2017 Oscar nominated shorts

I was thrilled that Sing (Mindenki in its native Hungarian language) won the Oscar for best live action short last night. Piper, which won best animated, is also my favorite. It wasn't included in its category's presentation, but I found it online and you can see it here. If I find Sing online I'll update this post because the drama is so good that all my singing friends should see it, too.

About two weeks ago we saw the live action nominated shorts presentation on a big screen (every year the shorts are released in theaters a few weeks before the Oscars and are rentable online a few days before). All five films have subtitles. Mindenki /Sing (25 min) was first. It's based on a true story about an elementary school choir, and opens with beautiful music as a girl about 9 is touring her new school. Then stuff happens. The Oscar went to director/co-writer Kristóf Deák and his co-writers Bex Harvey and Christian Azzola. Here's its official site. Silent Nights, from Denmark (30 min), is about a Ghanaian homeless man and a Danish woman. It's a drama and very good, too. Timecode, from Spain (15 min), is a hilarious story about two guards at an underground parking lot--an unlikely setting for comedy. Enemies Within (Ennemis Intérieurs in its native French, 27 min) is a powerful drama about racial profiling, and La Femme et le TGV from Switzerland (30 min) is also based on a true story about a middle-aged woman who loves to wave at the TGV train every day as it passes her window. I thought it might win the Oscar instead.

Piper (US - 5 min) is about a baby sandpiper who learns to co-exist with the sea. It's wordless, very cute, and produced by Pixar, whose pictures often win the Oscar in this category. This went to director/writer Alan Barillaro. Last Wednesday we watched the rest of the nominated animated shorts program at home after paying $12.99 to iTunes. Blind Vaysha (Vaysha L'aveugle - 8 min), a Canadian film in English, is a depressing fantasy about a little girl who can see only the future with one eye and the past with the other. Borrowed Time (7 min) is American, about a sheriff who relives a traumatic incident. Hated it, too (Jack didn't hate Borrowed Time). Next was Pearl (6 min), made in the USA, which was my favorite of this show, but I didn't love it. A homeless dad and daughter live in their car and stuff happens. It's not as depressing as it sounds. I had already seen it, and you can, too, on this link. Pear Cider and Cigarettes (35 min) hails from Canada and is a long involved story, narrated in English about a guy trying to save his friend from from addiction. It's cool, with great music, but pushed a few buttons for me. The filmmaker is selling it on his website and you can view the trailer there.

Added up together, missing Piper, the animated shorts program would have come to under an hour so it's padded with "commended" shorts. Indice 50 (7 min), from France, is a silly little fluff about a family on a beach with mosquito problems. We're pretty sure that SPF (sun protection factor) translates to indice in French. Once Upon a Line (8 min), USA , has imaginative drawing that reminds me of one of my favorite childhood book serieses, Harold and the Purple Crayon. A man leads a dull life, meets someone, and stuff happens. The Head Vanishes (10 min) is from France and Canada and our version was dubbed into English, about a woman who carries her head in her arms as she takes a train trip, while her strange companion calls her Mom. I've gone completely blank on Happy End (6 min) from the Czech Republic. It opens with a fat man driving a tractor and drinking. Sorry. Last was Asteria (5 min) from France, a comedy about human space pioneers.

We didn't see the documentary shorts. Here's the website for all the programs. You can rent them there if you want.

2013 Oscar nominated shorts, animated & live action (2013)

Jack and I liked these, but, in both compilations, not as much as in years past. We skipped the documentaries, as they sounded depressing (more on that in a moment). I've listed the shorts from my most-liked to least. Each show is about an hour and three-quarters, necessitating that three runners-up be added to the animated series. We saw the animated ones a week ago and the live action series on Wednesday.

ANIMATED:

Get a Horse (USA) begins with a vintage Micky Mouse cartoon on a small portion of the screen, then imaginatively fills the rest of it. Like Saving Mr. Banks, this Disney-based project had to be a Disney production. We liked it a lot, partly because we're suckers for vintage done well.

In Mr. Hublot (Luxembourg/France), the title character, made of metal with visible bolts, keeps his apartment very clean and looks out the window to the busy street below. Then his world changes when he makes an impulsive move. Very funny.

A la Francaise (France, runner-up) gives us a 17th century court at the Palace of Versailles, populated entirely by not-too-bright chickens. Vivian, this has your name on it! We loved it.

