Mr Mullen (Robert Youngren) has just been re-elected as mayor, even
though his political agenda consists of lining his own pockets with state
money and then make a friendly face on television and tell his citizens
what they want to hear - not too difficult a task as nobody is much
interested in politics anymore in the USA. Chris Mitchell (Chris
Margaritis) has just lost his job like so many in his hometown, mainly due
to rampant corruption in cityhall that puts a nail in the coffin of
economy in times of recession. Thus he puts the blame on Mr Mullen, and
not without justification. Mitchell tires and fails to get his life up
and running again and eventually comes to the conclusion that the one
thing standing in the way of change is Mullen - so he takes his life,
piece by piece, first slaughtering his daughters, then his wife, and
finally Mullen himself. Because, in his words "In order for change to
happen, a revolution must come!" An angry short that makes
a political statement via the mindset of a serialkiller, Mr. Mullen
is a thought-provoking piece of work that tries to pack as many
(socio-)political messages into its 12 minutes running time as possible
while at the same time trying to tell a story. And mostly the film
succeeds, as within its narrative framework, the actual messages the film
carries are less bluntly delivered, and thanks to the entertainment factor
of the plot that is not too political in itself, the film escapes
preachiness. On the other hand though, running for a mere 12 minutes,
the film seems to rush through things, maybe a few too many things even,
to a point where it feels more like a trailer for itself rather than the
actual film - so in this respect, extending the short to featurette- or
feature-length would have improved things (but might also have made it
more heavy-handed regarding delivering its message). In all though,
these are 12 minutes well-spent. By the way, this film
allegedly started out as a PSA raising awareness of the dangers of
traveling alone at night, but then turned into something completely
different. Please check out the whole movie here: http://www.mrmullenfilm.com.
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