A Reel Review: The 2012 Oscar Nominated Live Action Short Films

 

The Oscar nominated live-action short films for the year that was 2012 are a curious bunch. Not only do they all have heavy-handed themes of life-and-death and living-and-dying, but they are very evenly matched in that there is no real super-standout. They are all very good, but there just isn’t a great one here and the winner will be the one with the least detractions.

The Films:

ASAD – This is a coming of age story in which a Somali boy is faced with living a life of piracy or the path of an honest fisherman. The charm of this film is that it is set up like a fable; almost like one of those smaller vignettes you see inside of a feature-length film to get a point across. The point works and the message is there, although some of it is left up to interpretation. The real draw for ASAD is that the cast is made up of real-life Somali refugees and is shot in a real camp/settlement. The revelation of how those people live is quite shocking.

BUZKASHI BOYS – A story about two young friends (a street urchin and a blacksmith’s son) who struggle to realize their dreams of being a Buzkashi rider (the horse/dead goat game Rambo played in RAMBO III), as they cope with life in war-torn Kabul. This film also excels thanks to its real-life location setting, and is another culture-shock on film. BUZKASHI is bittersweet yet charming, although the arc the boys go through can be seen coming from many miles away.

CURFEW – Richie, while committing suicide, gets a call from his estranged sister asking him to look after his nine-year old niece for the evening. CURFEW is very real and graphic, and is basically a retelling of the classic tale of a grown man finding the meaning of life again by spending time with a kid. It’s familiar territory, but it works mainly because of the performances; the chemistry between Richie (Shawn Christiansen) and Sophia (Fatima Ptacek) is fantastic and good enough to carry a feature-length film.

DEATH OF A SHADOW – A strange, otherworldly collector imprisons the shadow of a dead WWI soldier and gives him a second chance providing he can capture 10,000 shadows of dying people. SHADOW is a very high concept film and a clever mish-mash of supernatural and sci-fi. The storyline is very intriguing and would make a fantastic feature-length. The effects here are superb, and the set-design is outstanding. SHADOW packs a lot into its short running time, and that is its triumph and minor downfall; for as much as it packs in to set the stage for its high concept, its status as a “short” prevents it from fleshing things out just a little bit more.

HENRY – Henry, a great concert pianist, has his life thrown into turmoil when his wife of many years mysteriously vanishes. HENRY borrows several ideas and concepts from THE SIXTH SENSE and INCEPTION, none of which are apparent until this little number is about half-way finished. It’s a very confusing ride at first, but once you start to figure things out its easy to settle in. The concepts are very familiar and they work, but it just gets a little too comfortable and seems to play it safe too often.

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The Oscars will be awarded February 24^th. Review for the animated nominees here