I’ve done the Oscar nominated animated shorts, now let’s take a look at their live action counterparts. Youtube has no full clips for any of these, but I've linked to trailers for 4 of the 5 (some may have language that is NSFW) and while they mostly deserve merit these are basically listed in order from worst to first.
"Curfew" - A suicidal junkie agrees to babysit his estranged sister’s spawn for a night. Hijinks ensue. Lessons are learned. Of the five, only this one struck a bad chord with me. It has some tonal issues, as its angular self-loathing is usurped by a bit of redemption that is tacked on almost in defiance of its general mood. Precocious kids played for charm/laughs is too easy and has frankly gone a bit stale. And there’s a Breakfast Club dance, which is not as cool as it sounds.
"Buzkashi Boys" - A touching yet formulaic buddy/coming of age story from Afghanistan. A studious but eager blacksmith’s son befriends a rough and tumble street urchin. The boys escape their work for the day to watch Buzkashi, the national sport of Afghanistan, which is like rugby on horseback using a dead goat as a ball. Hijinks ensue. Lessons are learned. Ok, if you wanted to you could read into this the dangers of young boys treating star athletes as role models, while they should instead be focused on education and learning a trade. (So it’s like Hoop Dreams...but with goats.) In all seriousness, it paints a gritty portrait of the human effects of a country long stricken by conflict. Some beautiful scenery and perhaps the best cinematography of the lot -- the Buzkashi in the snowfall is strikingly poetic -- but it paces a tad slow and long.
"Asad" - This one is a much tighter story in comparison to "Buzkashi Boys," with a lighter touch, but an odd payoff. The title character is a Somali boy who is torn between possible riches and power of open-seas piracy and insurgent militancy, or living a meager, honest living as a fisherman. It gains extra points by using real Somali refugees as actors and still gets to the root of the matter of the nation's ills of violence, starvation, and impoverishment while retaining a sense of humor and hope to rise above the conflict. The tone reminded me a bit of "Na Wewe," one of my favorite nominees from 2 years ago.
"Henry" - As with #1 (below) this is wrapped in mystery from the beginning, but the horror steers in a different direction, one grounded in a very real human experience. (Ok, spoiler, it's about Alzheimer's disease. Bring a tissue.) It becomes a truly heartbreaking experience, with a bravura performance by Gérard Poirier . Wonderful use of music enriches the story immensely. My #2, but just as deserving of top honors.
(I don’t have a trailer clip for this one, but here is a little something else to watch in relation to it. A real life story about another man named Henry and the magical ability that music has to unlock our memories. Powerful stuff.)
"Death of a Shadow" - An unsettling, original steampunk/supernatural love story. A dead soldier wants desperately to return to his life and find out about a mysterious woman who helped him just before he was killed. He has a chance to return to the living world if he can pay off a 10,000 person debt to a creepy, James Carville-esque afterworld entity who deals in the captured shadows of the dying. A weird, arty concept that works. It gives you just enough clues to piece it together, but owns its mystery, leaving just a few dangling bits of unanswered intrigue. (Are they intentional plot holes? Distortions or new wrinkles of the "laws" of time-travel? Thought provoking, nonetheless.) The stellar production, expressionistic mood and imagery, and seamless use of CGI elevate this short to the top of the heap, in my opinion.
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