Review: Excellent Shorts Make 'East End Films' a Must-See

East End Films is a collection of three shorts — one documentary and two narrative films — each one about the lengths people will go for love.

The three films are: “Two’s a Crowd” by Jim and Tom Isler, “How It Ended” by Gabriel Nussbaum and “The Shore” by Terry George.

“Two’s a Crowd” is a quintessential New York story. A documentary about two native New Yorkers, Allen Sheinman and Collette Stallone, living separate lives who decided to get married in 2005. But they were both older and set in their ways, so they didn’t want to give up their apartments. So they did the only sensible thing: They decided to live apart by about 20 blocks in Manhattan. The couple saw each other on weekends, but otherwise lived their own lives. But now that the economy has taken a downturn, they are being forced to finally live together after five years of living apart, which might cause big problems in their relationship.

Both Allen and Collette are real characters, with quick wits and a lot of foibles. The film is hilarious, and surprisingly touching. The stars might be a little bit hard to take if you spent a lot of time with them, but it is really hard to not root for them to make it together.

“How It Ended” is the story of a woman, played by Debra Winger, who is dying of cancer. She and her husband, played by Larry Pine, invite over a young friend, Halley Feiffer, to have one final dinner with them. But things are a bit more complicated than they initially let on.

“How It Ended” is based on “Last Night,” a short story by James Salter, and unfortunately, nothing more can be said about it without spoiling it. There are numerous twists in a fairly short movie, and while they are a little predictable, they are handled with grace. A movie that could have been mired in sentimentality comes across as very straightforward and real, which is due in large part to the direction by Nussbaum.

Terry George’s “The Shore” is about Joe (Ciarán Hinds), who comes back to his hometown in Ireland with his daughter after 25 years away to confront some of the people he feels he wronged years before. At first afraid to see his old friend, Joe eventually realizes that not everything happened the way he thought it did.

George is the director of “Hotel Rwanda” and a two-time Oscar nominee for writing. The film is the most polished of the three shorts, and the most heartfelt. George himself is from Ireland, and obviously feels a strong connection to the material. During a Q&A after the film, he revealed that he wants to continue Joe’s story with two more parts and turn it into a feature film.

East End Films screens on Monday at 6:30 p.m. at the United Artists East Hampton. Tickets can be purchased here, or arrive early for rush tickets.