Short Film: Hair

Happy Friday. So, for those five minutes of downtime that are bound to find their way into your life this afternoon, we have a short film for you. Recently debuting at the Tribeca Film Festival (who brought out an ad themselves recently), the film is entitled Hair and is set, in its entirety, in an American barbershop. It focuses on two actors (John Turturro and Bobby Cannavale) discussing the intricacies of male coiffure.

What’s so impressive about this five-and-a-half-minute piece is the way it completely grips the viewer even with its seemingly mundane topic of conversation. The banality of the haircut is revitalised in the film, highlighting the crucial importance of a hairstyle to the personality of your everyday man. Its importance to style, confidence, self-worth and individuality is underlined by the comic and off-the-cuff conversation between the two guys (it’s entirely unscripted and they aren’t acting) as they sit alongside one another in the barbershop. They discuss everything from the Neanderthal origins of the  hairstyle, to the indispensable necessity of having the same barber each time you get your haircut, all the way to whether the word “hair” is technically singular or plural in the English language (it’s singular).

Sounds dead dull doesn’t it? However, it’s categorically not. Have a watch here and you’ll see what we mean; there’s something deeply human, charming and amiable about this film and it’s impossible to put your finger on it. Enjoy.