GO FOOL YOURSELF

Go Fool Yourself follows three close friends as they present a brilliant entrepreneurial idea for their final paper at their University. After this presentation, a professor shows interest in connecting them with an investor that could make all their dreams come true. Unfortunately, this manages to do the opposite, bringing up many unresolved past issues amongst the friends all gearing up to tear them down.

The biggest problem with the premise is that it doesn't fully take advantage of itself. It's hard to really understand what the stakes are since very little time was actually spent on their big idea. Instead, Go Fool Yourself goes a different route and primarily focuses on petty friendship drama and stirring up issues where there may or may not be any. Now don't get me wrong. The three leads do a fine job of managing their characters and portraying them honestly, Gabriela (Helena Cury) being the shining star among them. However, this was just the less interesting route to take with this story.

With that in mind, I still found the short to be extremely well-paced with a nice edit and very consistent cinematographer. Its biggest shortcoming is its dialogue mix and music choices that sometimes feel out of place in the moment. I've said this before, and I will say it again. Casual audiences will always forgive poor cinematography before they will forgive poor audio quality. I wish more time was spent fine-tuning the mix, but perhaps there still is.

A major reason the short never soars too high for me is because Rossi seemed to be very content sticking to a specific rhythm from start to finish with very little change-up. The ending plays like they were trying to pull off a big twist. Unfortunately, you see it coming from the very beginning. But all in all, Go Fool Yourself was a mostly enjoyable watch with writer/director Marco Fellipe Rossi having a fine career ahead of him if he sticks with his craft. 6/10
- Dante Aubain