There are two, maybe three reasons to go to a theater and see the Oscar nominated short films: a) you want to dominate your Oscar pool, b) you're a real film geek, and maybe c) if it's either this or that horror film with the guy from Harry Potter, is there really a choice?
I'm not proud; I have to admit that I've been dying to go to a theater and see the Oscar nominated short films simply because the Oscar pool at the party I go to (hi, Izzy!) is especially cutthroat, and I'll do anything to win. Artistry, shmartistry. I just need to pick the right winner.
Okay, seriously: this is my first year seeing the live action short films, and I have to admit... it was a preety great experience. They may not be the absolute best in short film, but I've seen five short, very entertaining and well made films in one sitting. And that's not at all bad.
Let's dispense with two of them straight off: Pentecost and Time Freak are charming, one-joke premises with snappy pay-offs. Pentecost is an Irish film that tells the story of a wayward altar boy who uses the incense burner as a hazardous weapon. And just when he seems to have learned his lesson and will get to end his penance in time for Liverpool to play in the championships (football, natch), he shows that he too can score a winning goal. Time Freak asks the loaded, yet poignant question... if you're geek enough and obsessive enough to build a time machine, would you go back in history... or simply try to fix yesterday until it was perfect?
But if I had to pick a winner (and I will), it makes more sense to focus on the longer, more complex efforts. Raju is a haunting tale about a German couple who adopt an Indian boy in Kolkata, only to have the father lose him ina crowded market the next day. in his desperate search, the father trips over the uncomfortable reailty that the boy may have been kidnapped for sale as an "orphan" and the film wrestles with the bigger questions of what it means to do the right thing. Ambitious and well made, I tend to think Academy voters won't overcome the depressing sense of loss that hovers over the film by the end.
My personal favorite is Tuba Atlantic, a Norwegian film with yet another jokey, farfetched presence: a dying man tries to reach out to his estranged brother, in America by finally making use of the invention they made as boys, a giant tuba capable of emitting a sound far enough to cross the ocean (their inspiration was Krakatoa, whose eruption could be heard 5000 miles away in Australia). Full of refusal to give in to death, and a murderous rage at seagulls, Tuba Atlantic takes a potentially dicey, difficult subject and never loses sight of lightness and laughter. And even the tuba provides a handsome payoff.
Still, I suspect that Academy voters may favor the even more obviously sentimental The Shore, a tale from Northern Ireland about estranged best friends reunited after many years and the possibility that one stole the other's girlfriend. Graced with a number of strong performers (the headliner here is Ciaran Hinds), The Shore ambles along at a modest pace, unfolding its charms in a gentle relaxed way. Time heals all wounds and true friendship aleways survives... and really, who can argue with that?
Tomorrow, hopefully... I'll have similar findings on the Animated shorts. Anyway, my suggestion: pick The Shore... but tell everybody else to pick Tuba Atlantic.
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