*Since the filmmakers don't have a movie poster for this film, I made one. Being the screencap I used belongs to the filmmakers and all I did was add the obvious text, as far as I'm concerned the poster image belongs to them to use as they wish.
Cox and Mahler working together is certainly fitting as Mahler drives a narrative of sight and sound, devoid of dialog. Cox is a wonderful actor and among his strengths is a talent with body language and expression. Mahler and Cox working together is a marriage made in filmmaking heaven
Matthew Mahler has scored this film himself with vibes that hint at 80s sci-fi movies, to me, but is its own original composition. Timothy J. Cox has fun with this role both with spot on moments, and moments of chewing the scenery; and that's talented when you can chew the scenery without uttering a word.
Mahler's composition of scenes is contained. By this I mean his scenes are full and rich, but he does not let that distract from his focus. With Cox's performance, this additionally keeps the focus as it would be hard to not keep your eyes on Cox. I do feel that the story is a bit ambiguous, for me, but some do like that ambiguity of filling in blanks for themselves, and certainly if that's you, you can have a lot of fun with this one.
The music in this is four times louder than it needs to be. Leaving my media player settings at normal and putting on my headphones results in what I call screaming critic syndrome. The volume is not bad if you're using speakers because you can be assured to have room filling sound. But this is a word of caution to those who also might use headphones.
My Rating: 4 Fingers
You can watch What Jack Built and other of Matthew Mahler's work on Vimeo
For more on Timothy J. Cox visit his Official Website