‘The Courtship’ follows the story of a date narrated in a vintage fashion, a date that starts normally and ends up in a very particular way. Derek and Mattie are sitting at a table in a bar, chatting just as people do at a first date. Their conversation escalates fast, and soon, we can see it going over some respectful limits. Mattie is becoming more and more interested in Derek’s life, unveiling, in the end, the plot of a revenge that has carefully been planned for a long time.

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Kevin Edward Epperson’s short film is extremely stylish. The story within a story made us applaud his initiative as soon as the credits started rolling. To be completely honest, the first part, the revenge plot, wasn’t that appealing for us, and we even predicted an ending that was close to what really happened in the actual film. But when the movie cut to another perspective, it literally left us speechless. As the plot changed entirely, our interest grew exponentially – the ending was all but boring. There weren’t many short films in the past dealing with such change of pace, reason why ‘The Courtship’ literally changed the game for the upcoming stories that will unveil in the same way.

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It’s hard to write about this movie without giving spoilers, and we’ve tried our best to not reveal the magic. Another thing that was captivating to us was the dialogue between the two main characters, a dialogue that develops so nice and ends up being like the verdict given by a good judge. We strongly recommend this project to anyone interested in the perfect combination of story and anti-story, a mix that will literally take your breath away. Kevin Edward Epperson raised the bar in short filmmaking with ‘The Courtship’. Now let’s see who’s up to compete with him.

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Written by Vlad A. G