In a metropolis in the future, a man in a flying car is trying to sell as many drugs as possible to earn 100,000 credits for a space trip to another beach planet. However, since he is 10,000 credits short, he robs an ATM machine. A corrupt cop makes a photo of him and blackmails him, demanding the money for himself. The man and the cop fight in a toilet, and the cop is killed. However, the man misses the flight and now has to wait another year for the next opportunity.
In one of the best Croatian independent short films in the last twenty years, directors Dino Julius and Luka Hrgovic crafted a homage to "Blade Runner" by releasing it in the year it plays out, remarkably re-creating its mood and aesthetics. "Slice of Life" was filmed in their house garage, using matte paintings, miniature models, walls and an old car, filmed in Blackmagic Design 4K camera—but it all looks so fantastic it is incredible. There is not much of a story or directing skills in here, it's all style over substance, but the huge close ups and meticulous eye for little details (drops dripping from a faucet, the hero typing in numbers on his laptop to crack the password of an ATM machine, the mouth of the corrupt cop eating ribs, a silhouette of a flying car passing by over a screen of a mouth of a woman in a TV commercial...) all create a stunning aesthetic and visual style that looks so modern that it has weight. No character speaks a single line (except for the off audio of TV commercials heard from screens), but everything is clear in this simple story of greed and fight for money, as the hero wants to flee to another world in time. You can almost smell the odor of some scenes (the hero removing rats from a restaurant dumpster and taking some noodles in a paper box to eat; him lighting the cigarette of the brand "Slice of Life" in the finale) and feel the rain seen in so many frames. It is a remarkable and impressive film, stylish to the cinematic boiling point. Villeneuve's "Blade Runner 2049" is not the true spiritual sequel to "Blade Runner"—it is the much more worthy "Slice of Life".
Grade:+++
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