Review: At All Costs

1st January 2015

By Maahin Akhlaque.

I don’t get round to watching many short films, though not for any particular reason. With A Tout Prix/At All Costs though, a French short film by director Yann Danh, it is so jam-packed with things happening, that I felt like I got a feature-length’s worth of action.

When their former boss is given a Golden Parachute, three guys take him hostage, interrupting the interview of a senator to demand their ransom. However when their demand is rejected, they are forced to show how far they are willing to go, and even turn on each other.

There is a lot going on in the 15 minutes runtime of At All Costs, the interview with the senator, the set up and carrying out of the kidnapping, and then the unraveling when it doesn’t all go to plan, and then there’s a mysterious woman keeping an eye on the three men, plus a last minute twist, which is almost a requirement for a decent short film. It does carry a sense that Yann Danh treats this as a long trailer for a feature that he’s hoping someone will give him the money to make after seeing this, which isn’t an unreasonable hope. The film is well made, and given how much he packs into this, I’m sure there’s an interesting feature length script he has waiting to be made.

It is hard to tell whether they did a lot really well on a really tiny budget, or they did it competently an all right budget. The short film has been bought by Anthony E. Zuiker, the creator and producer of American TV series, CSI and its follow ups, so there is hope of seeing more from Yann Danh.

https://vimeo.com/96585485

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