A Reel Review: The Oscar Nominated Live-action Short Films

Of the five Oscar-nominated live-action short films, four of them all seem to have come from the same director; they all involve kids, have dark themes, and are foreign. The “fifth” movie carries none of those things, and winds up being the favorite to take home the gold. All these films are worth seeing and are deserving of their nominations.

Here are the “short” reviews…in no particular order:

THE CONFESSION (UK)
Two 9-year old boys are facing their First Confession, and are not sure if they have anything to confess. To remedy this, they steal a scarecrow which leads to a domino-effect of tragic consequences.

THE CONFESSION is a dark film and will not cheer anyone up. Shot in dark tones and loaded with tragedy, it’s very real and eager to break your heart in the finale. Packed with strong themes involving religion, redemption, and the loss of innocence, THE CONFESSION is good enough to be developed into a feature.

THE CRUSH (Ireland)
An 8-year old schoolboy has a mad crush on his teacher, and challenges her fiancé to a duel. To the death.

THE CRUSH is the true charmer of this year’s nominees. It is a sweet and humorous tale of a boy discovering love, and despite the near-tragedy at the end, remains lighthearted and very fulfilling.

WISH 143 (UK)
A 15-year old cancer patient with only months to live asks for one wish from a wish-giving charity; to get laid.

Also a sweet charmer, WISH 143 feels like a true story; almost something that would be found in a “news of the weird” section of a paper. Despite being lighthearted throughout, WISH 143 has pending death hanging over it, which makes the main character’s desperation to achieve his one and only wish all the more strong and convincing.

NA WEWE (Belgium)
Relates a frequent episode of Burundi’s conflicts in the 1990’s; A minivan carrying ordinary citizens is held up and harassed by machine-gun and machete wielding rebels who are not beyond executing children.

NA WEWE, despite its realism and exposing of ethnic racism, comes off as the weakest of the bunch. Even though it’s a “short”, it’s the only one that feels like a small chapter torn out of a larger story; it doesn’t really have a beginning, and it doesn’t have an end. It looks to serve as a social commentary, but the lack of a real narrative makes it forgettable.

GOD OF LOVE (USA)
A lounge-singing darts champion has his lovesick prayers answered when he receives a box of passion-inducing darts.

Shot in black-and-white and laced with sharp and witty writing, GOD OF LOVE is the strongest film both in style and in substance. Despite being the shortest of the bunch, the character moves through excellent development and all themes are closed out brilliantly. It offers a slight twist in the finale that is a forehead-slapper, and has enough strong pieces to be developed into a feature length film.