Each week the folks at Cinema Circus show a series of short films on Wednesday evenings at the Chilmark Community Center. The films begin at 6 p.m. but at 5 p.m. the circus — complete with jugglers, face painters, stilt walkers, food and music — gets under way.

An advanced screening of the films was arranged. In a world with few certainties, the kid critic is the critic to trust. This week’s reviewer is Maisie Sherman.

Maximum Boost (Dir. Rolf Hellat / Switzerland / 2010 / 5 min.)

I think they were trying to play pretend that they were on the moon. It was a boy and his grandma, and they were sitting on the bench in the rain. The boy asked, “Would you come to the moon with me?” and the grandma said yes, so they went on this thing and then they stopped, so that’s when it went in slow motion to pretend that they were actually walking on the moon, like big slow steps. I thought some of it was pretend which I kind of like, but some of it was real life, and some of it was in action. I would rate this two or three stars.

The Dog Cafe (Dir. Maggie Rogers / U.K. / 2011 / 2 min.)

This was about four dogs, and those four dogs were sitting there and talking, and one of the dogs said, “It’s too cold to sit here and talk,” so then the little fluffy dog said, “I know a place we could stay.” So they went to an old shed and they went in and tidied it up a bit, and then they made a cafe. Then the puffy dog was howling to all the other dogs, “Come and get some food, there’s hot dogs on the menu tonight!” and then they all came. I would rate this four stars.

Hungarian Folk Tales: The Poor Man and the Dog (Dir. Maria Horvath / Hungary / 2010 / 8 min.)

I liked it because the dog told the truth, and he noticed that the man dropped one single coin and in the end the dog came back with the coin in his mouth to give it to him, so that’s sort of thoughtful for a dog to do. I thought when I saw the decorations in the beginning where it had all those doves and yellow background that it didn’t really make sense to me, that this kind of film would go with that background, so I thought it would be kind of different. I would feel way better if it was in English. It was kind of too fast for me to read so I had my mom read it. We had to keep stopping it so that my mom could read it to me. I would rate this movie about twoish/threeish stars. I liked it, but it wasn’t my favorite.

A to B (Dir. Malcolm Sutherland / Canada / 2011 / 3 min.)

This is my favorite one. I watched this film five times. All these weird creatures are trying to get from A to B in different ways. They’re not really creatures, but they are kind of these weird things and they’re all trying to get from A to B. They all make different noises and some of them are really not smart. A was flat on the ground and B was straight up. One creature ran, hit B and fell and just laughed. Some of them just make noises and go nowhere. I would rate this ten stars, it was my favorite movie of all of these.

Carlotta and the Cloud (Dir. Daniel Acht / Germany / 2010 / 7 min.)

There’s this girl named Carlotta, and she asked if she could play with these boys, and they said no. She walked past this guy and called the boys dumb and said all boys are dumb, and this guy said, “What?” And she said, “They won’t let me play,” and he said, “Oh, I see.” So he gave her something, and she said, “But what is this for?” And he said, “You have to figure this out by yourself.” She said, “But it’s broken,” and then she made a cloud move behind her, and the thing controlled the cloud. When she figured out she could make the cloud rain, she put the raining cloud on this guy’s car that he was washing that was all soapy, because in the beginning he was mean to her after she spilled his water, so she was being kind to him by giving him water for his car. I rate this movie three or four stars.  

B/W Races (Dir. Jacopo Martinoni / Italy / 2010 / 2.5 min.)

I thought that it was kind of funny because there are all these race cars, and there is one particular black race car and that one is trying to get all the other race cars away from it so it can win, but literally a white car won. And then after the white race car won, the boy noticed the black car wasn’t alive anymore, then the boy who was playing with the race cars picked the white race car up and colored it all black. I watched this one, three times. I rate this one nineish or eightish stars. I liked it a lot.

The Lighthouse (Dir. Po Chou Chi / Taiwan / 2010 / 8 min.)

It started out when a guy had a son and his son went away in a little rowboat, and he came back. Then, as the years passed, he went out on bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger boats, until his father was too sick to get his letters and had to stay in bed. Then he took his father into the place where the father taught him how to play the piano, and they played the piano together. Years passed, and he eventually died. After that the boy, who was all grown up, was waiting at the dock of the lighthouse and his wife came back with a baby, and then his family lived there. I loved this movie. I rate it seven stars.

The Princess Painting (Dirs. Klaus Morschheuser and Johannes Weiland / Germany / 2010 / 6 min.)

This was about a princess who had never looked at a cow and never got near a cow, so she was kind of frightened of them. So the princess was asking everyone, “Isn’t this picture really beautiful?” and it was literally just a scribble, and they were saying, “Oh yes, it’s pretty awesome,” but they were just saying that because she was the princess. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have said that. Then she went to show her dad. He wasn’t looking, and there was a gardener who was blind and she didn’t know that, and she went past him and asked, “Isn’t this beautiful?” and he said, “Um, I don’t know.” She stopped and said, “What?” She said, “Tell me if this painting is beautiful,” and he wouldn’t tell her, so her dad put him in the dungeon. Then a couple of days later, she went back down into the dungeon and she brought down a different picture and said, “This time, tell me, is this beautiful?” And he said, “I don’t know, tell me what you think,” and he said, “Did you ever look at a cow?” and she didn’t really say anything. It was really good because I liked how in the end she drew a really good picture and she finally looked at a cow, but they didn’t show you the picture. I loved this, 10 stars.

Believe in Yourself / Notebook Babies (Dir. Tony Dusko / U.S.A. / 2012 / 1 min.)

This is about an alligator that came over to a bunny rabbit and said, “Sometimes I feel like giving up,” and the rabbit just sang a song about believing in yourself. Then the alligator said, “Thanks rabbit, that makes me feel way better,” and that was the end. It was kind of weird. Two stars.

Bob (Dirs. Jacob Frey and Harry Fast / Germany / 2009 / 4 min.)

There is a hamster and he was pretending that he was in the wild, and he saw another hamster he thought was a girl so he followed the other hamster. He imagined he was in all these other places until he hit glass eventually, which was the end of his cage. Then someone took the other hamster and put it in the same cage, and he came closer to the other hamster, and the hamster said, “Hi, I’m Bob.” I give this film eight stars.