Post by StevePulaski on Feb 26, 2014 8:15:28 GMT -5
The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2014: Live Action (2014)
Directed by: Anders Walter, Mark Gill, Xavier Legrand, Esteban Crespo, and Selma Vilhunen
Directed by: Anders Walter, Mark Gill, Xavier Legrand, Esteban Crespo, and Selma Vilhunen
Overall Rating: ★★★
Once again, it was nothing but a privilege to see the Oscar Nominated short films of 2014 compiled into a one-hundred and eleven minute special, once again, thanks to the network ShortsHD along with my go-to video-on-demand service Amazon Instant Video. Unlike last year when I indulged in the live action nominees last year (after a winner had been decided), I view the shorts this time without knowing who will win and have since modified my prediction now that I've seen all the live action nominees. However, I am unsure at this time I'll be able to sit down and view the animation and documentary shorts. For now, these are my reviews of each of the five nominees for Best Live Action Short Film at the 86th Academy Awards.
Helium (Denmark - 2013)
Directed by: Anders Walter
Directed by: Anders Walter
Rating: ★★★
The special begins with Anders Walter's "Helium," a Danish short that follows the life of a young boy named Alfred (Pelle Falk Krusbæk), a terminally-ill young boy who is wasting away in a children's hospital. Alfred, however, has his mind temporarily taken off his illness when he meets Enzo (Casper Crump), a janitor who tells him of a place called "Helium," an alternative place to go rather than Heaven. The idea of Heaven is unexciting to Alfred, and the idea of "Helium" even owes itself to the fact that Alfred loves balloons, blimps, and all sort of objects that fly thanks to air. Enzo makes him a red balloon dog, which he informs Alfred will allow the airship that will eventually pick him up to know where he is at and that he wants to go to "Helium" rather than Heaven. This is a tender short, and another one in the Academy Awards' long history of finding and nominating ones that deal with death and the afterlife. Explored in addition to dealing with death and a relationship that is brewed thanks to a poor circumstance is the constant struggle of being a nurse or someone who spends much of their life around sick people and children. You become attached, and with many of these kids, the end is nigh and you also are one that needs to find a way to let go. Aside from some mawkish tendencies and a short that deals a bit too heavily in the cuteness aspect, this is a fine short film. If you have a soft heart, I foresee the last three shots of the film being something of a rough sit.
The Voorman Problem (United Kingdom - 2014)
Directed by: Mark Gill
Rating: ★★★
Directed by: Mark Gill
Rating: ★★★
While Mark Gill's "The Voorman Problem" is intended to be darkly comedic, I found the short mostly disturbing and often offputting. That's definitely not a bad thing, but the comedic element, in my opinion, is something I found extremely subtle rather than prominent, as many viewers of the short had claimed. The film is a neatly and intriguingly shot short following a psychiatrist named Doctor Williams (Martin Freeman) who is called into a mental hospital for urgent evaluation of a patient named Voorman (Tom Hollander), who has convinced practically every other patient in the facility that he is indeed God. When Williams visits Voorman, he takes note of his slow, confident speech and his wily personality, as Voorman claims to have created the world in nine days. When Williams asks how that is possible, seeing as he himself is thirty-five-years-old and has clear and vivid memories of his childhood, Voorman replies in an assured manner that he himself created those memories, ideas, Williams as a person, and even Williams' skepticism of his actual powers. The short is beautifully shot, with wide, spacious shots depicting both men in conversation and even a terrific overhead shot that shows the contents of a desk early in the film. With vague but present vibes of the underrated science-fiction film K-PAX and a solid couple twist towards the end, "The Voorman Problem" finds ways to intrigue the same way it finds ways to mystify.
Avant Que De Tout Perdre (France - 2013)
Directed by: Xavier Legrand
Directed by: Xavier Legrand
Rating: ★★★½
Easily my favorite of all the live action shorts of 2014 is Xavier Legrand's "Avant Que De Tout Perdre" (Just Before Losing Everything), one of the tensest and most unsettling short films I've seen in a while. Punctuated throughout the live action shorts special are interviews with acclaimed directors that detail the filmmaking process when it comes to shorts and even director Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) says it's never about length but about intelligence and if you have a good idea in a short amount of time and exercise it with real thought then you'll have a great short. Through the use of what one could call real-time shooting (where everything happens as if it would in real life), Legrand gives us a story that we learn more and more about over time and nothing is immediately spelled out for us through the use of cheap dialog. The short opens with a young boy walking to school before being stopped by a teacher driving to school telling him to hurry up. Instead, he goes underneath a bridge to play near a creek before being picked up by his mom who is flying down the streets of France in her vehicle. After picking up the boy's older sister, they arrive at the mother's place of employment, which mirrors the appearance of a Wal-Mart Supercenter. In the office, she talks with her boss about how she needs to press charges against her husband and that she's leaving town tonight. The boss fires her, allowing her to receive her severance package. Things get even more hectic when the husband arrives at the store, asking his wife's friend to speak to her immediately. What unfolds is something of a cat-and-mouse thriller, in one particular setting, with one goal in mind - getting out of the store. The short is consistently tense, providing for a greatly unsettling experience that toys with ones emotions in such a bold and unexpected way. Furthermore, it's also interesting to take note of the young male actor, Milgan Chatelain, whose character is shown telling coworkers about the horrors his mother has faced in a frighteningly casual manner, showing how he almost considers these events as normalcy. Legrand has made a gripping and pervasively unsettling short that should guarantee him a future feature-length project in no time.
Aquel No Era Yo (Spain - 2012)
Directed by: Esteban Crespo
Rating: ★★½
Directed by: Esteban Crespo
Rating: ★★½
After watching the strongest short that the Oscar-nominated short special had to offer, it's unfortunate to say we hit the weakest link with "Aquel No Era Yo" (That Wasn't Me), a Spanish short focusing on a group of doctors that are apprehended by child soldiers and are eventually taken hostage by extremely violent revolutionaries who are rebelling against their home country. If anything, the short shows how young minds without appropriate parental guidance are warped into believing just about whatever a seemingly-well-meaning adult will tell them while they're still young and naive enough to take orders. It, again, affirms the fact that these young children aren't so much villains but victims of the real villains - the older people that actually possess the ability to think on a larger scale. Instead, the adult revolutionaries pick up a large-caliber weapon, point it at everyone they see, and call it a method of recruitment and a way to gain power and respect by ways of fear. However, "Aquel No Era Yo" ditches this idea quite early in favor of shock and ugliness such as an unnecessary rape scene that does nothing but throw a wrench in the film's flow before ending on a contrived and entirely unbelievable note. When also accounting for the excellent photography and naturalistic gunfire as well as its depiction of brainwashing, but then also seeing that the pervasiveness of the gunfire makes it become a bit of an action movie and never that oriented on its characters, makes "Aquel No Era Yo" a somewhat-likable but entirely uneven mixed bag.
Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Finland - 2012)
Directed by: Selma Vilhunen
Rating: ★★★
Directed by: Selma Vilhunen
Rating: ★★★
Being that is seems that all the live action nominees (at least in the last two years that I've seen) need to bear some sort of depressing element, be it terminal illness in children, psychological manipulation, domestic abuse, terror, poverty, and revolutions, among many other themes, the comic relief the Finnish short "Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa?" provides is nothing shy of pleasant and welcomed. The film centers around an average family who wake up late the day they're supposed to attend a wedding. The mother, father, and two sisters rush around the home, breathlessly trying to find formal attire to wear that isn't dirty, a gift to bring that isn't too tacky, along with eating a substantial breakfast in such a small amount of time. Right away, director Selma Vilhunen allows for relatable notes to be played, reminding myself and likely many audience members of times they have felt rushed and overwhelmed, feeling as if they're the purpose who must take care of everything. It's frustrating just thinking about, but it's nice to see Vilhunen forgoes a heavy-handed look at the subject, but instead, a light-hearted one that concludes on a devilishly funny note.
Summary: Overall, this year's batch of shorts seems to be weaker than last year's, with no sole short I'd call exceptional and one that I'd call underwhelming. Nonetheless, this year still has some strong candidates all the more. My prediction is Xavier Legrand's "Avant Que De Tout Perdre" for its thriller characteristics as well as how it handles a bleak and dark subject matter. As stated before, the live action shorts special punctuates the beginning and ending of each short film with interviews with directors such as Steve McQueen, Matthew Modine, and even Shawn Christensen, who directed last year's live action short "Curfew," my personal favorite of last year's, which went on to win the category. They discuss how short-filmmaking differs from feature-film-filmmaking and emphasize the idea that thanks to the prominence of technology and video cameras, that all aspiring filmmakers should just grab their nearest camera - be it a Flip video, a cell phone, a webcam - and shoot something to practice. The advice is incredibly helpful to everyone, and the shorts provide an example of the filmmakers' philosophy at hand.
On a final note, is there a theme present here? Last year, I stated it was the bleak uncertainty that life has to offer. With this year's batch, I see attempts at dealing with the weird and the unfortunate that life has to offer. Hopefully next year's batch of live action shorts will show us all the good and the optimistic life has to offer to remind us why we play this game every day.