Big Red: The Road to 200,000

The documentary short subject film "Big Red: The Road to 200,000" may be a low budget, private-mid-west college production but that doesn't marginalize the film's small greatness factor.

Thankfully, "Big Red" never tries to be something its not which is a huge problem for many student films. Even though it crosses through feelings and emotional chords that quietly tug, sting and tap at the soul, the film never takes itself too seriously and manages to evoke several moments of cheesy giggles and outbursts of laughter (i.e., the montage-esque scene of Big Red's faults and quirks and through-the-years-wear-and-tear damages is just one of the many hilarious, yet poignant moments). The movie plays out like a disheveled journey--sometimes unsure of where it's going but always intrigued by the road it seems to be taking--thanks in large part to the transparent improvisational debut performance of senior Taylor student Nathan Shorb. While pretty much filling up most of the screen time with his two bits and sarcastic/insightful remarks, Shorb feels like a smart Tom Green mixed with a Buster Keaton comic knack for tone in his melancholy narrative. Even though it's hard to always tell when he's being serious and when he's being funny, he manages to marry the two enough throughout his lines that the audience can rarely tell the difference.

However, the real star here is Big Red himself, as his 200,000 mile trek climaxes with Explosions In The Sky's hantingly gorgeous track "First Breath After Coma" resulting in what might be the most emotionally affecting moment captured in a documentary film since the final scene in Marc Singer's award-winning "Dark Days," where homes are found for the underground homeless cast and crew. In both moments, a deep and satisfied smile comes to being that is not merely a smile due to joy, or to happiness, but one that comes after a long journey that may seem to be ridiculous and humanly metaphoric all at once. And that's pretty much the genius behind the movie "Big Red": it's an ode to the open road and to mid-west America and to small town college life and to the journey that we all seem to be on ourselves. We may no longer have the naiive shine and sparkle from our youth, like Big Red once had, but most of us know it's still inside us somewhere...waiting to be found out, and lived out--even if only for a few seconds.

Although it may be far from perfect, "Big Red" is everything you could hope for and more, and is one of the more meaningful and insightful and simply lovely American documenary shorts I've ever had the pleasure to see.