High Maintenance (Phillip Van, 2006) is a 9-minute short film which involves a woman who is unhappy in her current relationship. After a heated argument occurs between the couple over dinner, it is revealed that her husband is in fact a robot when the woman deactivates him by flicking a switch on the back of his neck. The woman then decides to exchange her current model for a new, more ‘desirable’ robot – she selects a new rock climber model that is customised to her preferences. After he arrives, he promptly begins to massage her before the final twist of the film is revealed: the woman is also in fact a robot herself.
Van utilises a number of interesting techniques in order to make the narrative of the film more engaging. The fact that the woman’s husband is a robot is foreshadowed through the woman’s remark that he is giving her “short, mechanical sex”, which she means literally. Intriguingly, Van also frequently cuts to a closeup of each character, highlighting the scrutiny that is occurring between the couple. The dialogue also seems to be purposefully stilted and robotic, which is yet another example of foreshadowing the final twist.
The film follows a linear structure and could be classified under the genre of sci-fi/romance. Van’s critiques the concept of relationships through the use of an eerily dystopian setting. The unrealistically long table at which the couple sit is representative of their cold and distant relationship. The colour grading is also particularly artificial – Van’s incorporation of industrial greys and blues is symbolic of the dystopian world presented throughout.
Personally, I enjoyed High Maintenance to a particularly ironic extent – I found the stilted acting relatively humorous. The 9-minute duration meant that the film did not overstay its welcome, and final twist of the film worked well enough, despite being somewhat predictable. The film demonstrated to me the effectiveness of a narrative twist in a short film.
Otis Morley’s A-Level Film Studies Blog 