Second short-film review - BP2

https://vimeo.com/channels/staffpicks/1002833698

Every Day’s Like This (2024)

By Lev Lewis

 

This short film starts with a shot of a hallway in a house.  We hear someone reading a story out loud for about 20 seconds.  We then see a girl get home with some shopping and we discover that the door should be left open for a nurse that should be arriving imminently.  

 

There is a lot of reference to “she” as they talk about if the girl has brought the right sardines.  
We then discover these sardines are for her mother/his wife.  There is then a conversation about the mother having cancer.  This then helps us to gather that the hallway upstairs leads to the room where the mother is resting.

 

There is then a boy that comes downstairs who is revealed as the person that was reading to their mother.  Then the nurse arrives, and they refer to her by her name suggesting she is the nurse that comes frequently.  She also knows exactly where to go which links to the name, “Every day’s like this”.  It suggests that this is an insight into the family’s daily routine.  

 

Then they go on to discuss about dates being the “best date” to do something.  We then discover that this date is a date to euthanise her to put her out of her pain.  This could suggest that maybe this short film wants to make a comment about the legalisation of euthanisation.

 

The overall mood of the room is very low and sad which is helped by the warm lighting which suggests that the family have had to pull together in this time because of what they are all going through.  The brother and sister don’t seem to be particularly close with each other as they only exchange a few words to each other.

 

Then they all disperse from being altogether in the kitchen and the father reads the paper, the brother goes downstairs, and the daughter goes back out to get some sardines.  It seems like they are all trying to distract themselves from the reality of their lives grieving someone who hasn’t died yet.  They are all navigating their emotions and portraying this in different ways.  This could be to emphasise the importance of legalising euthanasia because it isn’t just the unwell person who suffers from the delaying of their passing.

 

The short story ends with everyone going back to doing their own thing and the nurse leaving them.  This cyclical structure emphasises the title, “Every day’s like this”.