Room on the Broom (UK) features the narration of Simon Pegg with Gillian Anderson as a kindly witch who allows hitchhikers on her broom, displeasing her possessive cat. When we saw the squirrel we knew the filmmakers were familiar. Turns out they were nominated three years ago for The Gruffalo. The Gruffalo's Child made it into last year's series as a runner-up. The squirrel was in all three, along with many other distinguished actors adding their voices. Sweet.

Another runner-up, The Missing Scarf (Ireland), is narrated by George Takei. A squirrel, this one made of origami, looks for a scarf. Takei is always good.
Blue Umbrella (US) has no dialogue, and is about two umbrellas who meet in a rainstorm. It's a runner-up as well. Not awful.
A Japanese entry, Possessions, has a warrior-type man seeking shelter from a storm in a dilapidated shrine. He encounters a series of household objects inhabited by goblin spirits. I've already forgotten it.

Feral (USA) is about a wild boy brought to 19th or early 20th century civilization (judging by the clothing). Meh.

As usual, the emcees are animated, and this year's are great: a giraffe and an ostrich in front of the camera chat as they are stand-ins for other characters on a movie set. They've both worked in the business a while and they gossip and schmooze.

LIVE ACTION:

The Voorman Problem (UK) features Martin Freeman as a psychiatrist and Tom Hollander as a delusional prison inmate. There are no jokes but it's funny, based on an excerpt of a novel.

Helium (Denmark) is a sweet tale of a hospital janitor who comforts a sick boy with stories.
Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just before Losing Everything - France) gives us a woman calmly making arrangements to quit her job at an enormous supermarket, and we eventually (this one is 29 minutes) realize the gravity of her situation. A favorite of many reviewers.
Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything? - Finland) is an amusing tale of a harried housewife rushing her family to a wedding.

Now, about that "depressing" comment earlier: if I were the type to walk out of a movie, I certainly would have left the room for this last one. I found Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn't Me - Spain) entirely odious. It made me sick both literally and figuratively with its swinging camera moves causing Motion Picture Motion Sickness (MPMS) and its theme of children with guns under the command of a murderous African warlord. Lucky for me, the Finnish one screened after it.

The time before and after each short was filled with comments from various filmmakers, including Steve McQueen, Oscar-nominated as director of 12 Years a Slave, Matthew Modine (I guess he's included for starring in Full Metal Jacket (1987), for which director Stanley Kubrick was nominated for Best Screenplay Oscar), and last year's Live Action Short winner Shawn Christensen (Curfew) (it was our favorite!).

TEN movies in one post

2012 Oscar-nominated shorts; Amour; Barbara; From Nothing, Something; Identity Thief; Magic Mike; Movie 43; Price Check; Side Effects; Starlet.

Amour (2012). Well done and difficult to watch, this French language Best Picture nominee stars Emmanuelle Riva in an Oscar-nominated performance of an elderly woman before and after suffering a stroke. Her co-star, Jean-Louis Trintignant, is every bit as good and was, in my opinion, robbed when he didn't get nominated as well.

Side Effects (2013). Jack and I were captivated by this thriller about a woman on a roller coaster from her anxiety meds, said to be director Steven Soderbergh's final picture. Rooney Mara is outstanding as mood-swinging Emily; Jude Law terrific as her cutting-edge new psychiatrist Dr. Banks, Catherine Zeta-Jones scary as her tightly-wound old shrink Dr. Siebert, and Channing Tatum doesn't have many scenes as Emily's loving husband Martin.

Identity Thief (2013). Slapstick hilarity (CPA (Jason Bateman) goes after white trash woman (Melissa McCarthy) who stole his identity for serial shopping sprees) that would have benefited from removing all traces of sentiment. We went opening day and enjoyed it immensely nonetheless.

Movie 43 (2013). Tasteless, offensive, puerile, and occasionally funny, this collection of silly shorts, loaded with penis and poop jokes, will be better seen on DVD and/or when you can skip parts. That being said, I laughed like a loon at Kate Winslet's comic-horror at a single sight gag in The Catch. Try not to learn the gag before you see it. Chock-full of stars, behind and in front of cameras.

