My nerdy self is having a ball coming up with these titles.
Let's talk about some shorty shorts, shall we? I love watching the shorts. Like the international category, I always see something I would never have watched otherwise. I was lucky enough to watch every single short. Most of the time I miss a bunch, but if you are quick you can view a good amount of them on youtube right when they are announced. Once the production team realizes you can make money off of Oscar-obsessed people like me, the film is quickly taken down. Some of the years I have been able to view the shorts at the local Laemmle Theaters, but I was not able to this year. Instead, I went here, selected virtual cinema, and watched all shorts for $30 on my macbook.
Animated Shorts
Burrow
Always the favorite to win, Pixar's short was cute as shit. Isn't it always? My heart definitely swelled when the little bunny hugged her blueprint of her home. I decided to include my happy place, my home, as the background for this post's photo. I recently moved to DTLA, and I felt the same swell of pride when I started decorating my first home. This new, little homeowner starts digging her burrow only to be met with new neighbors who attempt to show her their own blueprints. Unappreciative, she digs away from them. She keeps running into other burrows, and the burrow owners try and show their own creations. Wanting to be alone she ends up digging too far and hits water. With humility, she has to go to the neighbors and make them aware of her mistake. The other animals help her divert the water away from their homes. After this, she allows them to assist in building her own burrow and everything works out in the end. It is super sweet and well animated. It is never too much of a surprise that their short almost always ends up the winner. Disney is the top dog with animation and always will be.
If Anything Happens I Love You
Oof, the water works hit on this one. This film is about a couple who is having trouble connecting. After a ball rolls into a room that appears to be a child's room, we get a sense that the child is no longer with them. Memories play on the screen of wonderful times they spent with her from watching her messily eat spaghetti as a toddler, to family vacations. The memory then fades to her walking into school and the parent's spirits are attempting to hold her back. That's when shots ring out, and you realize her life was ended during a horrible tragedy. After reliving the memories, their daughter's spirit forces the parents together. The ending was so shocking in this film that it created a TikTok challenge of people reacting to it. Not being a TikTok person myself, I decided to just film my fiance and my mother's reactions. They weren't as expressive as I would have hoped. Michael, my fiance, did a weird little nod thing, and my mom's eyes widened a smidge. Safe to say we won't go viral anytime soon.
It was a unique story, with unique animation. I really enjoyed it.
Yes People
This was a really odd one. The animation was cool, but that was about it. It dealt with select people going through ordinary life situations. There was not any real plot. It wasn't the worst thing I have ever seen, but was not great. Don't waste eight minutes of your life watching it.
Genius Loci
Not going to lie here, I ate an edible and it hit right when this short started. It's kind of an unconventional short and it freaked my high self out way too much. I had to turn it off and watch something more appropropriate.
Now that i'm sober, I can see it's a very french short. It was deep without needing to be this deep. Or maybe I am like monica in Friends and I am just dense. It starts off with a person smoking and the words: "To open up. Stars. Perhaps. To be underwater together. Allure. Alarm. An alarm. We find. Brute. I'm going to sit here and wait awhile for a sign." Huh? What does that mean?
The short then goes to a woman who wakes up to an infant in her room. She complains to her sister that her son woke her up. Her sister does not apologise, but in a nice way commands her to make dinner while she washes. Then the story unravels from there. She hops out of a window, and then there's guys who turn into a bull, and then a fire woman gives her an apple that vibrates. Sober Mallory is just as confused as high Mallory. I could not tell you what this film was about even if I wanted to. According to The European Film Awards, this film is about "a young loner, [who] sees a mythical oness beneath the urban chaos one night". Is "oness" even a word? It started to make a bit of sense to me at the end when a character in the short says, "I was taught that music can be just sounds, with no meaning." I am guessing that is what they were going for here. The animation is very abstract, with a lot of lines, shapes and colors. I just could not understand it. In the words of Randy Jackson, "it's just a no for me, dog."
Opera
Okay, I do not know if I am becoming dumber, or if these films are being weirder, but this film, from South Korea, was odd as hell, too. It involves a pyramid, with sections of animation happening at one time (like pictured above). It pans down slowly while dark music plays. All of a sudden these dot, human guys start fighting a war and it disrupts the entire pyramid. It then collapses the entire system and they have to restart. After reading about the story, here, it makes a bit more sense and is supposed to symbolize a class structure and the issues within it. It's interesting, and I have a great appreciation for the animation within the short. Apparently it took 4 years to create, with mostly all 2D drawings. It is very intricate art and well made. The story, though, is hard to understand on the first view, since there is so much going on. It is interesting, though.
Documentary Short
A Concerto is a Conversation
I know I am a bit biased, but I loved seeing my city in the background of this short. It follows a Walt Disney Concert Hall musician who is African American. He wants to spend time with his grandfather who has been diagnosed with cancer. The grandfather shares stories of what it was like growing up during the Jim Crow era and experiencing horrible racism around him. The grandfather is a wonderful storyteller, and I felt so much joy watching him. It ended with a sweet moment between the two men: the grandfather singing "How Great Thou Art" to his grandson's piano. The cinematography was fantastic and I loved the close up shots between the two. It was a great celebration of black excellence.
Colette
Alright, I may talk about crying a lot during films, but this one got me the most this season. This film follows a girl who brings a French Holocaust victim to Germany for the first time to honor her brother who died while playing a part in the resistance. I have just finished reading The Nightingale which is based on something very similar, so I was instantly intrigued. Colette was very herself which I loved, making it very clear she was not into morbid tourism like visiting holocaust camps. We learn a lot of heartbreaking tales from her life, like how her mother made it known she wished she had died over her brother. I absolutely lost it when Colette visited the place where her brother would have slept, and she breaks down when she realizes she has no flowers to lay down. It's a sad tale, with a sweet bond between the girl and Colette. It feels like a clear winner to me.
"If these hills could talk, they would scream" -Colette, about the unground region where her brother was enslaved, making V2s.
A Love Song for Latasha
A young lady, Latasha, was shot by a liquor store owner, who was quick to aim a gun at neighborhood children, over $1.79 orange juice. The story of her childhood, her encouraging spirit, and her horrible death is told by her best friend and a family member. Their voices tell the story, but what the audience sees is acting renditions of the girl, drawings, photos, and sometimes just nothingness. At the end of the documentary we find out that she died while holding the $2 intended for the juice. She was shot in the back of the head while walking away. The woman who shot her, Soon Ja Du, never served jail time and was only found guilty of voluntary manslaughter. It was an informative, emotional, beautifully shot documentary.
Do Not Split
In 2019, protests erupt in Hong Kong over China's rule in their land. Young people use umbrellas and gas masks as shields while police attack them with rubber bullets and tear gas. It is shocking footage, and it is really sad what the people of Hong Kong are facing. The documentary itself has great footage of the protest, and is eye opening to the brutality of their police. As a film, it is decent but not oscar-winning.
Hunger Ward
Man, I chose the wrong time to eat my dinner.
This documentary focuses on the starving children in war torn Yemen. We're brought to a hospital that takes care of the most severe cases of child malnutrition. One child we meet is a ten year old who weighs only 24 pounds. There is shocking footage of dead children and grieving families.The film also shows the bombings in this country that have left people worrying if their children will die of starvation or an explosion. There is a heartbreaking moment where the head doctor looks through her iphone at photos of children she has taken care of, and naming the ones who have died. Its unreal to imagine children who have only known life like this.
A random fact I learned from this film that i found interesting, is that because of the wheat that is given to the children from aid stations, the children develop a wheat allergy and it stunts their growth.
Another fact I learned from this film is that we send aid to Saudi Arabia, which is causing this conflict in Yemen. Other than bombing them, they also have imposed an air and naval blockade which prevents any food or medicine from going into the country.
It's a very, very sad documentary. It's hard to watch and hard to stomach. So if you end up seeing it, be prepared for the harsh footage. As hard as it was to watch, it really affected me. It filled me with the need to do something. There is not much that we can do, but if you want to donate, do so here (its a link from the film).
Live Action Shorts
The Present
This short follows a Palestinian father and daughter attempting to go through the Israeli border to buy groceries and a fridge for an anniversary present. On their way through they are stopped for no apparent reason, other than the Israeli side wanting to show their might.They attempt to deliver it by car, but the Israeli side won’t allow them through. This forces the man to push the fridge up a hill, with a bad back, on foot. At the border he attempts to get the fridge through a small area and cannot. After begging to be let through another way, he is denied. The small daughter, while no one looks, takes the fridge through the road. It's an interesting film showcasing the tumultuous relationship between Palestine and Israel. It was a very ameteur film with poorly done cuts, and a mediocre script. The father and daughter, though, were stunning.
