“Amends of the Father,” directed by Stephen Sorrentino

San Diego Short Film Festival

Genre: Drama

Total Run Time 46:26

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“The ride is over, Tony. You fell off the horse. The horse is dead.”

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Tony, an aging rocker (Stephen Sorrentino), is 30-ish years beyond his heyday. He attempts to clean up his act in a quest to regain fame and fortune. Branden, his abandoned son (Christopher Quartuccio), has become a recording artist and achieved more than his old man ever dreamed of. Will the amends of the father be visited upon the son?

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Sort of. Careful viewers will pick up on the two earlier scenes that blatantly foreshadow the ending, which I will not spoil. But the title, like much of the dialog in the film, is clever enough to convey multiple meanings in addition to the one at face value.

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Luckily, Sorrentino is more than enough of an actor to carry the weight of being in every scene, but his contributions don’t end there. He’s the director, the writer, producer and composer of the film’s music as well, and I found every element to be better than it needed to be. “Amends of the Father” has some of the best location shooting I’ve seen in a short, and I found myself eerily humming along with Tony during the song that closes out the film. And for something that represents so much of the work of a single person, it is remarkably straightforward and only occasionally dips into self-indulgent territory with a few moments that play a little longer than needed.

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No man is an island, however, and a special shout-out needs to go to editor Alan Rowe Kelly, who stitches together scenes nearly flawlessly. Sorrentino’s trio of cinematographers also deserve credit for finding coverage that goes well beyond the obvious and is frequently interesting to look at. The actors are all up to the task, especially Joshua Philip Weinstein – who delivers the line that opens this review and elevates the dialog into something both heartbreaking and relatable. And be sure to stick around for one of my favorite bits of stunt casting ever as Randy Jones, a.k.a. the cowboy from Village People, shows up as a director near the end.

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“Amends of the Father” isn’t ever going to be mistaken for the feel-good hit of the year, but it’s definitely a good watch.