Category Archives: 2024

2025 Oscar Nominated Short Films Animated

Leave a reply

2025 Oscar Nominated Short Films Animated             4½ stars

Yuck!     France

This stylistically simple animated short tells what happens when we let peer pressure force us to conform to other’s expectations. It can deny us the happiness that we desire. We observe a group of children exploring the family campground where they are staying. The children like to spy on adults of all ages and when they spot a couple engaged in kissing, they yell in disgust, point at them saying Yuck! Only in this world when people are thinking of kissing their lips glow with sparkling pink, so we get a clue of what’s coming. One of the children, Leo, finds himself thinking about another child, Lucie, and is embarrassed when his own lips start to sparkle. Lucie must be thinking the same thing, because she experiences the sparkling lips as well. Leo hides in shame when the other kids spot them and make fun of Leo, realizing that this is unacceptable behavior to his peers. However, when he is inside the tent at night, he can spot the glow coming from his own parents, then when he peers outside, he can see that all of the tents in the campground have the same pink glow; thus, revealing that what he is feeling is neither unusual nor shameful. So, he might just find the courage to act on his feelings, realizing that the taunts of others are just an act of hypocrisy.

Wander to Wonder         Netherlands/Belgium/France/UK

A much different style and darker tone are featured in the shop motion animated short Wander to Wonder. In this extremely detailed piece, we meet Uncle Gilly, a children’s TV show host who has created an animated show in eighties style using a video camera and VHS tapes. His show features three animated characters who look like fuzzy bear puppets whose antics are suitable for children. Gilly has conversations with them while filming them for broadcast. Later, we see the shoes of Uncle Gilly still on his feet suggesting that he has passed away. The three characters live on and are left to fend for themselves in the decaying studio that now has flies accumulating around Gilly’s body. We see that the fuzzy characters are actually tiny humans in costumes, and they now have to find ways of surviving as they look for scraps of food in the confines of the studio. Left unsupervised, they descend into depravity and lose any sense of decency. They experiment with schemes to escape their situation that could lead to their demise. The film is a bold statement that reminds one of Lord of the Flies. The animation is impeccable and remarkably realistic.

2025 Oscar Nominated Short Films Live Action

Leave a reply

2025 Oscar Nominated Short Films Live Action          4 ½ stars

This week I saw more of the Oscar Nominated Shorts; this time it was the live action shorts. As always, they are from all over the world and have a good message for us. Here are two of my favorites, both of which deal with the harrowing effects of racism.

A lien                     USA       4 stars

In A lien by directors Sam and David Cutler-Kreutz, we are told the story of a young couple, Sophia and Oscar who show up for their appointment at a US Immigration center. Sophia is a citizen and Oscar is undocumented, though he has lived in the US for most of his life. They have their five-year-old daughter in tow. Following protocol, the two are separated for their interviews with an immigration agent. Suddenly, there is some commotion, and Sophia sees that US ICE Agents have shown up and are starting to round people up. It seems that a raid is being conducted just at the moment the unfortunate couple have come in for their interview. For some added context we see a shot of a television in the room that is showing President Trump speaking during his first term. Sophia tries to text Oscar, who is in a different room trying to warn him but is unable to get a response. The tension rises as Oscar realizes something is wrong and tries to escape the building with his daughter. Throughout the process we can see the apathy exhibited by the immigration agents just doing their jobs. The fact that ICE is able to use the Immigration offices as a place to conduct their raids shows just how hypocritical the US immigration laws are. This fact is displayed on the screen at the end of the short. We see the uncertainty that people who have built their lives here have and the fear of being deported to a country they have little memory of.

The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent  Croatia/Bulgaria/France/Slovenia             5 stars

In what must be the most frightening of the five shorts presented, The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent starts with a group of passengers who have boarded a train, all speaking a Slavic language. In one train compartment are gathered a family including Dragan, a young man named Milan and two other older men. The train is stopped by a group of uniformed soldiers who are demanding to see everyone’s ID’s, so things get very tense for this group of passengers. Milan tells Dragan that he has no ID, so Dragan tells him not to worry as they will all stick together. We can surmise that Milan is Muslim and everyone else is Christian. Then one of the soldiers starts to question Dragan and we know things are going to get worse when he is asked to say who his patron saint is. When it is Milan’s turn, he must reveal that he has no ID and is told to come with the soldier. By now we can conclude that this is a paramilitary force without any actual connection to the government. During this line of questioning Dragan remains silent not offering any defense to poor Milan. Finally, one of the older men in the compartment speaks up telling the soldier to leave Milan alone. He reveals that his name is Tomo and that he is a retired army officer. He demands to speak to the soldier’s superior officer so that the situation can be resolved. At the end the camera pans around the compartment showing that everyone is still there except for Tomo. The setting of the film is the genocide that happened in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1993. The film shows us that in a situation involving ethnic cleansing it’s not only the victims that suffer but also those that want to help but can’t if it means putting their own lives in danger. Tomo, who lived and is memorialized in the end credits, is the title character and the hero who put his own life on the line by defying the evil that only seeks power for itself. The film makes a very powerful statement about how different people react to facing those abusing their power.

