All The Men I Met But Never Dated: Review. By Simon Thompson 

Co-writer and director Muneeb Hassan’s short film All The Men I Met But Never Dated is a low-key understated effort, with excellent cinematography by Nicholas Pietroniro, and a pair of capable performances by its two leads. In only 12 minutes, the short manages to convey a complete three act story, with Hassan and co-writer David Stokes clearly demonstrating considerable skill when it comes to economical storytelling. 

The plot of the short tells the story of Ali (Ahmed Shihab -Eldin), a closeted gay Muslim who is put in a tough position when Oliver ( Jared P Smith) a man who he has fallen in love with, gives him an ultimatum of either coming out to his family or breaking up- because he doesn’t want their relationship to be a secret. 

The story is clearly extremely personal to Hassan which gives the short a strong degree of both realism and empathy which carries itself across its length. In terms of the acting, however, although Jared P Henson gives a solid enough performance as Oliver, Ahmed Shihab Eldin’s performance as Ali truly carries the movie. Eldin doesn’t go in for big showy gestures to convey the inner turmoil the character is going through, instead electing to use subtle gestures and an air of relaxed stillness, a stylistic decision that his performance greatly benefits from. 

The cinematography by Nicholas Pietroniro is excellent, with Pietroniro using a bright and expansive colour palette for the day sequences and switching to a much darker, more muted colour scheme during the evening party scenes. Through doing this Pietroniro creates a neat balance between both a dramatic and a realistic look at the same time, with the use of close ups giving the film an almost documentary-like quality. 

The score for the film, by Marina Havriliak, is unobtrusive and compliments the melancholic tone that Hassan is trying to establish nicely. While I wouldn’t go as far as saying it has any stand out tracks, it’s still perfectly pleasant to listen to. 

All The Men I Met But Never Dated is a purposeful and well-made short film, made by a clearly talented cast and crew with a strong vision of what they wanted the end result to be as well as being a piece of work which isn’t afraid to tackle a difficult subject, rooted in director Muneeb Hassan’s own personal life. 

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