On the wall of teenager James’s bedroom is a vision board. It’s a posterboard with magazine clippings taped on it, pictures of what he hopes his future will hold: a big house, a smiling family, a pile of money, some retro Air Jordans. Every time something in the world drags him down, he tears a picture off the board. A prosperous and peaceful future becomes harder and fuzzier to imagine.
Shoebox is a short film written and directed by D’Angelo Louis, who signs his work with the name D’Lo. The film repeatedly shows the image of young James (A.J. Hudson) counting money he keeps in a shoebox. The small pile of cash is charged with possibility: It could become his dreams from his vision board, or it could lead him to something else. Unfortunately, James has not been handed a life situation to push him towards success: His father (LaRoyce Hawkins) abuses him and talks down to him. His mother (Rebekah “Favela” Fuerst) is absent except through letters (which we learn, in a knife twist, are from prison and are going unread by James). James deals drugs to grow that shoebox stash of cash, his lone bit of self-ownership and agency in his difficult life.
Throughout the short, James sometimes looks at himself in the mirror, and in these moments, D’Lo offers us the stirring image of James and his reflection not in sync, considering each other. It suggests a life on the cusp, two possible branches James’ life could go down.
One day, James gets robbed. Someone steals his money and the drugs he’s dealing. James can’t resist because the thug (Trey Horton) has a gun. He can’t go to his uncaring father, nor to the police. What is he to do? Again, he counts his money. Slowly, tragically, the possibility of that shoebox transforms into something dangerous. James buys a gun and finds the man who robbed him.
Just as the trigger clicks, we flash to the future. We see James ten or fifteen years in the future. But he is not whole; he’s split in half, and the two partial images do not match. He walks to a mirror, and James once again considers his reflection, though this time he sees something different — a version of his future if his youth had gone differently. One of the adult James (Patrick Cage) is living a life like the vision board from his teenage room. The other, the one facing the consequences of his actions earlier in the short, is in prison.
Shoebox is a short filled with storytelling devices and images. They all come cresting together in that final moment of the two grown-up versions of James. This finale provides a powerful visual payoff on the idea that the circumstances we offer our youth guide their future. The film offers a stirring call for us to care for our surrounding community, especially the next generation.
D’Lo keeps all the different ideas and visual devices of the quick-moving character snapshot in sync, building to that climax to touching effect. The short is well-acted, with A.J. Hudson offering a vulnerable, uncertain James as a teen. The film is cleanly shot by a trio of cinematographers: Andy Chen, David G. Hernandez, and Chris Rubio. Editor Tommy Aagaard keeps D’Lo’s story on the rails, particularly with the ambitious split-screen mirror effect. Adding to the flavor is the soundtrack, which features three hip hop tracks (one by Michael Millions, one by 22nd Jim, and one by 4toda5to).
The most striking flavor of the short is its social realism touched with artful fantasy. D’Lo brings a unique voice and background to the film; per the bio on his website, he discovered his love of writing while serving a decade-long prison sentence in California. After his release, he’s worked in Hollywood, consulting and producing on films like Black Panther 2 and Creed 3. Still not satisfied, he wrote and directed his own film.
Shoebox is a film sparse in plot but busy with evocative ideas unified by a clarity of voice. D’Lo is a fresh and exciting new filmmaker, and his short Shoebox is an urgent portrait of youth at a precipice.
Shoebox (12 min) is streaming for free on YouTube via Omeleto.
Shoebox is written and directed by D’Angelo “D’Lo” Louis, a writer, director, and producer based in California. You can find his website here.
Crew credits include Andy Chen, David G. Hernandez, and Chris Rubio as cinematographers, Tommy Aagaard as editor, Ameerah Armstrong as production designer, David “DTB” Teel as composer, and Archie Davis as music supervisor. Cast credits include A.J. Hudson, LaRoyce Hawkins, Rebekah “Favela” Fuerst, and Patrick Cage.
Dan Stalcup is the film critic for The New Cinephile and The Goods. Reach him at dan.stalcup@gmail.com.
Incredible review. Thank and this is much appreciated.
Thanks for making the short and for stopping by our review! Cheers 🙏