ROG Reviews: Oscar Shorts
On my new favorite part of the Oscars
(I literally can’t believe I didn’t do this BEFORE the Oscars but here we are. Anyway now you get the post-show thoughts as well so, that’s fun, bonus content) (spoilers ahead)
It’s … ROG REVIEWS: Oscar Shorts Edition.
And in the spirit of Shorts, I’m going to keep these … you guessed it … short.
Best Animated Short
Magic Candies
This was sooo sweet, just a precious story about a lonely little boy who loves playing with marbles. He finds MAGIC marbles that are actually candies, and finds out that when he eats them, he can hear things that can’t talk, talk. So he hears from his sofa, from his dog, from his dad’s heart. It was very heartwarming and I think it maybe should have won.
Under the Shadow of the Cypress
Super dark, but beautifully done. Explores the impact of PTSD through truly goregous animation, without words, just music. I truly thought the art and the story were like, heartachingly beautiful, but was not my favorite and was SURPRISED by the win. This may be why I’m not a member of The Academy.
BLEUCK! (YUCK!)
LITTLE FRENCH KIDS RUNNING AROUND CAMP BEING GROSSED OUT BY KISSING TIL THEY REALIZE THEY HAVE LITTLE CRUSHES. It was so sweet. Somehow perfectly encapsulated such a universal human feeling of being a child at that pre-pubescent stage.This was my favorite, it was wonderfully executed, heartwarming, giggling-and-kicking-your-feet fun. Would highly recommend a watch, if you can find it.
Wander to Wonder
Fucked-up Teletubbies is how I’ve descrived it since. Weird post-apocolyptic vibes that asks the question “what if you were on a weird puppet show and your puppeteer died? Then what??” Super weird. It gave me a strange tummyache, was not a fan, but all my cool-but-weird-but-weird-in-a-cool-way friends thought it was really good, so like, what do I know.
Beautiful Men
Three brothers go to Turkey to get hair transplants – but TWIST, the brother in charge of booking only booked one appointment. Got a bit existential, weirdly. Also not particularly a fan, but it had its moments.
Best Live Action Short
The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent
Ok, so I did not know this until after watching, but this was about the Štrpci massacre of 1993, when 18 Muslims and 1 Croat were pulled off a train by the Serbian White Eagles paramilitary group and summarily killed. Really horrifying stuff, but you don’t really see any of that – you just get this super uneasy feeling the whole time, and there’s ONE guy who (you guessed it) couldn’t remain silent and stands up for a Muslim man they’re trying to take off the train. Really uneasy, existential feelings about the bystander effect, particularly in this day and age. I thought it was fascinating but deeply unsettling.
Anuja
Very sweet and equally heartbreaking (common theme here fyi, all of these are heartbreaking in some way) story of a young girl in the slums in India who is selected to take a test for boarding school, but is conflicted on whether to take it and leave her sister, or continue working in a sweatshop with her sister. Really fantastic exploration of the human condition and was absolutely a thinker – I liked it, and while a lot of my friends found the end unsatisfying, I thought it was a perfect way to end such a film.
I Am Not A Robot
Ok the premise of this? Hilarious. Chick fails a CAPTCHA test five times in a row and is unable to prove that she is not, in fact, a robot. But TWIST. She is a robot, and her boyfriend has purchased her, and she doesn’t technically have free will. Very weird-in-a-good-way existentially interesting exploration of our increasingly automated society. The ending was mildly horrifying, but so is the premise of automation/robotics/AI/etc. Uneasy in a way that makes you think, which is a lot to deliver on in such a short time. I thought it was excellent, but didn’t think it was going to win. Once again, a reason I am not a member of The Academy.
A Lien
Really horrifying/heartbreaking/just plain queasy take on ICE and the process to become a citizen in this country. A couple and their child go to get the husband’s green card license, after being called by ICE to do so, and then ICE shows up and basically it’s a trap. Like really, really tough thing to reckon with here, but I said right after that I think it’s something that is important to see today. Yes, it’s depressing and hurts to watch but I think if you’re truly going to try and be a good member of America right now, you have to reckon with this kind of stuff face to face a bit.
The Last Ranger
Perhaps my favorite of all of the things, but wow did I cry and cry and cry. Told the story of a young, precocious girl in Africa who loves rhinos and rides along with one of the Rangers protecting the rhinos one day. One of her favorite rhinos ends up getting shot by (spoiler) her father, and the Ranger she’s with gets shot in the process. Horribly gutting, and I’ve truly never seen a child put on a performance like that. However, the reason it was my favorite was that, at the end, you find out it’s a true story and the girl is now a ranger herself in the same place and she protects the rhinos AND the rhino that was shot ends up living and having lots of babies :)
