Phil Cox’s short film, “Hilary’s Straws†is inspiring, but it’s more for the character and content and not his organization of both. Just about any director could make a film about Hilary Lister, the world-record holding quadriplegic sailor from England- and it would be inspiring.
Her story is one that exudes passion and perseverance.
In spite of that, there’s just this inescapable shallow sensation when it’s all over. The film doesn’t feel complete.
Its length isn’t the problem. There are plenty of pictures, even at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, which clock in at three minutes and manage to tell a complete story. This one just doesn’t.
Although Cox’s film tries to make up for the film’s lack of precision by having a solid score and some beautiful shots of Lister on her ship, there isn’t enough of her story. There isn’t enough about this technology that allows her to do the amazing things that she does. Simply put, three minutes isn’t enough time to tell Lister’s story and Cox spends too much time, especially early on, wasting precious seconds.
The end result is a haphazard telling of an already amazing story.
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports.
Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders.
His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023.
Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief.
Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale.
Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.
Phil Cox’s short film, “Hilary’s Straws†is inspiring, but it’s more for the character and content and not his organization of both. Just about any director could make a film about Hilary Lister, the world-record holding quadriplegic sailor from England- and it would be inspiring.
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