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| Please Hold |
The Academy Awards are soon, and so I’m giving my thoughts
on the best films of last year (or 2020, and in one case, 2019) that the
Academy loved but that you may not have seen. First on the list are the short
films, often the most obscure of the films nominated. Of course, if recent news is any indication, the Academy doesn’t even seem to care about these films
in general. It’s just as well then that I make them more visible.
First off are the animated shorts, where anything is possible. Given the unfair stereotypes concerning animation as a medium for children, often the films featured tend to most stay in the mature but still age appropriate range, with the occasion R-rated entry. This year, however, was different, with a majority of the lineup being unsuitable for young audiences, and getting into pretty dark territory. My top pick for the animated shorts this year is Beast (Bestia), which is about Ingrid, who works for the Chilean secret police, and her relationship with her dog. Don’t be fooled by its innocent stop motion art style, which makes great use of porcelain dolls. This is a dark, violent, and occasionally perverse bit of filmmaking based on true historical events. This was a brutally unsettling work that I hope wins. The only other competition I think it has in Aardman’s Robin Robin (on Netflix), the musical story of a Robin who lives with a family of mice, and who just wants to belong with her sneaky brethren. The most family friendly short of a bunch, this endearing stop-motion piece is one of the most lighthearted shorts of the bunch. It also features great voice work, including turns by Richard E. Grant as a magpie who collects human objects, and Gillian Anderson as a terrifying cat. Russia’s Boxballet tells the story of a ballerina and a boxer who form an unexpected relationship, with the incoming fall of the Soviet Union in the backdrop. The film has a fast-paced and offbeat art style (some may be put off by it, but I’ve been a fan of unusually grotesque art), and while the premise may be simple, I did like the sly subversion of expectations. However, there doesn’t seem to be enough here to warrant a win.
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| Beast (Bestia) |
A quick search of Affairs of the Art will tell you this is one of the more disliked shorts at the Oscars this year, and it’s not hard to see why. They’re also the same reasons that I loved watching it. This is probably one of the most deranged things I’ve seen the Academy nominate. Beryl describes her family’s passions while lamenting her own shortcomings in life as an artist, and calling her family’s interests “offbeat” is an understatement. (Animal lovers, be warned.) If you like your Oscar movies with a twisted sense of humor, seek this one out. The film also has an exaggerated and elaborate hand drawn art style, which I always appreciate. Finally, The Windshield Wiper asks “what is love” and attempts to answer it via a series of vignettes. This short certainly has things to say, but while films like this have never been my forte, I can also tell there wasn’t really much here in general. The only thing that really did stand out was the animation, and it was stunning. The CGI work combines styled cel-shaded art with photorealistic imagery in incredible ways.
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| Robin Robin |
Next are the live-action shorts. My top pick for the live-action shorts is Ala Kachuu - Take and Run, in which a young Kyrgyz girl hoping to better her life by studying in the capital is kidnapped and forced into marriage. An engaging and heartwrenching drama based on a serious topic, this is the one where I really felt the most for the characters involved. It deals with a number of issues, including whether one can truly escape their background, and the consequences of breaking free for the ones you leave behind. I also really liked Please Hold. A sci-fi satire set in an automated future, it centers on a delivery man who is suddenly arrested and must work his way through the automated Kafkaesque trial system in his corporate-owned prison (complete with a cute cartoon mascot named Scaley). This was easily the most terrifying short I’d seen of the five. It uses pitch-black comedy to address issues on the subjects of profiling, labor, and of course, our increasingly automated world. The ambiguity of the premise throughout adds an extra unsettling layer, and despite the film’s sense of humor and speculative setting, the film ends on a note reminding us that the consequences of the issues at play are both no joke and very real. Last year’s Live Action Short Oscar went to Two Distant Strangers, with used the time-loop sci-fi trope to address issues of police killings of unarmed African-Americans. Perhaps we may see a repeat of socially-relevant sci-fi taking home the gold.
