Asbury Park

 Three of Four Stars

Asbury Park

The short film Asbury Park has two potential strikes against it from the start: One, it’s a student film, where problems ranging from budget constraints to artistic immaturity can be glaringly evident on the screen; two, it’s a family drama, a genre often wrought with sentimentality, melodrama and overacting.  With both problems, story often suffers, a victim of unfocused vision, and its weaknesses covered by emoting and mushiness.

Writer/director/editor Robert Andersen successfully navigates through those troubled waters, however, and delivers a solidly crafted film.  His craft is demonstrated not through showy camera moves or flashy editing tricks, but with a firm grasp of filmmaking fundamentals and a skill to use them well.  Andersen goes for subtext and economy instead of wordy, emotional and on-the-nose lines and speeches.  There is no push to those emotionally charged moments and over-the-top confrontations that are key in family dramas, but a gradual unfolding plot that stirs curiosity and suspense, and keeps you waiting for the next revelation.

Asbury Park gets props for portraying African-Americans without the typical conventions of African-American dramas like street dialogue, profanity, violence or community in peril situations.  Colin has a universal need – forgiveness and redemption – rather than an “African-American problem,” and his struggle is a human rather than racial one.  For the reviewer, this approach gives depth and humanity to Colin and his family; something not easily attained with characters in short film.

Asbury Park is an exceptional demonstration of fine film craftsmanship.  Its director Andersen proves himself a mature and capable filmmaker, who is able to tell his story without an array of film wizardry and emotional manipulations.

Screens Thursday, April 22 at 7:05 pm, part of African-American Spotlight Shorts program.

Stephen Hart is a Clayton County Georgia librarian by day, and a screenwriter and filmmaker night and weekends. He is a staff writer for CinemATL.