2012 Oscar-nominated live action and animated shorts. Our favorite live action one is Curfew, a very dark comedy about a man on the edge brought back by a child-care request from his sister. Here's the trailer. I hope it wins. The others are Death of a Shadow, Henry, Buzkashi Boys, and Asad. When the Disney logo began the fifth animated one, Paperman, I said to Jack, "I hope it loses." But it is my favorite--a love story with flying papers. Close second is Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare. The other nominees are Adam and Dog, Fresh Guacamole, and Head Over Heels. Added to the program are three honorable mentions: Abiogenesis, Dripped, and The Gruffalo's Child, a sequel to the 2010 nominee. Noteworthy that the only animated short with dialog is the last one.

From Nothing, Something (2012). Filmmaker Tim Cawley, in a pre-recorded introduction, cited It Might Get Loud as inspiration for this documentary about the creative process. Far reaching. But accurate. We loved it as well.

Magic Mike (2012). An older Soderbergh picture we watched on demand, this was nominated for (but lost) a People's Choice Award, and has earned Matthew McConaughey a bunch of awards and nominations as the owner/head stripper of a Florida night spot. Apparently based on star Channing Tatum's pre-Hollywood life as a male stripper. Alex Pettyfer stars as the novice Tatum trains.

Starlet (2012). The best of the three I saw at an independent film festival in January. Dree Hemingway (Mariel's daughter) stars as flakey 21-year-old Jane, who befriends an elderly lady after an encounter at a yard sale. Jane's chihuahua is named Starlet. Lest you think this is a sweet movie about a girl, a granny, and a puppy, be forewarned there is a graphic sex scene with full nudity about 2/3 of the way through. Won one Independent Spirit Award and nominated for another. Will induce MPMS.

Price Check (2012). Parker Posey is, in Jack's words, never afraid to commit, and here she is stark raving mad as a driven grocery executive. Unfortunately her co-star, Eric Mabius, is bland and ruins the movie.

Barbara (2012). Judy and I didn't love this 1980s period piece about the titular doctor who has been banished from the city to a rural hospital in East Germany. But the Eastern European acquaintances we talked to after the screening loved it and said it was spot on.

Sorry, readers. I promised myself I wouldn't complain anymore about how far behind I was in writing. But here I am with too many, it seems, to catch up. If and when I write more about each title, I'll link the postings to this page. Be sure to watch not only the Oscars on Sunday night February 24 (and/or go to your neighborhood Oscar party), but also the Independent Spirit Awards Saturday the 23rd on IFC at 10pm Pacific and rerun at 10pm Eastern.

Oscar-nominated Shorts (2011)

We saw the animated and live action ones a week or so before the Oscar telecast. Here's a link to the whole series. All five of the live action ones are great, and no surprise that 30 minute long The Shore (Northern Ireland) was the winner, as it has Irish movie star Ciarán Hinds (last mentioned here in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) in it. From Republic of Ireland there is Pentecost, a funny 11 minutes about a rebellious altar boy. Raju, from Germany and India, is 24 minutes, about a German couple adopting an Indian boy--no laughs, but good. Tuba Atlantic (Norway) is a wonderful black comedy, 25 minutes, about an old man at death's door and his big, giant tuba. Tied for our favorite with Tuba Atlantic is Time Freak (USA), another black comedy, featuring a frizzy-haired guy I've seen on many commercials as the neurotic inventor of a time machine.

For the animation, no surprise that The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (USA) won, as it is fanciful and creative (the whole 17 minutes is available for now on youtube). We liked best, however, A Morning Stroll (United Kingdom), which is a little bit sick and twisted. It packs a lot into its 4 minutes. All that's online is a 39 second trailer, although the music is for sale on iTunes. In fact all the trailers are on the first link in this paragraph.

You can still catch these shows (note, there are two summarized here, plus a third with the nominated documentary shorts is available), with extras, at movie theatres listed on this page.

