Night Cleaner, The Review

Distributor: NakedSword Film Works Edition Details: Standard Streaming Movie Specs: Genres: Short Film, Gay, Documentary, Animated, Softcore Run Time: 5 minutes Rated: not Release Year: 2016 Director: Blair Fukumura Written by: uncredited Voices: Travis Shannon Release Specs: Audio: English Stereo Subtitles: none Video: Widescreen, 2.35:1 (anamorphic) Video Format: NTSC Format: Streaming Regional Code (for DVD/Blu-ray): N/A Number of discs: N/A

The Night Cleaner is an unusual documentary, of sorts, by director Blair Fukumura. The Night Cleaner is an animated short film that tells the story of Travis (voice of Travis Shannon), a night housekeeper at a gentleman's only club.

What makes The Night Cleaner unusual is that Travis Shannon is an actual night housekeeper at one of Canada's busiest gay bathhouses (that is never named in the short film), which the short never really projects to the viewer. Blair Fukumura has had Travis Shannon talk about his actual nightly duties at the bathhouse and has set the audio to animation depicting what Travis Shannon is saying at the time.

This reviewer has called The Night Cleaner a documentary, of sorts, because the only viewpoint depicted is that of Travis Shannon, himself. This reviewer expects that an actual documentary will bring in other voices than just the one of the person being documented.

The Night Cleaner only gives a cursory glance into Travis Shannon's job. Travis Shannon provides far more detail than one would end up giving during a job interview; however, since the entire short film, with credits, is only five minutes long the viewer is well aware, or should be well aware, that this short film just touches on the top of the iceberg that is Travis Shannon's job.

The Night Cleaner isn't a bad watch but, honestly, leaves the viewer wishing there was more, and that it was better explained that this is an actual account of Travis Shannon's job. If the opportunity presents itself to watch The Night Cleaner it is worth the view; however, this reviewer wouldn't recommend trying to seek out the short film actively.

The edition of The Night Cleaner screened is the streaming-only edition available on NakedSword.com. NakedSword Film Works has done a nice job with their streaming-only release of The Night Cleaner. It is unclear how The Night Cleaner was shot. The Night Cleaner is presented in the anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio of 2.35:1 letterboxed to 1.78:1 in 480p. The video quality for the short film is good with no noticeable issues and good colors.

The Night Cleaner is presented with an English Stereo audio track. There aren't any noticeable issues with the sound quality and the dialog in the short film is clear and easy to understand at all times.

NakedSword Film Works hasn't included any extras for their streaming-only edition of The Night Cleaner.

NakedSword has released The Night Cleaner through their NakedSword Film Works (NSFW) division that was launched in 2016 to exhibit independent gay movies that aren't precisely pornographic yet aren't exactly mainstream. The Night Cleaner is an animated documentary, of sorts, short film by director Blair Fukumura that tells about the nightly duties of real-life gay bathhouse cleaner Travis Shannon. The Night Cleaner makes for interesting viewing but ultimately leaves the viewer wishing for more information. NakedSword Film Works has done a nice job with their streaming-only edition of The Night Cleaner on NakedSword.com with good audio and video quality.

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