It’s quite a treat, for
audiences to get the chance to see this year’s
Oscar-nominated short films before the awards are bestowed
Sunday evening - to see these movies and deliberate for
themselves just which director should go home Sunday with a
little gold statue (my money’s on "At Night").
But all Oscar considerations aside, it’s just exciting
that a local theater is hosting a short films program. Shorts
are fun and unique and different, and can often tell stories
in a more visual way than a feature-length format.
Next Friday, the Times will start screening the five
nominated animated short films, but this weekend, they are
focusing on the live-action fictional shorts. So without
further adieu, our take on the five nominated live-action
short films:
Western, cancer drama top live action
It’s simply undeniable - the fact that two of this year’s
five live action shorts are operating on a completely
different level than their counterparts.
It’s like witnessing the difference between a minor
league and major league baseball team. Residing firmly in the
majors is Denmark’s "At Night," a moving medical
drama about three women struggling through the days in a
hospital’s cancer ward, as well as the United Kingdom’s
"The Tonto Woman," an atmospheric western about a
man risking his honor and his life to save a women from her
isolated imprisonment.
While it will no doubt be a close contest between these two
titles for the Oscar, it’s the subject matter that likely
puts Christian E. Christiansen’s "At Night" in the
place of front-runner. Opening with a sparse, pensive look at
a cancer ward in which each patient seems trapped within her
own bubble, overcome by fear and trepidation, "At
Night" is less a story of illness than one about
unexpected friendships brought on by illness. Building to a
New Year’s Eve that brings the story’s three young women
together in ways both celebratory and tragic, "At
Night" is easily the most emotional of this year’s live
action nominees.
In "The Tonto Woman," first-time director Daniel
Barber makes a strong first impression, bringing to life the
solitude and testosterone of the old west, as well as his
obvious love for the classical westerns. At the heart of it
all is the happiness of a woman who has been forever scarred
by her experience as a prisoner, abducted and held for 11
years by Mojave Indians.
Brandishing a facial tattoo that the Indians have given
her, this woman has become an outcast of her society, all but
abandoned by her husband who’s nowhere to be seen until a
rugged, handsome cattle rustler rides into town and starts to
show interest in her. Outraged by the insult, the husband
comes back into the picture with a vengeance. But a would-be
saloon shootout takes an unexpected, intimate and passionate
turn - as this stranger offers a convincing appeal that the
real story here is not about the tempers of two men, but the
wounded heart of one desperately lonely woman.
Two other shorts sputter more than they sparkle. "The
Mozart of Pickpockets" seems to be about a professional
pickpocketing ring until it veers soft, becoming instead the
story of two crooks adopting a sad-faced orphan boy. For some
reason, the Belgian entry "Tanghi Argentini" has
been a popular awards favorite around the world, a
light-hearted tale about a timid office worker asking one of
his colleagues - a dance fanatic - to teach him the tango so
he can impress a woman. It’s fun, but it’s also the kind
of flat, two-dimensional product that one would hope the
academy would be above.
Finally, this year’s oddball award goes to "The
Substitute," a memorably bizarre story about a funny,
frightening, somewhat aggressive substitute teacher in an
Italian high school who, it turns out, might not really be a
teacher at all.
Check it out:
Five titles all screen together in one program, starting at
the Times Cinema on Friday:
"At Night": 4 stars out of 4
"The Tonto Woman": 4 out of 4
"The Mozart of Pickpockets": 3 out of 4
"Tanghi Argentini": 2.5 out of 4
"The Substitute": 2.5 out of 4
7 p.m. Friday
Times Cinema
5906 W. Vliet St., Milwaukee
(414) 453-2436
Timescinema.com
snyderreviews@hotmail.com