Review for ‘‘Radio Telescope’’ by Tanner Beard

A fresh arrival on the now-familiar wave of 80s homage & nostalgia films, industry veteran Tanner Beard's Radio Telescope is an excellent short containing more than meets the eye at first glance.

The setting and plot, absolutely archetypical of 80s adventure/comedies, contain a self-awareness that allow Radio Telescope to have fun and indulge in nostalgia at the same time, as we follow a son and father of a loving family playfully indulge in experimental astronomy. The way the plot unfolds is like nothing we've seen in recent memory, and in the interest of spoiling nothing we'll simply note that this short reaches incredible emotional and thrilling heights given its short runtime and simple premise. Processing it all has not been easy, to say the least, and we wouldn't have had it any other way.

Technically, Beard's film is for the most part bathed in warm lights & colors that pop, at the same time featuring faithful outfits & an incredibly energetic - and sometimes transfixingly dissonant - score of pure 80s hype. The editing is subtle and smart, the sound design immersive, and the main cast's acting hits near the perfect balance of emotion & camp, working with effective, although not exceptional, dialogue.

Summing up the experience of Radio Telescope is hard. As a sci-fi short it is uninterested in constructing a vast world or forcing us to face deep philosophical dilemmas about the cosmos. Instead, using its minimalist toolbox of visual nostalgia taken to the satirical extreme, a banging soundtrack and tonal whiplash on a level unseen this decade, it declares clearly and succinctly, as if into the void of space: Careful what you wish for.