User Reviews

"Shrimp" is an American live action short film from 2018 that runs for slightly over 20 minutes and was written and directed by Zelda Williams, daughter of Robin Williams. Now I like him a lot, but after seeing this one I must say talent perhaps really did jump one generation because I thought this was really empty and uninspired. Zelda is a prolific actress usually, not necessarily a filmmaker, so it should not come as a big surprise that she also plays a character here. Not sure how to call it: maybe a major supporting character. Then again, all she really adds is a lesbian makeout scene with implied cunnilingus. In every other scene, she is completely forgettable. Oh well, then she also is in the scene I just mentioned. The main character is played by Conor Leslie, who is pretty stunning and an okay actress I guess. But her material is also not exactly too good to make an impact. She has a blind date, new relationship on the radar and we find out a bit about her work. Everybody's work that is as the gang of women here works at an SM studio. Sadomaso that means, so there are some references to humiliation, dominas etc. but nothing too sexual overall. At least nothing as sexual as the scene I mentioned earlier. So from that BDSM perspective the film is maybe a bit of a guilty pleasure with these brief moments of men dressed as hotel maids in black-and-white for example. But for these moments you really should not watch the film at all because otherwise it is just extremely unrealistic. We have a guy suffocate one of the girls at the club trying to strangle, maybe kill her, and what follows is not the authentic approach to expect, namely that police is called. Instead the old female owner (and worker), played by Frances Fisher from Titanic, gives the man her own lesson and then lets him leave as if nothing happened. And still afterwards, we see her act as a saint speking to her girls that they have to take care of each other there. Ridiculous stuff. I am sure the one who almost got murdered was really happy about the way things were handled there. At least we are supposed to believe so. And finally after that in a bit of an epilogue, the revelation i already mentioned happens that also felt incredibly unrealistic and way too much of a coincidence. You will know what I am talking about if you really decide to watch this one and make it this far. I probably shouldn't have. i just don't like stopping films before finishing them. So yeah, I am not sure what was intended here, perhaps that this one gets picked up and turned into a recurring TV series à la girls? But it seems it is not happening and that is really a good thing because the quality and story was abysmal at times and totally boring. Then again, I am maybe not the right target group here because this is probably rather something females would watch. The detailed imdb rating speaks for itself. I give it a big thumbs-down though. Highly not recommended. Oh yeah final side-note and snippet of information. Successful Hollywood director (and actor) Taika Waititi has a little cameo. Not worth it for him though either. Blink and he's gone. Best is you stay far far away from this project.