Watching short films is nice because if it is a bad film you know that it will end soon. The collection I watched on Wednesday night was a mixed bag. I went to see the "international 2: the determinator" collection of international films.

Most of the films presented a nice message or some nice sound and visual effects. Three of the films were fantastic, and oddly two of those were from Australia (a country not known for films beyond Crocodile Dundee).

The Australian movies were very different from each other - one was short and sweet and the other felt like an epic journey. The short one, Lucky, is about a stunt man who "finds himself in a bind." Anymore detail than that and the film may be ruined for you.

If you enjoyed reading the tale about the Jabberwocky then you are bound to enjoy The mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello by Anthony Lucas. It uses a steampunk aesthetic to tell a story about a disgraced navigator wanting to redeem himself. The animation is very one dimensional, whereas the characters are surprisingly filled with dimensions. It plays with many themes,the least of which looks at how machines, nature, and humans interact.

Despite all this Aussie goodness, one film from Australia was hard to watch. Mona Lisa is filled with very tight and close shots of the film subjects, I find this to be very distracting. I also had trouble relating to either of the characters involved.

The rest of the line up (except for the American one) was well done. They all lacked something that would've made the movies something more than what they were; be that thing better sound or music, or even a more obvious description of what's going on. Still, the goodness of these films cannot be ignored.

Americans love their guns, or so us Canadians are led to believe, and Youngster explores this gun culture in a simple way. A young drug dealer gives some older dude some drugs, but doesn't get the money first. Of course our young drug dealing friend has a gun, and he wants his money.

This line up of short films screens again at The Isabel Bader Theater on Friday the 17th at 1:30pm.