This collection of shorts gathers both the animated and live action nominees of 2005 {seems so long ago} for your viewing pleasure. Short films are overlooked and don't always command the same respect it's longer cousins do. However, short films are special in that with concise writing and direction the often convey great emotion and depth beautifully.
Five live action films compete for your attention, all with varied results.
- The strongest selection here is easily the Irishman Brenden Gleeson in Six Shooter (also the year's winner). Gleeson plays a grieving widower who's grief, well, is interrupted in a most peculiar way--equally morose and comedic.
- My favorite is Our Time is Up starring Kevin Pollak as Dr. Stern. Upon discovering he has six weeks to live, he takes a new approach with his psychiatric patients, brutal honesty. What makes this one fun is the myriad of character actors that make their way onscreen. Jorge Garcia (Hurley on LOST) plays the gardener.
- The Last Farm comes from Iceland. Subtitles do not detract from the emotions running high. As the elderly farmer sets about his choices, this viewer's tears began to mount. As he pulls the rope that would bury his wife, my tears begin to stream.
The three animated shorts are equally varied.
- Badgered is simple pencil drawings imbued with sardonic humor.
- The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation (the year's winner) was a bitter dialogue between the writer/animator and his deceased father. {Let's talk about issues.}
- The standout for me is an Australian piece, The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello. The animation is riveting, macabre, and unusual. The story and dialogue as well. Check the link on the sidebar for more.
A bonus animated short from the US, The Fan and the Flower is narrated by Paul Giamatti with simple drawings from Bill Plymton. It's a cute little love story.
As I see it, the viewer may not invest as much time in these, but the rewards are altogether satisfying.
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