Trusts And Estates

Animated in a distinctive and minimal style, Trusts & Estates is allegedly based upon a conversation overheard. Four men in suits, all post-Reservoir Dogs diner-chat, black suits white shirts black ties and carefully delineated appearances, cow's lick curl here, fringe there, four lawyers talking.

"You just ordered a salad and a mojito; what's wrong with you?"

The language drips with cursing, a volume of vituperative invective only matched or exceeded by the wholly accurate depiction of Scottish Vernacular in Glasgow Short Film Festival 2014 programme-mate Colours. This is filth, pure and simple, but it builds to a punchline that doesn't surprise as much as it hopes to. Ultimately Jeanette Bonds' film relies on us believing it is rooted in truth, and the traditional trust afforded by an audience is earned with dates and places in the introduction. It does entertain, but it's gruelling - the "banter" we're given is deliberately unacceptable, and while there's a ring of truth to some of the shenanigans it's hard to know if it was beyond the pale before it was drawn in black and white.

Reviewed on: 16 Feb 2014