Sight and Sound review In the style of Neds Unpicking Courage is fire, and bullying is smoke.

Benjamin Disraelis play on the famous phrase No smoke without fire gives us a good entry point to Alex Sextons new short. More than telling us that bullying is a smokescreen, one that hides true courage from plain sight, Disraelis quotation could be stating that bullyings emergence originates from the overdevelopment of courage, moving from being courageous (the fire burning) to the over-presence of that courage (the smoke), clouding anything that may lie beneath. The ideals behind this quote resonate within this tense twist-in-the-tail middle class drama. When we first meet our protagonist, Charlie, he is working with a focus solely on the work in front of him. He works busily; and we as an audience can see that there is a sense of quiet determinism about him, in that even when making a mistake, he still works through. We are presented with a little wood and metal trophy that Charlie has been working on, filing away at the metal and sanding the wooden base. This wooden trophy serves as a culmination of his efforts. However, it creates a view of Charlie as a person as well. The little metal trophy has a sense of care to it, however, it has such a look about it that we know that it has been made by a student. With Charlie working hard on his trophy, and the themes presented within the short, we assume that the bully is going to be someone of a similar age, or possibly older. From the personality traits we are witnessing from this point, we expect that he will beat the bully, and the film turns into one large clich. This quickly turns from what has the potential to be just another film about bullying to something that challenges newer ideas present in the secondary school system. Sextons film directly challenges a time-honored ideology that has been present in Britains educational systems for generations - that bullying is just a part of life, and that it toughens you up for life in the real world. The film is a paradox of sorts; it challenges this traditional idea, but at the same time, endorses the values that it instills. It uses the platform of bullying as a vehicle for Charlies journey to becoming a better person, but at the same time, adhering to some of the ideas that are associated with the process of bullying. If his first short (Drink (2012)) is anything to go by, we see that Sexton has a custom to challenge the viewers first response to the film. This kind of challenge creates a more thought-provoking film, rather than just attempting to live up to the conventions and clichs that are set in place by films about bullying before this. The films narrative is challenging, in that it takes the viewers conception about what is going to happen, and flips it on its head. We are introduced to the antagonist of the film, Ryan, as he is about vandalizing Charlies work as he watches on. This kind of action describes the stereotypical situation of bullying that we hear about in schools; there is a bully, and a victim. The bully is normally bigger than the victim, and the victim is normally much weaker. However, this film takes that idea, reverses it, and then continues as normal. Having the antagonist much younger than the actual protagonist gives the film an interesting dynamism compared to other films that may describe the same thing. We are shown the kind of aggression from Ryan that you only see normally from someone with something to prove; hes trying to find his feet in the school, and as a result of this, has taken to bullying someone much older than he is.