Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Short Movie Reviews

The Coolidge Corner Theater is showing this years nominated animated and live action shorts. I saw them all tonight. Well almost all, they didn't have the animated short Lifted but they had the other four. Here's what I thought of the films, though for those in my Oscar Pool, it's not necessarily what I think will win. All the live action shorts and some of the animated ones are available on iTunes for $2 each.

The Danish Poet was a narated love story with animation that reminded me a bit of Peanuts. It seemed hand drawn and not particularly stylized. Alas for all of my reading of all kinds of stuff I stil don't understand animation principles. The story involved some chance meetings, hair that put Rapunzel to shame and someone dying when a cow fell on them.

The Little Matchgirl is by Disney based on a Hans Christian Anderson tale. It's set in Russia with some opening scenes that reminded me of Dr. Zhivago. The main character reminded me of Mulan and that wasn't particularly good. A girl selling matches is freezing outside at night and has several dreams of something better.

Maestro was computer generated animation about a mechanical arm dressing a bird before a show. The camera rotates around the room in a ratcheting motion and there's a very good payoff in the end. it was very short but I found it a little slow, but the ending really made it worthwhile.

No Time for Nuts stars Scrat from the Ice Age films. This time while trying to get his acorn he finds a time machine and chases the acorn through time. It's really really funny. I laughed out loud at most every scene, particularly at the Twilight Zone ending. I believe it's on the Ice Age 2 DVD and it's completely worth seeing.

All the live action films disappointed me. I didn't think any of them were as good as last years, certainly not in production quality.

Binta and the Great Idea was an African film partly funded by Unicef. The 8 year old Binta narrates and introduces us to her family and villiage as she goes to school. There's one story about Binta's father pitching an idea up the local government chain. The other story is about an older girl who wants to go to school but her father won't let her. She, her mother and ultimately the villiage in a play try to convince him he's wrong. I think it's meant for African audiences but the look into African life is interesting.

Eramos Pocos is about a father and son trying to survive on their own after the mother leaves them. They decide to go to the rest home the mother's mother is in and get her to come live with them to feed and clean them. She's more than happy to leave the home. It almost works but the two men are such slobs they over do it.

The Savior is about a door-to-door evangelist who's having an affair with a potential convert, who happens to be married. His partner wants to help convert her but he keeps insisting she's shy and this requires the one-on-one approach. She calls it off and he keeps showing up, ultimately introducing himself to the husband. It's a little dragged out and tense scenes aren't quite tense enough.

West Bank Story is spoof of West Side Story with next door falafel stands owned by competing families.The Kosher King is jewish and the Hummas Hut is Palestinian. It opens with dancing in the streets with lots of finger snapping. After not too long David, an Israeli soldier and son of the Kosher King's owner, falls for Fatima, the sister of the owner of the Hummas Hut. There's lots of singing with lots of puns. The whole thing struck me as a high school musical (not the teen video) but it's probably more at the college level.

Helmer and Son was my favorite of the bunch. An adult son is summoned to a rest home to help coax his father to come out of the closet he's hiding in. He's inherited the family business and dad isn't too happy about how he's running it. The sister comes by to coax dad out as well. There are two payoffs, one funny and one poingnant, they both work.

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