Review: MGM’s 8-Second Las Vegas Love Stories

These six, succinct eight-second shorts brought to you by MGM are like a hypothesis. A question is posed to the viewer: can you fall in love in eight seconds? The follow up question is this: will you?

I’ve fallen in love before. Eight seconds was all it took: the last eight seconds I’d ever see him again. Arms wrapped around his waist, face buried in his tux. As we hugged, the world spun. Red blue fireworks were going off somewhere, either in my head or in the midnight sky above us. I was breathless, for a moment, breathing in his cologne. In another universe, we could have been. I wanted to remember it forever. The average hug lasts three seconds. We held on for what seemed to be too short an eternity.

Watching these films felt like that. An infinity of possibilities wrapped up in eight seconds. Each film spins an aspect of reality, capitalizing on some feature of the classic Vegas Strip scene: from elevators to escalators, from swimming pools to valets. It transforms the familiar into the delightfully unfamiliar: a whole world made of endless possibilities. It’s a breathtaking ride for the viewer. Even more so for the artist, who is forced to reevaluate how to be most economical with their time and space in their projects. So much, and yet so little can be done in 8 seconds. Each film is tantalizing, spellbinding lightning in a bottle.

MGM is asking you to come to Vegas and see the Strip for more than stomping grounds for the rich and the seedy. Michel and Olivier Gondry are asking you to take a leap of faith.

The rest of the shorts can be viewed on Park MGM’s YouTube channel.