Nonureva Really Surprised!

Pluskylang Great Film overall

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Theo Robertson I've always loved music . Despite ruining my life by chaining myself to the internet and coming on to this website to spill my worthless opinions on films that on average are very mediocre I've always considered music to be the most moving , uplifting , life enhancing , most dangerous form of art . Perhaps it's because of my love of music that I've never taken the plunge and tried to make music . I've always been gripped by a sense of awe when it comes to music . To hear The Edge playing guitar chords or Matt Johnson sing of existentialist fatalistic angst it would seem almost heresy to try emulate musicians , but as I sit here listening to Simple Minds perform Room at a club in Amsterdam in 1980 I sometimes wish I might have tried a little bit harder and wonder what might have been if I tried to join the cult of the musician This animated short I AM TOM HARDY by Ainslie Henderson hits the right note with me . It follows the life of a wannabe music star Tom Hardy who finds himself at the crossroads of a career that never was . As Bob says this is very well done with optimism in Tom's psyche being tempered with reality that he's merely living a quixotic dream and that his talent just isn't good enough to make it . As with MOVE MOUNTAIN that I saw earlier today the stop frame animation is very impressive especially the expressive look emitting from the characters eyes . Again I've got to say this is an obvious labour of love and what mercenary philistines there must be working on Hollywood movies if they never show the sort of passion being shown in a short film like this . What I also found interesting is the way Tom is shown to age by something brutally simple - he starts losing his hair . We end up losing our hair then before we know it we lose our life and if you've got any ambition to do anything in life then it's better to do it yesterday rather than tomorrow and I AM TOM HARDY is a painless and engaging warning to us all

bob the moo A musician takes the stage with his cousin Steve at the open mic night at the Egg & Sparrow; the audience is not the most receptive perhaps but there is an even bigger obstacle to Tom's performance – his own self- doubt and fear.This short film works very well on both the levels it sets out on. The content of the short is simple but very effective as we see a very believable and convincing internal battle between two voices, both of which are Tom inside his own head. As one voice tries to find positive the other is brutally factually about the unimportance of Tom's life and his failure thus far as a singer. This discussion is well written and engaging and also heads to a nice conclusion which is small but perfectly formed. The content itself makes the film good but the delivery cements it as one worth seeing. The stop motion animation is as creative as it is simple – we don't have great backdrops or sets, we have the internal blackness and character-focus of memories and thoughts. Visually it works really well and compliments the material.The characters themselves are very good looking models with plenty of expression in their eyes and very smooth movements; you really can see the doubt in Tom's body posture and in his eyes, neither of which is easy to do when you are essentially working with a doll that is being moved millimeter by millimeter. I loved the animation of their hair as well, with its movement and life, which added to the characters. The fading in and out of characters and memories and the easy transition between internal and external was also well done – technically and in terms of the narrative. Mackenzie Crook deserves credit for supporting this small British short (he is getting regular film work now) but to be honest his credit should really be for a very good performance since he is convincing as both the awkward nervous Tom and the impatient and dismissive Tom. The voice of young Tom isn't credited here on IMDb but the credits on the film list him as Jude Crook (Mackenzie's son) and, although he only has a few lines he sells the timid look of his character with an equally timid and unsure voice. A very enjoyable short film from Henderson that is well worth checking out.