COVID-19 seriously derailed everyone’s plans for 2020, but with studios either massively delaying their new films or shifting them to streaming services, it’s particularly proven to be a real existential crisis for movie theater chains. While playing it safe undeniably was the right move on Hollywood’s part, there’s no denying the impossibility of cinemas turning a profit when literally every major superhero IP (because, really, what other blockbusters are there these days?) suddenly evaporates from your release calendar into thin air like, hm, there’s gotta be a major pop cultural reference we can shoehorn in here somehow. Oh, well. Never mind.
And yet, perhaps because of this big-budget superhero flick drought, we’ve seen a boon of excellent fan-made short films. From a long-awaited Gambit caper to a really solid Miles Morales tale, the pause in mega-releases from Disney and Fox have incidentally allowed up-and-coming filmmakers to really shine. Now, we can add a Wolverine mini-adventure to that list with the seriously fun short Close Shave.
Written and directed by Mahmut Akay, the darkly funny Close Shave centers on an extremely down-and-out Logan just trying to spruce himself up a bit after listening to a bit of motivational tape advice voiced by Chicken Run and Absolutely Fabulous’ Julia Sawalha. Unfortunately, as he is wont to do, he suddenly finds himself staring down a bunch of prejudiced, privileged asshats (who hasn’t these days?), forcing Wolverine to do what Wolverine does best.
As we said, it’s a very fun 10 minutes of Logan content, all set to a retro Italo synth track from Jonas H. Larson. And speaking of the title character, we are seriously impressed by veteran background tough-guy actor,Cameron Jack, who came out of nowhere to officially solidify himself as the Wild Card pick in our “Inevitable Hugh Jackman Replacement” pool. Like, c’mon, we’re already halfway there with his name, alone.
Send Great Job, Internet adamantium tips to gji@theonion.com