The short film The Shout Out tells a pandemic-influenced story with reality-tinged comedy centered around a reality star named Cameron, played expertly by Elizabeth Masucci, who's been cooped up for a bit too long due to the pandemic and decides to join one of those sites where she can make short, personal videos for fans who fork over the bucks (the movie goes to great pains to humorously share that they can't actually say the name of that most well known site that shares a name with a certain 80's funk band. 

Word up.

Cameron at first embraces these videos with a warmth and compassion that is humorous and heartfelt, though as time goes on it appears that isolation may be getting the best of Cameron and her videos become increasingly, well, fraught with the strains of life in isolation. Released on the website Weekly Humorist, The Shout Out shows an increasingly melting down Cameron. There's just enough of a sense of reality to the goings on that we actually come to connect with Cameron, though Masucci balances it all quite nicely and turns in a remarkably humorous performance along the way without ever making light of a feeling that many of us felt over the days, weeks, and months of the pandemic. Co-writers/directors Charlotte Barrett and Sean Fallon also do a nice job of working around that certain website they're not allowed to mention, an approach that adds humor to an already enjoyable 7-minute short film.

Vertically shot on phones, The Shout Out uses that approach to positive effect as it gives the film an even greater sense of claustrophobia and feeling boxed in. While I've undoubtedly seen my share of pandemic-themed films, The Shout Out is an effective and entertaining film that finds both the heart and humor in it all. 

Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic