Chris Reviewed the Animated Shorts. Glenn ranked the Documentary Shorts. Now here's Eric with the Live Action nominees to complete the set.
It’s my third year covering the nominees for the Live Action Short Oscar for TFE, and this batch of hopefuls presents the strongest lineup of those years. Usually there are one or two clunkers, but this year all five films are intelligently made, run the perfect length, and linger beautifully...
DeKalb Elementary
The first short chronicles twenty minutes in which a man shows up at an elementary school with a very large gun and a backpack of ammunition. The piece never leaves the school lobby and is a tight two-hander with the shooter and one of the school’s employees. Director Reed van Dyk quickly creates and sustains thick tension, smartly coaching his two actors to believable performances free of cliché. Van Dyk’s focus seems to be on connection, and he thrusts you directly into the action in an unhurried but urgent way. This is the least visually accomplished of the five films, which will probably keep it from winning, but at the moment, it’s sadly also the most topical.
The Silent Child
Libby, a young deaf girl, receives a speech therapist who teaches her to sign and make connection for the first time. The fallout here is heartbreaking, and directors Chris Overton and Rachel Shenton make you feel all the characters’ pain. The performances are note-perfect, and it’s gorgeously filmed and scored. It’s sort of a “perfect” short film in that the movie drops you in exactly at the most interesting point of these characters’ story and dramatizes the situation powerfully and with efficiency.
My Nephew Emmet
A short based on the horribly true 1955 murder of Emmet Till, a 14-year-old black student from Chicago who is lynched for allegedly whistling at a white woman in Mississippi. Writer-director Kevin Wilson Jr. frames the story from the viewpoint of Emmet’s uncle, who owns the home from which Till was abducted. Laura Valladao’s rich cinematography somewhat evokes the recent Mudbound, with most of the film taking place at nighttime with sharp contrasts. This compelling film provides a small window into an unfathomable tragedy.
The Eleven O’Clock
As the category’s single comedy, The Eleven O'Clock pits a psychiatrist against his patient, who thinks he’s a psychiatrist. It’s an amusing game of who’s who, with clever wordplay and funny warfare. The short features a uniquely sardonic tone and two quick-witted performances from lead actors Josh Lawson and Damon Herriman. It’s slight but well-modulated and enjoyable.
Watu Wote/All of Us
The final short dramatizes a real-life incident on the Kenya/Somalia border where the tension between Christians and Muslims comes to a dramatic crescendo when a bus is hijacked. Directors Katja Benrath and Tobias Rosen create a stunning authenticity in this film, which feels all-too-real and plays out the way extraordinary situations truly do between ordinary people. This is high-wire filmmaking in that so much could go wrong, and it could all fall apart and feel like a manufactured movie, and it never does. The filmmakers not only nail the atmosphere and the tension, but they exult humanity’s best impulses without ever being cloying or formulated. It’s a beauty.
Should win: Watu Wote/All of Us.
Could Win: The Eleven O’Clock because it stands out from the other very serious dramas.
Will Win: The Silent Child. And it would be a very well-deserved win.