Young Eyes is the second short included on the Why am I in a Box? DVD release from Rachel Grubb and Brooke Lemke's Silent But Deadly Productions.

In this film, two young sisters, Sarah (Keeley Miller) and Kimi (Madelyn Boettner) come home from school and sit down to watch some TV together.  After flipping a few channels, they come across a fashion show, where the announcer is making a big deal about how beautiful the models are and how they'll only be beautiful as long as they stay thin.  The older sister has already had a lot of this type of thing sink into her psyche and actually believes that being so thin that you can see your ribs is what makes you beautiful.  The younger sister doesn't get it, but you can tell from her reactions that she's taking her sister's word for it and it's starting to affect her as well.

The two decide to go into the bathroom to put on some of their mother's make-up, their mother (Alana Bloom) catches them and yells at them for it, but the younger daughter doesn't understand why they're being yelled at.  That's where the story ends.

This story, much like the other short included in this release, A Broken Family, has a lot of depth and meaning behind it, and like the other film, this one is equally as well acted and beautifully produced in every way both technical and aesthetic.  However, unlike A Broken Family, which was the perfect running time for the story it was trying to tell, this one felt too short to adequately get the story across and even feels a bit awkward in ending where it does.  I would have liked to have seen this film extended at least another ten minutes long because body issues in young people is such an involved thing, it would have been nice to have shown other aspects and consequences of it as the two girls struggled with what real beauty is.  This film does have an important message, and I really would have liked to have seen it expanded on more.

Technically, as I said, this was yet another quality production.  The lighting really kind of set a mood, the set design and costuming were nice, and the sound was good throughout.  The only thing I noticed that was off was the background in the doorway when the mother came in the bathroom to bitch the girls out for using her make-up.  The background was totally black.  That struck me as rather odd, but it wasn't detrimental in any way.  It just made the bathroom seem more like a set piece than an actual bathroom in a real house.  Other than that, every aspect of this film was top notch, and Brooke Lemke has once again shown herself to be a great director with a wonderful ability to bring out the best in her cast.

Both this film and A Broken Family can be seen on the bonus disc included with the Why am I in a Box? release from Silent But Deadly Productions.  If you'd like to find out more about this film or their other great films, you can check out their website at http://www.sbdproductions.com.