2010 Oscar-nominated animated shorts

It's been over a week since we saw this year's program. Overall, it wasn't as good as last year but not a waste of time. The first short, Madagascar, a Journey Diary (Madagascar, carnet de voyage - 11 min.) by Bastien Dubois (from France), didn't move me, despite its dancing and singing. Perhaps my annoyance at missing the beginning (different problem, but still the second year in a row in the same complex) transferred over to my opinion of the short, which didn't have a story, just people moving around. I did like the animation but the whole piece left me cold. Next was Let's Pollute (6 min.) by Geefwee Boedoe, a satire in the style of a 1950's educational film strip that I enjoyed but Jack said was heavy handed. Again, no plot, but a bunch of people make every effort to consume consume consume, turning the oceans brown and causing the fish to die (their eyes went from o to x), all to jaunty advertising jingle-type music. Despite the exotic name of the director, this is an American production. Third, The Gruffalo (from United Kingdom and Germany - 27 min.) by Jakob Schuh and Max Lang, had a plot and a great cast--Helena Bonham Carter, Tom Wilkinson, John Hurt, Robbie Coltrane, and more. In Sendak-like animation, it begins with a mother squirrel telling her children a bedtime story about a cocky little mouse who makes his way through a dangerous forest. It's pretty cute. The fourth short, The Lost Thing (U.K. and Australia - 15 min.), which won the Oscar last night for Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann is probably my favorite, too. The animation was reminiscent of both Sergeant Pepper and Monty Python. The so-called lost thing is a multi-tentacled creature encased in a metallic shell, and it's found by a guy about one-third its size. Next was Day & Night (6 min.) by Teddy Newton, which we had already seen because, a Pixar production, it preceded Toy Story 3. Kind of saccharine, it had a pair of ghosts through whom we can see day or night. They eventually end up dancing together. These were the five nominated shorts. The program was fleshed out with two more. Urs (10 min.), by Moritz Mayerhofer from Germany is bleak and depressing and we were really glad when it was over. Wordless, it's about a big, muscular guy who straps his aged mother into a chair on his back and climbs over a mountain. Hated it. The last one, The Cow Who Wanted to Be a Hamburger (6 min.) by Bill Plympton, is very cute, also wordless, featuring a calf who is attracted to ads for Happy Burger and tries to get join them. The animation reminded me of Peter Max. Some interesting trivia: Plympton, who at age 64 has 54 directing credits, most of which are short films, turned down a 7-figure offer from Disney to animate Aladdin, because anything he produced while under contract to them would become their intellectual property. Though not nominated this year, his work was in 1988 and 2005. You can watch the beginning here.

I had every intention of staying for the live action shorts but ran out of steam that day.

2009 Live Action Oscar nominated Shorts program

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.

2009 Animated Oscar Nominated Shorts

This show has been held over for another week at the University-area theatre. Jack & I highly recommend it.

It shows five nominees:
1. “French Roast” (France, 8 min.), a funny, nearly wordless (the waiter says, "Un autre?" which means, "Another?" and the man says, "Café") scene that takes place in a café, and reminded me a bit of the full-length Oscar-nominated animated feature, The Triplets of Belleville (2003), which I loved.
2. “Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty” (Ireland, 6 min.), also funny, in which a scary grandmother terrifies a little girl with her version of the fairy tale.
3. “The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)” (Spain, 8 min.), completely wordless, in which an old lady, mourning the loss of her husband, meets the grim reaper. Ultimately funny as well. Produced by, among others, Antonio Banderas.
4. “A Matter of Loaf and Death” (U.K., 29 min.), another fine clay-mation Wallace & Gromit tale, wherein Wallace, the dumb baker, is rescued repeatedly by Gromit, his smart dog. Hilarious and chock-full of sight gags.
5. “Logorama” (France, 17 min.). We found this one, the finale, side-splitting, in which Ronald McDonald is a trash-talking criminal and every bit of the screen is filled with some sort of logo. We figured it had to be French, because Americans would be sued for it. WARNING: there is bad language and violence and you will laugh your [bad language] off. You can watch it at this link, unless it's removed, as it was from youtube. Best on a big screen, second best if you click the fullscreen arrow at the lower right.

And three extras:
6. “Partly Cloudy” (USA, 6 min.), a Pixar short which was screened with Up in its theatrical release, about clouds who make infants for storks to deliver and one cloud/stork pair.
7. “The Kinematograph” (Poland, 12 min.), not funny, but beautiful, about an inventor who is putting the finishing touches on the technology of film, and his devoted wife. The people have a sort of wood grain to their skin.
8. “Runaway” (Canada, 9 min.), about a runaway train, where each car has its own personality, like in the movie-within-a-movie in Woody Allen's Stardust memories (1980).