I've seen my share of pandemic-themed short films over this past year, but few have been as fun to watch as Alexander Jeremy's almost silent 12-minute short film Milkrun. Milkrun is a spry, light but inspired Mr. Beanesque short film centered around a man (James Watterson) whose desire for some milk for his tea leads him to break out of his home and head for the local grocer. 

Milkrun is, as noted, a nearly silent film save for the jazzy original score of Harry Bolt and the occasional subtitle adding emphasis to the man's obvious dilemmas. The film is a rather comical adventure reflecting society's changing attitudes toward the pandemic as the 12-minute film runs the full-on spectrum of pandemic life from hyper-cautionary to life slowly once again beginning to blossom. 

Watterson, without the benefit of the spoken word, is a delight here especially in the film's early goings on. Watterson has a strong physicality about himself and he radiates the paranoia so many of us felt in the pandemic's early days as we tried to do what was right even when we weren't completely sure what that was. 

An ultra-low budget film shot during the pandemic, Milkrun is as much an encouragement for society's creatives to keep on working during this time even if things aren't exactly normal. Can you tell the film's low-budget? Absolutely. However, that's a good amount of the film's fun and Jeremy does a nice job of working with budget limitations. 

While Milkrun isn't a groundbreaking film, it is an entertaining one and proof that even a pandemic can't keep a good filmmaker down. 

Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic