Slice Of Life Review: Short SF Movie Set In Blade Runner World
Movie title: Slice Of Life
Movie description: Slice Of Life tells a simple story of a low-life drug dealer who wants to turn his life around. His goal is to collect 100 000 credits so he can leave Earth to live a better life in offshore islands. Unfortunately, he becomes a target of a corrupt cop who starts blackmailing him so he must collect the rest of the money while avoiding getting caught.
Genre: SF, Action
Summary
Slice Of Life is a solid short SF film set in a Blade Runner world. Made the old school way relying on miniatures and practical effects instead of the use of CGI, the final result is actually a very good looking movie that could put to shame much more expensive Hollywood movies. Unfortunately, Slice Of Life resembles Blade Runner only visually as it doesn’t tackle any of the themes covered in Blade Runner or its sequel.
Director: Luka Hrgovic, Dino Julius
Cast: Anton Svetic, Ivica Pusticki
Year: 2020
Slice Of Life is an original short SF movie, made by two Croatian amateur filmmakers Luka Hrgović and Dino Julius, set in a world of Blade Runner. Made the old school way relying on miniatures, matte paintings, and rear projections instead of the use of CGI, the final result is actually a very good looking movie that could put to shame much more expensive Hollywood movies. Unfortunately, Slice Of Life resembles Blade Runner only visually as it doesn’t tackle any of the themes covered in Blade Runner or its sequel, Blade Runner 2049.
Slice Of Life tells a simple story of a low-life drug dealer who wants to turn his life around. His goal is to collect 100.000 credits so he can leave Earth to live a better life in offshore islands. Unfortunately, he becomes a target of a corrupt cop who starts blackmailing him so he must collect the rest of the money while avoiding getting caught.
Slice Of Life Trailer:
Luka Hrgović and Dino Julius, the authors behind this movie, met while doing some commercials for various Croatian companies and brands. As Blade Runner fans, they started working on Slice Of Life back in 2014 in their garage in Zagreb financing the project with their own money. As the project started getting more serious, Hrgovic and Julius started a Kickstarter campaign in order to raise $25.000 but in the end, they managed to raise $82.000. They built all the sets in a garage and bought an old Citroën BX and turn it into this futuristic Blade Runner vehicle.
Slice Of Life premiered on a film festival in Tokyo and afterward, it was shown on a couple of other festivals including the LA Shorts festival where it won an award for Best Short Sci-Fi movie.
The best thing about Slice Of Life is the visuals – the movie really resembles Blade Runner and looks like a real thing. Instead of relying on CGI, the authors used miniatures and practical effects. All buildings in the city were made mostly from carton boxes and various computer components and junk – one building was made by gluing a telephone, VHS tape, and transistors on top of the carton box. Later they bought a 3D printer and started printing components, like air conditioners and pipes. The final result is actually pretty impressive for a cheap amateur movie and proves that you don’t need a huge amount of money and expensive CGI effects to bring your ideas to life.
How was Slice Of Life Made – The Magic of Miniatures
Unfortunately, the rest of the movie, like the story and the characters are not on the same level. Don’t get me wrong, this simple story, written by Luka Hrgović, Dino Julius, and main actor Anton Svetic, isn’t bad at all and is actually interesting to watch. But it is also a far cry from themes covered in original Blade Runner and its sequel.
There are only two bigger characters here, the dealer and the cop. The dealer just wants to raise enough money to leave everything behind and start a new life. To do so, besides dealing drugs, he’s hacking terminals and stealing money using a device that resembles the same device used by John Connor in Terminator 2. Unfortunately during one of the heists, he’s witnessed by a greedy cop who wants all that money for himself. I’m not mentioning dialogues as Slice Of Life doesn’t have any – it’s pure visual storytelling. The acting isn’t top-notch but you don’t expect that from amateur actors.
Still, this is a solid short SF film set in a Blade Runner world with impressive visuals when you consider it was made in a garage by a couple of people with limited funds. It would be interesting to see what the authors would do with a bigger crew and budget. Actually this short movie opened some doors to Hrgovic and Julius and they met some interesting people and are currently finishing the script for the feature-length Slice Of Life film which should expand the world and the whole story.
If you’re fan od Blade Runner, check this one out – the whole movie is available for free on YouTube and you can find a link below.
Slice Of Life whole movie
RELATED: