A bear pulls his head out of a wall only to be run over by a train. A man sends a sound wave across the ocean, inadvertently killing hundreds of seagulls. These potentially horrifying situations are in fact as brilliant and delightful as the Oscar-nominated short films series they are a part of. The live-action and animation programs are each an eye-opening look into the surprisingly wide realm of short film.
The animated program started strong with Dimanche/Sunday, which put an original twist on a boy’s boring Sunday by combining exaggerated scale, a limited color palette, and a soundtrack devoid of dialogue with subtle humor and a well-crafted story. It was followed by A Morning Stroll, a clever riddle involving a chicken entering the same mysterious door once every 50 years. While each of the three iterations of the scene was amusing in its own right, the package as a whole felt somewhat uninspired.
Pixar’s high technical standards and heartwarming themes have again secured them a nomination for La Luna. This short lives up to that studio’s famous creativity by following a boy’s induction into his family’s peculiar trade as a part of a lunar janitorial staff, quickly sketching a captivating world without overreaching its modest scale.
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is sure to delight bibliophiles with its highly colorful tale of a man blown (like Dorothy) into a strange new world inhabited by living books. I was not alone in needing extra tissues, though some curmudgeons may have found it a bit too cutesy.
Wild Life is the most mature and stylistically daring of the animated films, combining documentary-style filmmaking with a paint-stroke aesthetic to follow an English émigré to Canada, who finds himself ill-equipped for the ranch life he coveted. Its highly sophisticated approach was met with an uneven reception, as it was a far cry from more amusing and easily understandable cartoons.
Then came the live-action shorts, which while enjoyable, did not live up to the standard of their sketchy brethren. Pentecost follows a suffering altar boy’s attempt to earn back his soccer-watching privileges by serving at the perfect Mass. The joke threatens to overstay its welcome, but is redeemed by a mischievous and highly amusing ending.
Raju is an earnest account of a German couple’s adoption of an Indian boy turned sinister. Its take on culture clash may not be original, but it is thought-provoking nevertheless. In the opposite combination, Time Freak features an original concept in an eccentric method of time-travel, but frankly has too little substance to justify its nomination.
The Shore portrays a man’s reunion with his estranged family in North Ireland. This film may have a nice story but its clunky dialogue, maudlin sentimentality, and uneven pace override its scanty merits.
Tuba Atlantic is head and shoulders above the rest of the live-actions, and perhaps all the shorts. It chronicles the last days in the life of a crotchety old Norwegian fisherman, as accompanied by a peppy teenager who declares she must act as his “Angel of Death” in order to be fully initiated into her “Jesus Freak” club. A Nordic, more genuine version of Le Havre, its combination of deadpan humor with genuine understanding of humanity prove how much a film can accomplish in a mere 25 minutes.
Both the Live-Action and Animation nominees are now playing at Landmark’s Century Centre Cinema in Chicago, and will open in Evanston on Friday, Feb. 24. The winners will be announced in conjunction with the Oscars on Sunday, Feb. 26.
-Britta Hanson