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| The Long Goodbye |
The Long Goodbye begins as a Muslim family in the UK go about their lives as a far-right protest unfolds on TV. Soon, it’s outside their doorstep, with tragic consequences. There isn’t much here, nor does there need to be. It’s a brutally simple look at why “it can’t happen here” is a dangerous way of thinking. However, the real highlight is Riz Ahmed (who earned his second Oscar nomination for his work on this short), who closes the short with a rap about his perspective on racism. On My Mind is a simple and sweet short about a man who is indignant about performing the Elvis Presley song "Always On My Mind" at a karaoke bar. The reason why I will leave for the viewer, but ultimately there’s not enough substance for me to see this one winning. The Dress involves a maid with dwarfism who finds hope in a truck driver who seems to take an interest in her. This was I thought was okay, though I found the ending to be unnecessarily downbeat. However, I would like to mention lead actor Anna Dzieduszycka, who does a great job.
Finally, here are the documentary shorts. Audible (on Netflix) was one of my top picks of the five, and follows a football team at a school for the deaf. The film is told almost entirely in sign language with subtitles. Coming off of a crushing loss, coping with the suicide of a classmate, and with graduation around the corner, the student athletes put their struggles towards the game. It culminates in a deciding game against a hearing school. I found it an inspiring and engaging piece. Fittingly, my other pick also has to do with sports. The Queen of Basketball features Luisa Harris (who unfortunately passed away recently), one of the greatest living women’s basketball players, as as she recounts her history-making rise to stardom. Luisa makes a great subject as she reminisces how she beat multiple odds.
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| The Windshield Wiper |
When We Were Bullies was an interesting one. Perhaps you, like me, had one of those teachers that was a fan of “group punishment”, where one kid’s misdemeanor impacted the entire class’s happiness. Jay Rosenblatt did in the early 1960s, and one particularly unpopular kid paid the price in act of schoolyard retaliation, with Jay getting involved. Years later, the impact is looked back upon in this personal and rough-edged short that makes good use of stop-motion animation. However, the subject isn’t the victim, but the perpetrators—including Jay himself. While the short has some good moments of humor and an extremely charming aesthetic, I don’t really know how to react to it. It should be noted that I went into this based on the reactions of people who have seen this short, and they hate it. The truth is, not only did I not hate this one, but it gave me a lot of self-reflection. I hated group punishment too, and I’m certainly not surprised things turned out the way they did. At the same time, hearing what the bullied kid was like, I saw a lot of myself in him. That could’ve easily been me. That second part also really hurt my opinion of the film because of the way it ends. I won’t say how, but wherever you’re hoping this documentary goes, it sadly doesn’t. I do want to root for the unknown filmmakers whose personal projects share nomination space with the likes of Netflix (who occupies 60 percent of this category this year), and I really wanted to like this short, but I couldn’t.
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| When We Were Bullies |
Three Songs for Benazir is a miniature portrait of life in a camp for people displaced by war in Afghanistan, told through the eyes of one resident. Shaista lives with his wife Benazir, hoping to become the first person in his tribe to join the Afghan national army. However, as he is uneducated (only having a third-grade education due to having to flee after that), he must acquire signatures from a guardian or educated person in order to join. The alternative is a summer spent opium harvesting, where he believes that “death awaits.” The film does a great job of bringing us into Shaista’s life in just 22 minutes, delivering a fascinating story about when dreams face troubling realities, and the effects of one’s choices. I won’t say where this story ultimately leads, as this short currently on Netflix. Finally, Lead Me Home (on Netflix) is a multifaceted look at the homeless crisis in several West Coast cities. Both individual stories and interviews, as well as looks into local politics, illustrate both the issue and the lives of homeless people. While I don’t consider this one of my predictions for the winning short, I nonetheless found this to be an interesting approach to the subject.
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| The Queen of Basketball |
Next week, I'll go over the feature films nominated for Oscars this year that you may have otherwise missed.
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