Magic H8 Ball (2018)

This is one of the few comedy shorts that I’ve seen that addresses the issues of STDs in a more grown up fashion, without going into medical detail or trying to shame anyone. It’s “Adam” (Nathan Mohebbi) who turns up at the clinic only to be told by the very matter of fact doctor (Robin Thorsen) that he’s going to need an injection to clear up his newly discovered chlamydia! It can’t be. He has a steady boyfriend in “Mark” (Chris Boudreaux). As we all know, the pus doesn’t lie and so now he is both embarrassed and furious. Luckily, before leaving the place he picked up an eight ball that was rolling about on the floor, and before he knows it it is giving his sagely advice. Don’t get hung up on the betrayal - go live your life. Get day drunk; borrow a bike; have a cheeseburger - go indulge yourself! When “Mark” bails on him by text - without even a kiss, he decides on a little retribution and that's when the home truths make him realise that perhaps he doesn’t need the increasingly malevolent ball at all, and that maybe it’s time for him to make his own decisions and take responsibility for his own actions. Could a chance encounter with the gonorrhoeic “Gary” whom he meets at the surgery provide such an opportunity? Now there is a great deal of dialogue here, and some of the humour misses it’s target a little, but there is also something candidly mature about this short film that I quite liked. It has an honesty to it’s writing that is both earthy and sad, and I thought Mohebbi held it all together quite energetically for quarter of an hour. It’s quite a telling feature about people too afraid to make their own choices in life, and it’s worth a gander.