Ricochet: A Shot at Redemption or a Bullet to the Soul?
What happens when virtue collides with desperation? Ricochet, Max Van Nol’s student short, dares to pose this question and answers it with a gut punch of tension, if not an entirely fresh perspective. The story is stark: an ex-convict, clawing his way back to honesty, learns his wife needs a life-saving operation they can’t afford. Does he stay clean, or dive back into the murky depths of crime? It’s the oldest dilemma in the book, yet Van Nol injects it with a sincerity that feels lived-in because, as his director’s statement reveals, it is.
From the opening frame, the cinematography by Dario De Ruiter is the film’s sharpest weapon. Each shot feels curated, bathed in hues that whisper both hope and inevitability. Creative lensing choices and deliberate color correction lend an almost operatic quality to what could have been a bleak urban fable. Tyler Ramerion’s performance? A smoldering slow-burn restrained, yet carrying that tragic weight of a man watching his future crumble grain by grain. And let’s talk about the music: tasteful, atmospheric, never shouting over the drama but amplifying its heartbeat.
Yet, for all its technical prowess, Ricochet occasionally shoots itself in the foot. The editing, while polished, suffocates the narrative’s need for oxygen. Scenes rush past like trains refusing to make a stop, when what they need is stillness—a moment to let the moral gravity sink in. Then there’s the sound design, which sometimes feels like it took a coffee break mid-conversation, leaving dialogue clipped and hollow. And those barren walls in the first act? They speak, but not in the way Van Nol intended—they whisper “budget constraints,” not “character interiority.”
Is the plot original? No. It’s a coin we’ve flipped countless times in cinema. But does Ricochet make that coin spin beautifully before it falls? Absolutely. For a student short, this is a bold, brooding piece of work, one that wrestles with the human condition even as it stumbles over its own pacing.
Max Van Nol doesn’t reinvent the wheel here, but he gives it a coat of grit, sweat, and honest intent—and that counts for something. The film ricochets between brilliance and hesitation. A stylish, heartfelt morality tale with a killer eye and a shaky trigger finger.
