Saturday Night At The Movies -- ADD theatre: A peek at Oscar’s shorts

By Dennis Hartley

No, I still haven’t seen The Artist (he sheepishly admits, in front of God and everybody else on the internet). Nor have I seen fellow Oscar contenders The Help, Hugo, Moneyball, War Horse and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. That’s right, I’ll say it again. Out of nine films nominated for Best Picture, I have only seen three. I can’t see ‘em all. And is it my fault that press screenings for the most hyped Hollywood product (from which a majority of the nominees tend to be drawn from) are usually scheduled at, say, 10am on a weekday? Love to attend, but I have to, what do they call that…work for a living? Besides, I’ve never regarded film as a sporting event, which is what the Oscars dumb it down to. So shoot me. Revoke my critic’s license and strip me of my “credibility”. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is my Oscar speech (bows to the audience).

Funny thing, though. I have managed to catch all of the (traditionally more elusive) Oscar nominees for Best Short Film-Animation and Best Short Film-Live Action. And the good news is you can, too. Magnolia Pictures and Shorts International have packaged the five nominees in each sub-category and released them as limited-engagement presentations; each collection runs approximately the length of an average feature film, with separate admissions required (the films are playing now in Seattle; check dates for your city here). If it’s not coming to a theater near you, the shorts are all available “a la carte” on iTunes.

(Reads woodenly off teleprompter) And the nominees for Best Short Film-Animation are:

Sunday/Dimanche - This 10-minute charmer from Canada is directed by Patick Doyon. Rendered in a very basic line-drawing style, it’s an episodic slice of life in a rural prairie province burg. It’s the kind of place where the highlight of the day is watching the afternoon express blow through town; a little boy gets his thrills from putting a coin on the track as the train approaches. Dad drifts off to visions of toolboxes, while Grandpa dreams about a tractor. Grandma makes a fish stew. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but it is an endearing celebration of the simple life, with a palpable Garrison Keillor vibe.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore - Author/illustrator William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg co-directed this USA production, a mashup of Pleasantville and The Wizard of Oz (with a little Buster Keaton tossed in). Clocking in at 15 minutes, it’s the “epic” of the collection, and the most visually impressive/technically accomplished. A bookish gentleman is swept up by hurricane winds (the filmmakers cite Katrina as an inspiration for the piece) and dumped into a fantastical library where the books are “alive”. He becomes the curator. The overall approach is a bit twee, but I dug its message (that everyone has their own story to tell) and that it’s a celebration of the written word.

La Luna (USA, 7 minutes) - I think there is a rule written down somewhere that there has to be at least one Pixar production nominated in this category. This is “that one” for this year, directed by Enrico Casaroasa. A boy, his father and his grandfather row a rickety old wooden boat out to the middle of the ocean, where they drop anchor and break out a ladder. The young lad is about to learn a family secret, one that tradition dictates be kept from him until he reaches a certain age (don’t worry…it’s not the thing that happened to Fredo). This isn’t Pixar at the top of their game, but it’s nicely scored, and kind of sweet.

A Morning Stroll (UK, 7 minutes) – I can’t believe I’ve made it this far into a post about animated shorts without using the word “whimsical”. I’m afraid I’m going to have to apply the “w” word to this offbeat entry, co-directed by Grant Orchard and Sue Goffe. Three vignettes, each from a different time period (1959, 2009 and 2059) which all take place on the same NYC block, depict the reactions of passers-by who observe a chicken casually bouncing up the stoop of a brownstone, where it proceeds to “knock” on the door with its beak until an unseen party lets it in. It’s reminiscent of the Looney Tunes short, “One Froggy Evening”. Except this one’s about a, erm, chicken. I can say no more.

Wild Life (Canada, 13 minutes) Co-directors Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby use an impressionistic, brush-stroked palette to good effect in this “fish out of water” tale about an Englishman who moves to the middle of nowhere in 1909 Calgary. His chipper letters to the folks back home, regaling them with tales of his expansive “ranch” and his romanticized assimilation of the “cowboy life” belie the harsh reality that he lives in a rundown shack and has no real survival skills when it comes to dealing with the approaching (and unforgiving) prairie winter. Reminiscent of Into the Wild, and a 1977 film called Why Shoot the Teacher. Literate and poignant, this is the best in the category.

(Gazes at camera like deer in headlights) The Best Short Film-Live Action nominees are:

Pentecost (Ireland, 11 minutes) – This seriocomic entry marks the directing debut for actor Peter McDonald (who starred in one of my favorite 90s sleepers, I Went Down ). A young soccer fanatic is banned from watching the World Cup by his dad after he makes a flub while serving as an altar boy. His chance for redemption arrives when he is selected to serve at an important archbishop’s mass. Will he experience the thrill of victory, or the agony of defeat? While the sports analogy gimmick isn’t 100% original, it’s entertaining.

Raju (Germany/India, 24 minutes) – Max Zahle directs this piece about a German couple who travel to India to adopt an orphan. While his wife rests at the hotel, the proud new father takes his son on an outing to a crowded Kolkata street bazaar. He makes the mistake of letting go of the child’s hand and allowing himself to be distracted…leading to every parent’s nightmare. After a frantic all-day search, they thankfully manage to find their son, but they also learn something about his family history that plants them on the horns of a heart-wrenching moral and ethical dilemma. It’s sensitively acted and directed.

The Shore (Northern Ireland, 30 minutes) – Ciaran Hinds leads an excellent cast in this dramedy, portraying an ex-pat who returns to Northern Ireland for a visit. His daughter facilitates a mutually wary reunion with an old friend (Conleth Hill). Pals since boyhood, the two men haven’t talked for 25 years, due to “The Troubles” and a personal rift. Writer-director Terry George (who directed Hotel Rwanda, and wrote the screenplays for In the Name of the Father and The Boxer ) uses the reconciliation between the two men as a subtle allegorical call for Northern Ireland to heal the wounds of its past. Lushly photographed in the lovely environs of Killough, it’s funny, touching and very well done.

Time Freak (USA, 11 minutes) – H.G. Wells meets Woody Allen on Groundhog Day in this sci-fi send-up, directed by Andrew Bowler. An amateur scientist invents a time machine, but is spinning his wheels because he can’t stop obsessing on and tinkering with the previous 24 hours. It’s that old time travel conundrum: The harder you try to patch up those anomalies you’ve created, the more of them you create. Fairly lightweight, but fun.

Tuba Atlantic (Norway, 25 minutes) – Let me start off by telling you that I “get” Scandinavian humor…I really do (I laugh out loud at Aki Kaurismaki films, if that helps). But I have to say that this one did a complete flyover on me. A 70 year-old man receives grim news from his physician-he’s got six days to get his affairs in order. His bucket list is unconventional, to say the least; he’s narrowed it down to two items: 1. Kill as many seagulls as possible (bird lovers are forewarned) and 2. Refurbish a gargantuan brass instrument that he built with his brother when they were children, so he can blow a note that said brother will hear in New Jersey. Oh, and the Angel of Death shows up to give him a hand. That’s it. I’m not sure who director Hallvar Witzo was targeting with this one, but we can safely rule me out. Then again, maybe the judges at the Lillehammer Student Film Festival (where it picked up best Live Action) know something that I don’t.

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