I'm Dreaming of a White Doomsday (2017)
On paper, this is a film that I love. A low-budget horror/drama about a woman and her son living desperately in a bunker after an unspecified apocalypse with a dwindling food supply while the little boy waits for the arrival of Christmas.
Now, the estimated budget for this movie is $10,000. I was impressed with the set design and effects that they pulled off for this amount of money. The acting wasn't stellar, but it was perfectly passable (though really choppy in one scene).
The best part of the film is probably the way that it manages to pull off some compelling imagery, some of it very simple. For example, after her son writes a letter to Santa, his mother tells him that she knows a way to get the letter to the North Pole, and as her son watches she sets the paper on fire. The boy watches as the letter burns bright and then curls in on itself on the floor. A final special effect uses a neat practical effect.
There were two issues that I had with the film: pacing and tone. The movie is only 71 minutes long, and there were some times where it felt like the film was being padded to get to that feature length. At one point, we watch the mother slowly examine various items from a backpack.
I also struggled a bit with the tone of the film. There were sequences that I think were meant to be serious, but that almost bordered on the comical. For example, a sequence in which the mother contemplates various ways to kill herself and her son (sharp can lid? poison?).
The final act (and specifically the final 15 minutes) goes in an interesting direction. I'm not sure how well the ending is supported what came before it. Ultimately to me this felt like what should have been a short film stretched to feature length.