Feeling Through
A scene opens up on a young man, Tareek, texting a friend asking if he can spend the night at his house. His friend texts back that he can’t. We get the sense that Tareek is homeless. A more obvious homeless man walks up to Tareek and asks for money. He turns him down. In the evening, he walks up to a man holding a sign saying “I am deaf and blind, tap me if you can help.” He taps his shoulder and walks him to the M15 bus stop. Tareek receives a text from a girl saying he can come spend the night, but he has to come soon. Worried about the blind man’s safety, he does not leave his side, even taking the time to grab him a drink at a nearby bodega. While buying the blind man a drink, he grabs ten dollars out of the man's wallet for himself. When they come back to the bus stop they have missed the bus. While waiting for the next bus, the man realizes he had water the entire time. They share a laugh. He gets the man safely on the bus, makes the buss driver promise to let the man know when he’s at his stop, and the man signs that Tareek will be okay. At the end, the boy gives the $10 to the homeless man from before. It was a really good short, filmed well, and had a good emotional arc. There was some moments that were far fetched, like when the blind man spoke clearly and when the boy knew how to properly communicate with the man.
Two Distant Strangers
Apparently, handsome men is a theme for the Live Action Shorts this year. The short starts with a man waking up from a one night stand. He excuses himself in the morning because he needs to feed his dog, which is not an excuse. Immediately the connection between the couple is imminent. On the walk home, the man Furbo's his dog and tells him how well the night was. While walking, a cop grabs him and harasses him. Eventually putting him in a chokehold, where he can't breathe and passes out. He snaps awake and he is back at the apartment of his hookup. The day replays. The same cop harasses him. Instead of a choke, the man tries to get away and they think he is reaching for the cops gun. The cop shoots him. He wakes in the hookup's apartment again. It is groundhog's day. Instead of leaving, the man decides to stay with her and make breakfast. Cops barge into the apartment and confuses their apartment for another and shoots it up, killing him. He constantly wakes up again and again showing the fear and anxiety that black men live with everyday. He has a moment where he decides to talk to the cop. They have a human conversation. The cop admits he has never "spoken to one of you before". It seems to be okay, but in the end the cop shoots the man in the back. The shooting of black men is a cycle that will never stop repeating. The ending has a list of black people that have been killed by cops with the song "The Way It Is" playing in the background. The story is perfect. Everyone involved are great actors. Its filmed impeccably. Everything, everything is well done with this short. Bravo.
White Eye
The film, made in Israel (ironically), starts with a man who is attempting to free his stolen bike from a padlock. He calls the police, but they don't believe its his. A worker, an African refugee, comes out of the restaurant and he tries to get him to stop. He claims it is his bike and that he purchased it a week ago. Omer, the bike owner, follows him into the restaurant and demands he unlocks it. Since he bought it from the thief, which he didn't know was a thief, he expects Omer to pay for the bike if he wants it back. He explains he doesn't have money and it's his only transportation. The police come and find out that the man is illegal, and take him away for deportation. Omer's eyes open to the racism African refugees experience in this country and he decides to not take the bike. The film is based on Shushan, the director's, real life experience. I was confused by the ending and why he left the bike, but this article explained it perfectly, "Harking back to his own experience paralleling the film, Shushan recalled that he felt sorry for the alleged thief, asked the police to go away, gave 250 shekels to the immigrant and took back the bicycle. However, the immigrant continued to cry, saying he was afraid the police would return and that everybody was against him. By that time, Shushan said, he 'didn’t like the bicycle anymore' and consigned it to the fate illustrated in the finale of the film." Overall, it was a okay film. The acting of the police was not the greatest, but everyone else involved did decent.
The Letter Room
I am not used to seeing famous people in shorts, but here we are. Oscar Isaac plays, Richard, a correctional officer who starts the short with a pleasant, human conversation with a prisoner. Richard finds out that he was given a promotion, that he seems to have been waiting a long time for. He is excited to make a change in the prison, and make it better place. Instead, he is given a pathetic job of reading and sorting mail to the prisoners. While handing out letters, the man from the beginning asks him to look in the system for letters he thinks were kept from him. He looks, but there are no letters. While in the letter room, Richard discovers love letters from a "Rosita" to one of the death row inmates. He becomes obsessed with these letters, reading past ones, and getting excited for new ones. In one letter, Rosita states she will commit suicide when her lover is executed. Richard decides to go meet her and stop her. She admits that the inmate was someone she loved when she was young, but when he went away she moved on with another man. She decided to lie to the man who was about to be executed, in order to comfort him. She never had any intention of killing herself. This causes Richard to feel empathy towards the inmates and he decides to write a fake letter to the inmate who was searching for his daughter's letter. With the production value I expected more. The story kind of fell flat, and I am confused as to why they made him seem so obsessed with "Rosita's" letters. Odd stuff.
My Winners:
Animation: It is between Burrow and If Something Happens, I Love You. I am going with the latter.
Documentary: Hunger Ward was powerful, but Colette was a better film.
Live Action: Two Distant Strangers
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