God of Love

God of Love

God of Love

"Dear God, whose name I do not know... please tell me why me, a geeky and rather drippy, big-haired guy cannot get the girl..." Well Ares was so bereft of words for a response that he sent "Ray" (auteur Luke Matheny) some love darts. Now that's not an euphemism, they are actually real darts because he is the world's foremost crooning darts player. Yet he still cannot manage to convince the love of his life "Kelly" (Marian Brock) to reciprocate - even when he takes her to a rousing performance of "Swan Lake". Indeed, she is much more enamoured of his best pal, the drummer "Fozzie" (Christopher Hirsh). Well that might be because he can smile, comes across as vaguely charismatic and has few of the hang-ups of his rather dull and lovestruck buddy. Things take quite a twist when he is advised to try out his new weapons on just about every/any member of the female sex he can find, but again he is left high and dry. Then. Eureka! A drachma drops and perhaps we realise that maybe that is just his lot in life... It's quite good fun this with some pithy narration from Matheny as his emotional void provides us with quite a lot to giggle at in just eighteen minutes. The production is nothing special, but the story flows well and there's the odd bit of jazz in there too.

The generosity, for the final, remains the basic message of this profound beautiful film about love, darts, desire and a gift more than precious. Inspired by the myth of cupid, resurrecting the Olympus characters in two moments, defining the step between selfishness/ jealousy/ experiment to the noble gesture of friendship, it is just delightful. The work of Luke Matheny is eccentric, gentle and good source for a sort of soft enthusiasm. Because all reminds old things, in proper manner, all is seductive in great manner and wise crafted. Just a gift, this is the impression after its end, remarking the mix of humor and lovely solutions defining a story about love, born as answer to a pray full of egocentrism, finishing as a mission deeply assumed.

So, somebody tell me, is Luke Matheny actually making all those incredible bulls's eyes with his dart-throwing?? It sure looks like it. That's pretty amazing if he is! The film is kind of like the guy's random talents all in a nutshell: jazz crooning, dart-throwing, Scrabble-playing...and I suppose he probably plays the accordion, too. What a riot! Endearing film. Has a relaxed, jazzy pace, the black-and-white works great, every actor has an interesting face no matter how minor, Sasha Gordon's score perfectly cues the impending schemes, the onset of love susceptibility, the low-key developments. Matheny has a great eye and charming imagination. And culture, thank heaven. Check out his earlier short, "Earano", which can be seen on NYU's website. Somehow Matheny's work manages a kind of innocent idealism and decency that I thought was dead nowadays. Looking forward to seeing his feature film(s).

"God of Love" was a wonderful experience to sit through. I don't often give movies tens, but in cases like this where I can't imagine a change that I could make that would improve it I happily give it all the points it deserves. It's quick and clever dialog, unusual story and deft, casual acceptance of it from all the characters was excellent. Ray was a character presented with complications, but without getting dark, heavy-handed or untrue to his original writing, he transitioned and grew all within the context of a fun and endearing comedy. An impressive feat for which Matheny deserves as many awards as he picks up.

"God of Love" is an English-language short film from 5 years ago. It runs for almost 20 minutes, is black-and-white and I applaud Luke Matheny for what he did here in terms of writing, directing and acting. I do not often completely agree with the Academy, but I believe they got it right when they handed him the Live Action Short Film Oscar. Hilarious acceptance speech by the way. Check it out. Matheny has great recognition value due to his physical appearance and that elevated the film as well. I am really glad to see his recent success with the television show "Maron". I have not seen it (yet), but it sounds a bit like "Louie" to me. I hope Matheny can step into full feature films at some point too. I would certainly watch it. Now, about "God of Love": First of all, do not be misguided by the pretentious-sounding title. This film is everything but pretentious. It's simple, funny (very tongue-in-cheek) and creative and the title reference comes from the very last quote of the main character and it's not really meant seriously. Also the choir at the end is really just for comedic purposes. The story is as simply as effective. A guy (Matheny) loves a girl. She, however, loves his best friend. And his best friend won't date her because it would be wrong to hurt his friend like that. Quite a mess. Then, Matheny's character one day finds a dart with which he can get people to fall in love with each other, sadly only for 6 hours. After that, the two have to have made a real connection so that the love stays, even if the effect from the dart wears off. He tries it on a friend and it works. The two stay together. Sadly, things do not go that well with himself and the girl of his dreams. So what should he do? There were a handful hilarious references and scenes in here, like the diabetes part or the scene where all the girls are following our hero. I very much enjoyed watching these 19 minutes. Give it a chance, you will not regret it. One last thing I forgot, there is also nice singing in here.

This short won the Academy Award for Live Action Short. There will be spoilers ahead: This short is about a band with an unusual twist. The lead singer croons while he throws darts and does trick shots. He's also part of a love triangle, where he's in love with the drummer, who in turn is in love with the guitarist, who is the singer's best friend. The singer, Goodfellow (interesting name, that) prays for help in winning the young lady's affections. He would have done well to recall the old Chinese curse, "May you get everything you wish for". Goodfellow gets a very special box of darts from the Olympus Foundation (one of the nice touches in this short. Goodfellow, oblivious as well as obnoxious, makes life interesting for quite a few people as he pursues what he wants regardless of the consequences, until he has an epiphany. The end of this short is beautiful and Goodfellow makes some very funny and on point observations during the voice-over at the end of the short. This is available on DVD and Blu-Ray as part of a compilation of Oscar winning live action and animated shorts from Shorts International and the DVD is well worth buying. Recommended.

I was extremely pleased with this short comedy. The film is incredibly well directed. The dialogue is quite pleasant throughout the story and very well delivered, especially by its leading man/director. The interesting thing about this film is that it is very well executed from all angles. Comedies often fall victim to standard or boring cinematography. "God of Love" however, is very well shot. It easy to see the consideration give to each and every piece of imagery. I found myself reciting pieces of dialogue for weeks after seeing the film. They also do a great job getting the viewer to join them on the wild ride that is the world they've set up in the film. We don't feel the need to question whats happening (the out of the ordinary aspects), we as viewers just buy in and enjoy the ride. Its hard to imagine any reasonable way this film could be improved. I strongly recommend it to anyone that enjoys watching movies. A+