Poking around the Tempe Video website a while back, I came across an item called Bent. It was a box set of three DVDs that contained ten short films in all, each dealing in some way with life and the human condition. I must say, I was intrigued (I'm always looking for a good piece of thought-provoking cinema), yet not quite intrigued enough to make the purchase. Still, I had a strange feeling that this film and I would eventually cross paths. Amazingly enough, what did I find in my next review package from Mr. Raffel but Bent Volumes 2 and 3 (which gives me 66% presentimental accuracy, which is pretty good, I think). Since this seems to be a fated review (and since Lawrence seems to be getting quite upset over our lack of updates as of late), I rushed off to view my copy of Bent Volume 2, hoping to appease the gods or at least the Head Vampire.

Bent Volume 2 (I'll call it Bent 2 for short), consists of three short films by director Jason Santo, all of which are edited together into a feature-length product with wrap-around narration. The film begins with this narration, which is given rather listlessly by Bridget Coulter. This narration is one element that I felt really hurt Bent 2, as it simply consists of some rather trite metaphors that desperately try to relate the action of the coming story to the various shots of water on screen. Luckily, the DVD allows the viewer the option of watching the three shorts separately, which is a feature I would recommend taking advantage of: the three films themselves are pretty good, and the attempt at connecting them on some pseudo-profound level only serves to lessen their effect.

Moving on, the shorts are, in order: The Dinner, a black-and-white silent movie in which an attractive young couple invites another attractive young couple (with Tina Krause as the wife!) over for a dinner party, after which we discover a surprising secret affection between two of the diners; Time Heals All Wounds, in which a man recovering from a break-up (two years ago!) finds secrets revealed after he wishes that time would stop until he understood why his girlfriend mysteriously left him; and In a Sky With No Angels, in which a young man (director Jason Santo) contacts one of his high school acquaintances, claiming to understand the secrets of life, death and God.

All of these shorts are well-directed and produced and are fairly competently-written. Indeed, there's a lot to like in the various stories of Bent 2, despite their tendency to rely rather heavily on the 'secrets are revealed' plot device (I didn't mention above, but you guessed it...No Angels contains many shocking revelations as well). The films all show a level of professionalism that I found simply astonishing for such low-budget pictures. Editing, sound, camerawork, etc. are all of completely professional quality and, if nothing else, give hope that video truly is a medium of potential when being used by an artist with talent. Similarly, the stories all show a great deal of creative ability: they all have thought-provoking central ideas and are involving enough; however, this is not at all to say that they're perfect.

The films included in Bent 2 do still look like the work of a young artist who is working out his ideas and themes. The Dinner starts out strong but becomes a little confusing in the end as the film starts failing to establish when certain scenes are taking place. Conversely, Time Heals... is perfectly clear, but it is seriously hampered by the fact that its premise seems a little irrelevant. The stopping of time comes off as a rather random plot device instituted simply to get one character to confess to the other, and the film ends up seeming a little weak because of this strange incorporation of the supernatural when the natural could have effected the same result. One could also argue that ...No Angels is similarly ill-structured, as midway through its run-time it undergoes a jarring shift in tone and subject. I personally thought it was an interesting development (which would lead me to call this the most accomplished film on the disc), but I could see many a viewer becoming disarmed and vexed.

As for the disc itself, Bent 2 is, technically, quite well done. The films all look perfectly clear and most definitely belie their SOV origins, and the audio is effective as well. Of course, since these are strictly talking movies and are composed only of conversations (which explains the lack of screengrabs for this review), most any audio would be effective, but still, I think it's important to point out that the professionally-recorded dialogue is, similarly, professionally reproduced.

As for extras, we receive trailers (for Bent Volumes 1 and 2; Here Comes Your Man, a short on Bent Volume 3; and trailers for the three shorts on this disk) and three featurettes, one for each of the short films. These little documentaries, each running about 15 minutes (give or take 3, perhaps), are all rather interesting and give insight into the working conditions of the crew. It's quite astonishing to discover how few resources director Santo had, and this definitely helps one appreciate his films as, at least technically, spectacular low-budget achievements. Occasionally, analysis of themes will become a little pompous and back-patting a little too frequent, but overall the documentaries are still entertaining and provide a good addition.

As a piece meant to examine existence (e.g. when the film is viewed as a whole) Bent 2 doesn't provide enough food for thought to be recommended, though I think it's rather unfair to judge these shorts on criteria effected by the agenda of the wrap-around segments. As three independent, experimental pieces, the films on Bent 2 achieve mixed results, though in the end the experiment itself is more interesting than the conclusion anyway. For those interested in the potential of no-budget cinema or those looking for something a little more original than the latest that Hollywood has served up, Bent Volume 2 might be worth investigating. As for me, I'm off to fulfill my destiny and review Volume 3...

Editor's Note - The Bent Trilogy is available from Tempe Home Video as a DVD 3-pack.