Karis Yanike leads as the title character in Mark Thimijan's 'Way To Go Christine', a short film about an alcoholic employee who sprints on every break from her job to get booze. I'd like to tell you more about the film, but actually that's about the sum of it. When her employment is on the line due to her continual tardiness she devises a means to get her fix faster, but a pedestrian accident with a purse snatcher ruins everything. I'll leave the ending for you to discover if you feel like killing a few minutes.

My issue with this film is that it's farcical approach completely overlooks the glaring flaws in it's lead character. She's a chronic alcoholic and a terrible employee. And before you can say 'yeh Jon, that's the joke', I have to tell you it's just not that funny. Not only are her real problems ignored, her behavior is actually rewarded by the end of the film. I couldn't figure out if I was supposed to cheer for this loser or be sympathetic for her. A simple rewrite at the end that had her questioning how she spent her breaks after she finally had the freedom to do what she wanted, now that might have changed it all around. Or maybe I'm just taking it too seriously.

College-level production values didn't help the situation, it was watchable but not particularly creative in terms of shot selection, lighting (see above picture), and sound. I feel like this was a missed opportunity.

In keeping with grading movies a different way every time I review them, I'm giving this short a C-.

Jon Ashby