David Sarrio’s 'Powerless' tells the story of Christopher Wyatt. the man who is also “employed” as a superhero for a firm called Global Electric. Everything changes when he takes a wrong step, and his boss from the firm fires him, leaving the superhero without his powers. The whole concept of this short movie is absolutely brilliant; we are dealing here with a strange yet impressive concept that was made popular by the South American writer Julio Cortázar, the one of magical realism. Even though Cortázar is not the most influential figure in this realm, we are mentioning his name because the vibe of 'Powerless' is very much alike with the vibe of The Southern Thruway: the world presented in this short movie is running its natural course, the superhero is employed as a superhero for a big firm, when he is fired his superpowers are taken away, but in spirit, he is still a crime fighter. As in The Southern Thruway the realistic realm is covering 80% of the space, and only 20% is the “magical” part, the one that is supernatural.

 

Technically speaking, this short is flawless. We’ve seen some serious groundbreaking edit, an impressive screenplay that is both smart and innovative, and a cast that melted our hearts. The main actor, our one and only jobless superhero is doing an amazing job; it has been a while since we’ve seen such a role.

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Another thing that amazed us in this short was the dialogue – extremely versatile, easy going, pleasant, smart, ironic…it had everything we’ve expected and a little bit more. If the script of 'Powerless' would have been submitted in a short story competition, the result would have been spectacular. The revival of magical realism was something we’ve expected, but none of us could anticipate it would be this good.

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Written by Vlad A. G