Michael Keaton in “Sweetwater,” a HollyShorts offering.
Michael Keaton directed and starred in a 20’ 52” Holly Shorts short entitled “Sweetwater” that also featured veteran actress Kyra Sedgewick. It was a stroll down memory lane into the past for main character Robert (Bobby), who is returning to the home once occupied by his now-deceased mother, a former Hollywood singer/actress.
The mysterious gift-giver of what appears to be a black 8-ball that Michael Keaton’s character (Robert/Bobby) rolls across the floor of his mother’s house after entering summons an apparition of Mom during life. The disembodied voice says it is “a token of appreciation” and “something that your incredible mother deserved.” The gift allows Robert (Keaton) to interact with Mom one more time, from beyond the grave—but not in a spooky or scary fashion.
DENOUEMENT
Michael Keaton’s character of Robert/Bobby is the son of the dead woman who is now able to show up and give him, one last time, a tour of the house where she lived during life with her Teddy Bear of a husband for 42 years.
The interesting thing, for me, was seeing Michael Keaton again, credited as Michael Keaton Douglas. The 75-year-old has not been as present on our movie screens since his Oscar-nod in “Birdman” in 2014, 12 years ago. Keaton’s real name is and was Michael Douglas; he merely adopted Keaton to cut down on the confusion with the other Michael Douglas and has never legally changed his name.
FAMILY CONNECTIONS
Michael Keaton (5’10”) (Douglas) and 6’3″son Sean Douglas.
The script was written by Sean Douglas, who also composed the music. Cinematography was by Christopher Ripley. The special effects were as good as those used on the TV show “Ghosts,” a UK import. In that series, a couple inherits a house that they hope to turn into a bed-and-breakfast,only to learn that it is inhabited by ghosts. One of the new owners develops the ability to see the ghosts, which leads to humorous situations.
Here, humor is missing, conflict is missing, and it’s as if Jackie Kennedy rose from the dead to take us on another of her tours of the White House. It was kind of an odd dispirited tour when Jackie was alive (yes, I’m old enough to remember it) with Jackie speaking in that Marilyn Monroe-like Little Girl voice. If Jackie O. had led us on that tour as a spectre or a wraith it would have been even stranger , but not necessarily any more engrossing or entertaining. Just….odder.
This short led me to think that, like “Chop Cheese” that featured Christopher Meloni helping launch his daughter Sophia’s directorial career, Michael Keaton (Douglas) is trying to help a family member (son Sean) get a start on a larger career in Hollywood. Or maybe it marks a new chapter for the 75-year-old Oscar-nominated Keaton himself, who is already a producer. He’s been somewhat quiescent since his 2014 Oscar-nomination for “Birdman,” (although he did suit up for “The Flash” in 2023 and was in “Morbius” in 2022), so maybe he’s going in a new direction?
SEAN DOUGLAS
Sean Douglas Michael’s son, is the 43-year-old father of two (married in 2014), who attended Washington University in St. Louis. He has already established a strong career as a songwriter. A Grammy Award-nominee,[5] he co-wrote Thomas Rhett’s “Die a Happy Man“, which won the ACM Award for Single of the Year,[6] the Billboard Music Award for Top Country Song,[7] the CMA Award for Single of the Year[8] and the BMI Award for Song of the Year.[9] The song, released in 2016, was also nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Country Song.[10] Douglas also worked on Lizzo’s “Like A Girl” and “Soulmate” from her Grammy-winning album Cuz I Love You.
The music is solid and Kyra Sedgewick gets to sing, which she does well.
Kyra Sedgewick in the HollyShorts film “Sweetwater,” directed by Michael Keaton Douglas.
CONFLICT
For me—a genre fiction writer and University of Iowa grad—there should be some conflict in a story—even a short one— to hold the reader’s interest. Here there is none. The deceased Mom seems to have had a lovely life and a great career and takes us on a pleasant tour of her former home. Michael Keaton just stands around or walks around the now-empty house. (Jackie Kennedy Onassis does not chime in with commentary, which would have been an interesting, if inexplicable, turn the plot might have taken just to keep us interested.) The film was the equivalent of sitting down with your grandmother to leaf through her photo albums, which, as we all know, is the favorite thing for Generation Z movie-goers—who are rushing off to see “Obsession” at the theater—to do.
With old pros like these two involved, the end product is okay. But, for me, it was not riveting storytelling and I’m not sure that a longer version of this would attract today’s audiences.
Executive-produced projects from Zoe Saldaña, Margot Robbie, Barry Keoghan, Idris and Sabrina Elba, Serena Williams and more also headline the 2026 programme for HollyShorts, on now..
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