User:Secondtimethesecond/Straw (film)

Straw is the name of a short 2010 film directed by Wesley Shiflet. It was written by Shiflet, who also was the star.

The film's ambiguous title is a reference to the phrase "setting up a straw man."

Plot
The movie opens with a notice explaining its entirely absurdist tone, followed by a cold open introduction by a seated Wesley Shiflet, which, according to the film, is cut short for time, ending with an abrupt title and the final chord to "A Day in the Life", a reference to the short film Bambi Meets Godzilla. Embracing a mockumentary style, the film deals with a variety of loosely connected subjects, centering primarily around voting rights for babies. Shiflet, occupying the spaces of most of the main characters, plays the roles of as a loose Hunter S. Thompson caricature, an eccentric professor, and a filmmaker, all of whom are assigned different variations of the same name. A notable running gag throughout the films is the use of false names (usu. referring to celebrities, i.e. Jack Nicholson, Herb Alpert) and titles (i.e. Elvis Presley impersonator, MIT Institute Professor of Linguistics, Lord of All Vampires) in captions each time a new figure appears on screen. Several unexpecting students are interviewed, primarily requesting their views on the fact that Gold Hat cannot vote(Adding to the absurd tone of the film, no one interviewed recognized the name or role of Gold Hat). In the movie's climactic final scene, a chair representing oppression, a reference to the film's cold open, is repeatedly attacked to the tune of "Sweet Victory".

Writing
According to the head writer, the film was mostly written off the bat, "improvised and fixed in editing". Several subplots were cut, including one about canine suffrage, one dealing with lamp suffrage, and one portraying a fictional "trek across America" to Washington, D.C.

Release
The film premiered on 26 March 2010 at the inaugural LHS Film Festival, which took place in the auditorium.

Reception
The judges at the film festival, two local film critics, awarded the film Best Picture. Judge Matthew Dekinder, in his overview of the festival, described the film as a "delightfully bizarre entry... which played out like a fever dream filtered through the collective works of Monty Python and Hunter S. Thompson. " Shiflet gave his own film four stars on the DVD cover; he later clarified it was out of ten.