“20 Something” is both a short and a documentary created by Lanze Spears, an American indie filmmaker. Lanze Spears, the single person behind this film, did almost everything by himself: he wrote, edited, directed, and produced it. “20 Something” seems so indie, so low-budgeted, and so unpromising. There is no spectacular wrap-up it offers to the viewers, except that it is very spirited to capture such a typical and so-so topic about some young persons pursuing their dreams and building up career. It’s good that it was edited nicely as it appears to be more artistic and dynamic.

“20 Something” is a package of commentaries and opinions from five 20-something-aged young persons: Clare Bilbrough, Taylor Baybutt, Sean Fahie, Anastasia Frangoulis, and Mike Thibodeau; from four different cities in United States of America. While they are done with their schools and started to make money by finding a job, they had to face a dilemma of choosing a career or pursuing their dreams.

There is nothing spectacular from its content. It’s not a one-of-a-kind true story, it’s not a hot topic, and it didn’t raise popular figures as a highlight. It’s just close to us. The age of 20s is when you have to get up from your sleep and find a job, or quit your school and try to find a way to live your life. It is time for you to stop depending on others, especially your parents, to continue your life. It is only a part of the cycle of life. It is merely a phase-changing. What makes it more relevant to be captured in such a documentary film is that how it dilemmatically melted with the aspirations of the youths. It’s when you realize that your dream won’t feed you enough or pay your bill, that you know that your 20s is more challenging than it may seems before. “20 Something” is all about it. The five talents were interviewed about these topics and gave opinions about how they pursue their dreams in their efforts to live their life.

It is mentioned on its page on IMDB that the primary goal of this film is to inspire the youth to hold onto their dreams and acknowledge that through hard work they can pursue their dreams, and while it is obviously seen that “20 Something” tried so hard to at least approach its goals, it’s drown in a plentiful of over-stylized appearances that makes it lacks in both its content and its executions. It is like seeing a ramble interviews that didn’t even get any points. “20 Something” is so broad and so comprehensive that it doesn’t have anything specific that distinguish it from any other similar films. The five actors didn’t have something new that no one knows and notices before, and while I’m expecting that I have something from this film I probably could retell to those who haven’t watched this film, I realize that it’s just another misstated and wrong-focused work. Maybe it’s a little bit obsessive but it didn’t have much effort.

Lucky that “20 Something” was nicely edited and supported by some ear-catching music. It seems over-stylized from its abundant effects, scene-transitions, coloring, but it’s a good achievement of such an indie and low-budgeted film. There is a mild young and independent spirit in this film, which many filmmakers could easily be inspired of. “20 Something” may inspire any other filmmakers to capture a situation from his surroundings into a film, and it also told much about things that could possibly went out of its former level just because a focused spirit and intention. Although the story is not either inspiring or enjoy-able, “20 Something” is a real potential of “something”.

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20 SOMETHING | COUNTRY USA YEAR 2011 RATING n.a. RUNTIME 43 min GENRE Short, Documentary CAST Clare Bilbrough, Taylor Baybutt, Sean Fahie, Anastasia Frangoulis, Mike Thibodeau WRITER Lanze Spears DIRECTOR Lanze Spears MORE INFO