Six Shooter, 3/9/13, Best Live Action Short Film, 2005
I have to say none of the nominees in this category for this year knocked my socks off; the Icelandic entry, The Last Farm, had an interesting twist that didn’t totally surprise me, but I was still surprised it happened. It was worth watching just to see Iceland. Two had a kind of redemption theme, the German film, Ausreisser (The Runaway) and Our Time is Up; two men both getting a second chance; the latter features Kevin Pollack, who is good in everything he does. Cashback defies any summarization, in my opinion, and yet they somehow took an 18 minute short and turned it into a 102 minute film. I will let some other poor soul suffer through that, it was enough to sit through the short version. I’m just glad it didn’t win, because then I would be really irritated. The winner was Six Shooter, an Irish short featuring Brendan Gleeson, who is probably better known as Mad-Eye Moody from the Harry Potter films (as well as many other movies). I actually really didn’t like this film either, it seemed like there were too many narrative gaps and lapses in story-telling. I do like Gleeson and he has a great presence; the young actor who played the other main role, Rúaidhrí Conroy, was very compelling to watch and listen to as he tossed out swear words with cheerful abandon. I think the short form, whether it’s live action or animated, is very challenging because you are trying to tell a story, convey a message in less than 45 minutes, maybe on a really tight budget; but it does seem like the writers and directors take more chances and try far out ideas. I just don’t think it totally worked with this year’s selections.
The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation, 3/9/13, Best Animated Short Film, 2005
Not all of the nominees were included on the DVD from Netflix, but the winner and two other shorts were included. I don’t mind messages in my movies, sometimes I learn a lot and I feel so much more enlightened. If enlightenment and education were the point of Badgered, I must have totally missed it; I may have even fallen asleep. I guess the lesson would be, it’s nice to be subtle, but if you only have six minutes, subtle may not be your friend. My choice for the winner was The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello; it used a very different animation style, like cutouts or shadow puppets; a futuristic setting, but also a throwback to an unidentified past (it seemed to pay homage to Jules Verne), and an interesting story. Jasper Morello was voiced by Joel Edgerton who was in Kinky Boots (I have been trying to figure out how to work in a reference to this movie, and voila! It’s not an Oscar winner, but it is a really good movie – do not let the title scare you) as well as Oscar-nominees, Animal Kingdom (eh) and Zero Dark Thirty (thumbs up) and Warrior (also thumbs up). I actually would like to see what this story would be in a longer format. It certainly isn’t run of the mill. The winner, The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation was a strange sort of family therapy session told with home movies and photos and animation; it’s a son talking to his father (represented as the moon) about how disappointed and angry he is at the way his father treated the family, the decisions he made, etc. It also portrays how little kids know about their parents’ lives before they were born, gives the son some insight into his father’s motives. It was an interesting concept; I’m not sure that’s how I would like to air my family differences or past. John Turturro and Eli Wallach voiced the son and father, respectively. If you get the DVD from Netflix, 2005 Academy Award Short Film Collection, you can judge for yourself. If you can find, Jasper Morello online, just watch that, don’t mess up your rotation for the others.
Not all of the nominees were included on the DVD from Netflix, but the winner and two other shorts were included. I don’t mind messages in my movies, sometimes I learn a lot and I feel so much more enlightened. If enlightenment and education were the point of Badgered, I must have totally missed it; I may have even fallen asleep. I guess the lesson would be, it’s nice to be subtle, but if you only have six minutes, subtle may not be your friend. My choice for the winner was The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello; it used a very different animation style, like cutouts or shadow puppets; a futuristic setting, but also a throwback to an unidentified past (it seemed to pay homage to Jules Verne), and an interesting story. Jasper Morello was voiced by Joel Edgerton who was in Kinky Boots (I have been trying to figure out how to work in a reference to this movie, and voila! It’s not an Oscar winner, but it is a really good movie – do not let the title scare you) as well as Oscar-nominees, Animal Kingdom (eh) and Zero Dark Thirty (thumbs up) and Warrior (also thumbs up). I actually would like to see what this story would be in a longer format. It certainly isn’t run of the mill. The winner, The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation was a strange sort of family therapy session told with home movies and photos and animation; it’s a son talking to his father (represented as the moon) about how disappointed and angry he is at the way his father treated the family, the decisions he made, etc. It also portrays how little kids know about their parents’ lives before they were born, gives the son some insight into his father’s motives. It was an interesting concept; I’m not sure that’s how I would like to air my family differences or past. John Turturro and Eli Wallach voiced the son and father, respectively. If you get the DVD from Netflix, 2005 Academy Award Short Film Collection, you can judge for yourself. If you can find, Jasper Morello online, just watch that, don’t mess up your rotation for the others.
