If you've never been before, E Street Cinema and I think West End, both do an annual showing of all the nominated short subject live action, short subject animation, and short subject documentary films right before the Oscars. They play all the nominations back to back, with no trailers or previews, which makes for a pretty nice experience. You also get to see 5 films for the price of one and the subject matter is always wide ranging, as is the quality, and country of origin. I've been a couple years in DC, missing last year, but I always find that it's one of the best film experiences of my year. Whoever puts this slate of films together did an excellent job in choosing the order in which to screen them, highs and lows, humor and sadness, back and forth through the night. I stole the film synopses then added my commentary or personal opinions below.
Pentecost
Ireland, 1977. After a mortifying mishap during mass one Sunday
involving a wayward thurible of burning incense, Damien Lynch (Scott
Graham) is kicked off the altar-boy squad and banned from his favorite
pastime, football. But with the archbishop making an appearance at the
local parish and one of his teammates disqualified for not being
baptized, Damien is given a second chance to get back in the lineup and,
better yet, watch Liverpool play in the European Cup Final. In his
directorial debut, actor Peter McDonald draws fun parallels between the
team sports of altar serving and soccer, and Graham is a likable imp
rebelling against the status quo.
Director: Peter McDonald
Writer: Peter McDonald
Starring: Andrew Bennett, Scott Graham and Michael McElhatton
This film was just middling for me. There were some humorous moments throughout but I just wasn't overly impressed by the acting, direction, or the story. It was a pretty good film to start with, watching all these nominees in order.
Raju
Writer-director Max Zähle compresses a feature’s worth of story into an
emotionally and ethically impactful 24 minutes. German couple Jan and
Sarah Fischer (Wotan Wilke Möhring and Julia Richter) travel all the way
to Calcutta to adopt 4-year-old Raju (Krish Gupta). On their first day
as a family, however, the boy disappears, and as they seek help from the
police, the orphanage and an NGO that looks
after missing children, it seems the city has swallowed him whole. As
awful as the situation is, Jan’s investigation into the whereabouts of
their new son uncovers a scenario even worse. Eschewing exposition,
Zähle drops right into the action, a strategy that appeals to viewers’
sympathies viscerally rather than narratively. There’s not enough time
to deal with all of the circumstance’s complicated emotions—the couple’s
inevitable doubts about whether they’re fit for parenthood is given
short shrift—but Zähle’s adroit structure strikes a powerful chord.
Directors: Max Zähle
Writer: Max Zähle and Florian Kuhn
Starring: Wotan Wilke Möhring, Julia Richter and Krish Gupta
After the humorous Pentecost to begin with, Raju feels like a punch in the stomach. I believe this was the longest of the offerings and felt like it for sure, though not in any bad way. The theater was pretty much silent in disbelief the entire film, as the wheels come off this adoption and the situation goes from bad to worse, to worse still. A tough film to watch but really well made.
The Shore
Previously nominated for screenwriting Oscars for In the Name of the Father and Hotel Rwanda,
which he also directed, writer-director Terry George returns to the
Academy Awards with this Northern Ireland-set drama, which he shot in
the bay in front of his home with a cast and crew of friends and family.
Indeed, this story about boyhood blood brothers Joe (Ciarán Hinds) and
Paddy (Conleth Hill), who reunite after 25 years of misunderstanding and
regret, is intimate in plot and style. A significant portion of their
past is relayed in dialogue—a risky narrative strategy that works
because Hinds is so good—and Paddy’s misinterpretation of Joe’s arrival
results in funny yet tonally jarring comedy. But ultimately The Shore is as warm and comforting as a bear hug from an old friend.
Director: Terry George
Writer: Terry George
Starring: Ciarán Hinds, Conleth Hill, Kerry Condon and Maggi Cronin
I thought this was the best film of the night, just a bit better than Tuba Atlantic, though I would have been happy if either had won the award. Oscar agreed and gave the statue to The Shore. The film is beautifully shot, stars a favorite character actor of mine in Ciarin Hinds (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Road to Perdition, There Will Be Blood, Munich, Life During Wartime), and features a great writer/director. Both this and Tuba Atlantic were seemingly sad tales that both end with surprising triumphs and happy endings. Somehow the review above fails to mention the best part of the film, Maggie Cronin, the ex girlfriend and current wife to the 2 male leads. She is the glue that holds everything together in this film and deserves the credit.
Time Freak
In writer-director Andrew Bowler’s Time Freak, time travel has less in common with Back to the Future and the paradoxes of running into earlier versions of yourself than Groundhog Day
and the possibilities of do-overs. Stillman (Michael Nathanson) has
invented a time machine that doesn’t so much move him through the past
as hit the rewind button. It remains unclear how his dream of visiting
ancient Rome would work, but the point is moot since he’s hung up on
visiting and revisiting yesterday to get it exactly right, from his
frustrating exchange with an unhelpful drycleaner to a casual encounter
with a girl he likes. The possibilities are endless, but Bowler’s tight
script gets to the punch line before irrevocably boggling the mind.
Director: Andrew Bowler
Writer: Andrew Bowler
Starring: Michael Nathanson, John Conor Brooke and Emilea Wilson
The only American entry this year and it turned out to be pretty much garbage. It's clear the writer/director has seen Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine, Groundhog Day, and a variety of similar titles way too many times as he steals the worst of their hackneyed plot points. It was not clever in the least and the acting was pretty amateur. Super disappointing for the only US entry, how was this even nominated? Easily the worst film of the night.
Tuba Atlantic
No regional cinema strikes the exquisite balance between the dry humor
and poignant pathos of grumpy old men quite like the Scandinavians. In
Hallvar Witzø’s Tuba Atlantic, 70-year-old Oskar (Edvard
Haegstad) finds out he has precisely six days to live. Young, blond
Inger (Ingrid Viken) arrives, an Angel of Death assigned to his case by
the local Jesus Club to help him die. “I can manage that fine myself,”
he harrumphs. Still, she tags along as he wages a one-man genocide on
the local seagull population and waits for the winds to shift so he can
fire up a giant horn pointed at the Atlantic. He hasn’t spoken to his
brother in 30 years, and he hopes to reach him all the way in New Jersey
with the musical contraption they built together ages ago. Despite—or
perhaps because of—the absurdity, one can’t help but be moved.
Director: Hallvar Witzø
Writer: Linn-Jeanethe Kyed
Starring: Edvard Haegstad, Terje Ranes and Ingrid Viken
Much like The Shore, Tuba Atlantic examines the reasons why we lose touch with the people we love, why we let pride and guilt stand in the way. A great triumph to end the night's offerings with. The cranky old man, the love and methods of killing seagulls, and the crazy teen "Angel of Death" all work perfectly together to craft a portrait of a lonely old man determined to fulfill a promise made decades ago, his success is both sad and charming and left me feeling great as I walked out.
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