supporting character, as the primary foil for our lead. Along with phenomenal cinematography that emphasized the fluidity and accentuated timbre of each moment, and the kind of stylized editing that makes use of single shots as both placeholder for internal actions as well as driving force behind them, it turns into a short that does more than many features.
Modern Houses shows as a part of Short Program 1 - The Highest Peak at Century 20 Redwood City Wed, Mar 1 6:40 PM, Sun, Mar 5 10:30 AM, and Tue, Mar 7 3:15 PM, and in Downtown San Jose at Hammer Theatre SJ Thu, Mar 2 1:30 PM