I don't think many people fully understand how difficult it is to properly review a short film. When you watch a full-length feature, you're given a reasonable amount of time to witness the developments in both character and plot, and perhaps become emotionally attached to the characters. Or… Perhaps not. That would depend on the success of the film. A short film must generally be taken on different merits, as it's very difficult to genuinely involve the audience in the occurrences in such a short period of time. As such, short films generally need something else, a niche of some sort. As a film reviewer you must distance yourself from any preconceived notions that all films are created equal, and attempt to understand each film's intention and ability to stay true to that intention in order to form a proper critique.

From the opening title card, Consuming the Commodities of the Heart, Director Angel Connell has made it quite easy to understand the intentions of Stocking Stuffers, even if its message is a little less than clear at times. As an audience we witness a man (Eric Scheiner) having been invited back to a woman's (Christy Scott Cashman) house for the proverbial ‘nightcap'. While they both want the evening to go a bit farther, the woman has the intention of making him work for it. This results in the man trying to seduce her with some creatively written dialogue relating sex to food. The two characters aren't given names, and this serves to strengthen the film, as it almost seems as though we're spying on to random, unknown people than characters of someone's creation. The dialogue and chemistry between the two leads is unique and always entertaining, and while we're given the impression that the man is the one going to the effort to seduce the woman, her legs, dressed in the titular stockings, seem to be doing just as much work, albeit in a much more understated fashion.

The brilliance of this film, however, is in its structure. The first half of the film (described above), makes the transition into a segment titled The Heartfelt Commodification of Consumption. which takes our male and female characters from the first half of the film and implants them in a series of very well crafted pantyhose commercials. The three commercials, all from different perspectives, are all very enjoyable, and by the final commercial's final line of dialogue, it almost seems as though the commercials were in fact their own short film consisting of a beginning, middle, and end. The second half of the film almost seems to be structured more like a traditional film than the first half, which is bizarre given that it is a construction consisting of three separate ‘commercials'.

This leads me to make a point – Stocking Stuffers was released in two separate cuts. The first, reviewed here, runs about eight minutes long, and consists of two distinct, but certainly related, halves; the second cut of the film was solely the second sequence, running roughly four minutes. When I first watched Stocking Stuffers, it didn't make sense to me that the first half of the film could be cut from the film entirely, as the two halves work so well together. If you think about it though, the second segment of the film is slightly more entertaining, and the theme is much more prevalent, and as such I suppose it would be more accessible to a general audience. It is my opinion however, that the film is strongest in its full cut. The film is very well crafted from both a creative and technical standpoint (the cinematography and editing are both excellent and very professional), and works best as a whole.

There is something to be said about what we find attractive and/or sexual, and the devices we utilize to assist us in gaining control over members of the opposite sex. Whether those devices are inherent within our personalities, such as an ingeniously seductive way with words, or are physical objects designed to stimulate, a pair of stockings for example, we've all been victim to them (Not that that's a bad thing, just thought I'd clarify). Stocking Stuffers suggests these ideas to the audience in its first half, and then asks the audience to almost take part in its seduction by enticing you, the viewer, with the same tools of seduction on display in the first segment. Only this time the reward isn't sex, it's product... goods… commodity.

While, I'm certain that the theme behind Stocking Stuffers will be lost on some people (as I've seen it first hand), the film is an entertaining eight minutes, filled with fun dialogue and interaction between the leads. Consider the fact that the film actually has something to say a bonus.