There’s an Old Man Bar out on the edge of nowhere…and it’s a snowy nowhere. We get one look at the exterior of the place, and you can barely see the neon through the gloom. But the three letters we can make out say it all: BAR.
Inside, there’s more grumble than chatter, as most of the patrons—all men—are bundled up against the world itself, maybe even more than the cold. One old character brushes off a dusty joke about a duck walking into a bar. Two veterans of different wars share a few words about the price of those conflicts, and who paid them, before the elder man groans, saying he doesn’t want to talk about it anymore. Another patron, baby-faced but hulking in his winter clothes, idly fingers a small pocketknife and sings along to a Billy Bass as it flops against on the wall, joining the novelty fish in a couple barely audible lines of “Take Me to the River.” A priest is asleep in the corner, and another man is listing all the medications he’s on. And the shadows. The shadows, man, are everywhere.
This is Sam A. Davis’s short film The Singers, and it’s a cinematographer’s movie. The interplay of shadows and smoke and light would be mesmerizing, even as a silent film. Based on an 1850 short story by Ivan Turgenev, it’s eighteen minutes long, and it’s on Netflix. It won an Oscar for Best Live-Action Short this year, and you should watch it.
What happens is, there’s a regular who makes a habit of hitting up the other customers for cash, to finance his other habits. And the bartender’s fed up with this. But when the guy offers to sing a song for a free beer, the bartender sees an opportunity. He proposes a contest, hoping to entice his old friend, on oxygen at the end of the bar, to sing a little, too. It’s been so long since he’s heard his voice.
God, everyone in this movie is so lonely, and no one can admit it.
And that’s how the movie starts, and that’s how the movie goes. There’s no big twist, except a sense of astonishment whenever someone new opens their mouth. But when they sing, you better listen.
Because everyone in this place is so lonely. And sometimes music is the only way to admit it.
There are excellent performances throughout this short movie, spoken and sung alike. But the singers themselves are Michael Young, Chris Smither, Will Harrington, Judah Kelly, and Matt Corcoran. As I said, it’s only eighteen minutes long, and it’s on the most ubiquitous streamer there is. If you have a chance to watch it, make the time.
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