This show has also been extended for another week at the University-area theatre. It includes all five of the nominees.
The New Tenants (Denmark, in English, 20 min.) is violent and hilarious, with David Rakoff (who wrote the screenplay, adapted from another Danish short, as well as dozens of books and essays) as a petulant guy who opens with a depressing monologue on how the world is ending, while blowing cigarette smoke on his partner's meal, Kevin Corrigan, about whom I wrote in Big Fan, doing a Christopher Walken imitation (I'm not the first to call it that, but, I swear, I thought of it on my own!), Jamie Harrold (40 credits, yet I don't know him) as the beleaguered partner, and Vincent D'Onofrio in a fine cameo.
Kavi (India, subtitled, 19 min.) is sad, about a little Indian boy working with his parents in a brick factory, made at U.S.C. and winner of the 2009 Student Academy Award. They're hoping to turn it into a feature.
The Door (Ireland, in Russian, 17 min.) was nearly incomprehensible to me (perhaps because I had been in the theatre for 3 hours at that point? perhaps not). I'll just tell you outright that it's supposed to be about Chernobyl, because I had no clue whatsoever until I read the credits. One reviewer of the whole series, Tomato Nation (contains spoilers) predicts it will win the Oscar, specifically because of the Chernobyl subject matter, though had as many issues with it as I.
Miracle Fish (Australia, 18 min.) is strange and not wonderful. I also agree with Tomato, that the kid was way too blah (a "staring simpleton," ha!) to hold our interest.
The show's finale is Instead of Abracadabra (Sweden, subtitled, 18 min.). A reviewer at Rope of Silicon compares it to Napoleon Dynamite, calling it a quirky, awkward comedy. I'll take that. His synopsis contains spoilers and also trailers for four and the entire movie of Miracle Fish, his favorite.
They were shown in the following order: “Kavi” Gregg Helvey, “The New Tenants” Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson, “Miracle Fish” Luke Doolan and Drew Bailey, “The Door” Juanita Wilson and James Flynn, “Instead of Abracadabra” Patrik Eklund and Mathias Fjellström.
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