Rob Meyer is a Newton boy who lives in New York now, but his short film, "Aquarium," is shot partly at the New England Aquarium and it definitely captures the surreal, blandly dysfunctional vibe of the western suburbs. The opens with a scene that had the audience dead set against the film and then slowly works its way back into our good graces, with funny, dead-on performances by a handful of adolescent leads.
"Aquarium" screened last night as part of the "Shorts Program I" compilation, which also included a very strong post-Hurricane Katrina short story called "Second Line" -- it played like black Flannery O'Connor from where I sat -- and an eerie Dutch short called "Dennis," featuring an amazing man-mountain body-builder in the title role.
Anyway, the filmmakers were all at the screening and answered questions at the end, Here's a video of Meyer telling the audience that, no, he did not kill his dog.
