The art of bringing a short film to life is rarely easy. Where sometimes even feature length films fail at introducing audiences to characters for us to fall in love with, a short film is limited by its length, having to give audiences a complete story in oftentimes significantly less time. With Shadow Brother Sunday, we’re instantly thrown into the struggle of two brothers to talk to each other when they both clearly need to.
Alden Ehrenreich stars as Cole (he also directed and wrote the film), a musician who is down on his luck. When he has to go home for his brother’s movie premiere, he is planning on stealing Jacob’s (Nick Robinson) laptop to sell for money. The short film focuses on their brief interaction together, a lot of Cole’s internal emotions, as well as the rest of the family ignoring Cole to praise Jacob. While it is rightfully Jacob’s day and his big moment, it’s still a sibling rivalry that I think anyone with siblings can relate to. The film is brief, chaotic, and a poignant look at how overwhelming family can be.
With a 15-minute runtime, the film is a glimpse into the men’s shared pain as brothers and it did what all good short films do: made me care about these characters instantly. And part of that comes from Ehrenreich’s use of film to shoot the movie and the honesty that medium brings to storytelling as a whole.
A chaotic look at family
If you come from a bigger family, or even one that just loves to all talk at once, the soft chaos of Shadow Brother Sunday will feel relatable to you. Getting lost in the shuffle of someone else’s moment isn’t an uncommon feeling which is why Cole, who is planning on ruining his own brother for money, doesn’t necessarily feel vindictive. He’s struggling and you can see in his own destruction that he doesn’t want to necessarily bring his brother down with him.
The turn comes from a letter that Cole finds on his brother’s laptop from Jacob, all about how he loves him and misses him. It is a message that hits hard, especially if you don’t see your siblings regularly. One brother’s struggle doesn’t ruin his relationship with the other and that’s really what is at the core of Shadow Brother Sunday. Cole was ready to ruin everything to save himself but it took Jacob to make him realize that he just needed someone to be there for him and while I don’t know whether or not Ehrenreich had a longer, feature film idea for this movie, it is a set of characters that I’m eager to return to in some way or another.
Shadow Brother Sunday is currently available on the Tribeca At Home app as part of the shorts package.
(featured image: Shadow Brother Sunday by Alden Ehrenreich)