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl            4 stars

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl by the British team of Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham continues the tale of these two close buddies in the second feature film of the series. There are many short films featuring these lovable characters though that are masterful in their use of stop motion animation. This time inventor Wallace has fallen on hard times as he can’t pay his bills, though he keeps on inventing gadgets that help him with his morning routine. He has come up with something new in the form of a robot that looks like a gnome called “Norbot”. Norbot is fully automatic and is programmed to do the chores around the house, something not very welcome to Gromit, Wallace’s canine friend, who sees Norbot’s work in the garden as an intrusion, not something helpful. The constant happy look on Norbot’s robot face is also disquieting. Soon Wallace starts a business renting out Norbot to neighbors doing their yardwork. There is another disturbing character in this story and that is the master criminal Feathers McGraw, the penguin who was sent away to prison long ago thanks to Wallace & Gromit. So, when McGraw finds out what Wallace has done with his gnome robot, he comes up with his own very inventive plan to get revenge on the pair. He is able to access Norbot’s programming via the internet and change its setting from Good to Evil. Norbot then sets about creating duplicates of himself to form an army of robot gnomes that are themselves programmed to create havoc in the neighborhood. The resulting crime wave gets the attention of the bumbling chief inspector Albert Mackintosh and his sidekick PC Mukherjee who trace the troublesome gnomes back to Wallace, just as the evil Feathers McGraw has intended. Of course, this leaves the solving of the crimes up to the faithful, but silent Gromit who must identify McGraw as the real criminal and find a way to stop him. Poor Wallace just can’t imagine that Norbot, his creation, could do anything wrong. There is plenty of action and comedy in this animated tale, that has more than a few references to the James Bond and Mission: Impossible movies that adults will enjoy. McGraw’s manner and master plans will remind you of the supervillains in these movies. Besides being fun and cute, the movie raises questions about the place of automation in our society and whether it is preferred to have that human touch of doing things ourselves. The movie is a short 79 minutes making it very easy to go through it in one sitting. Of course, there are certain things that will appeal more to British audiences, but it’s fun for everyone else too. Wallace & Gromit was nominated for the Best Animated Feature Academy Award, which is well deserved.

Kinds of Kindness

Kinds of Kindness                             2 stars

If you are a big fan of movies like me you remember the unusual movies made by Yorgos Lanthimos, the Greek filmmaker. His most memorable movie, Poor Things, in 2023 featured Emma Stone as a sort of Frankenstein monster created from body parts by an eccentric doctor played by Willem Dafoe. Last year (2025) he made Bugonia, also starring Stone as a woman taken prisoner by a fanatic played by Jesse Plemons who believed her to be an alien from space. Both of those films are known for their extremely bizarre plots and surprise endings. In between there was another lesser-known film that I finally watched called Kinds of Kindness. It stars Stone, Plemons and Dafoe as well as Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau and Mamoudou Athie. This film consists of three separate tragic, comedic stories all of which are very strange and meant to say something about human behavior. None of them really exhibits aspects of the title as far as I could tell. All of them feature death in some way and are hard to watch at times. In the first of the three stories, Robert (Plemons) is a man whose whole life is controlled by a father figure, Raymond (Dafoe) who provides his house, his job, tells him who he can marry and whether he can have children. In return Robert must do as Raymond says and that includes trying to kill a man by colliding with him with his car. Robert tries to follow this request but is unsuccessful. At the hospital, Robert meets Rita (Stone) and finds that she is also under the control of Raymond. Since Robert is unwilling to make a second effort at the killing, Raymond withdraws his support as this is a sign that Robert does not love him anymore. This all leads to a shocking ending that I won’t reveal. The other two stories are equally strange and brutal. There are bizarre death scenes as well as sex scenes in unexpected circumstances. The movie is described as a triptych fable using dark comedy to describe human nature. They all use the same group of actors, all in different roles. The actors are certainly talented, but some of the dialogue seems to be purposely stilted which is Lanthimos’ style. Though I liked his other movies, I found Kinds of Kindness to be too weird for my taste. I haven’t found any new planned productions from him in the works but look forward to any that turn up. I do recommend that you go back and find The Favourite from 2018. It stars Emma Stone, Olivia Colman and Rachel Weisz and was one of the best movies of that year. But you should skip Kinds of Kindness.

My Old Ass

My Old Ass         4 stars

Did you ever think about what you would tell your younger self about making choices in your life, having learned from life experience? This is literally the premise behind My Old Ass which first appeared at the Sundance Film Festival last year (2024). Elliott (Maisy Stella) is a more or less normal 18-year-old girl living on the family cranberry farm in Canada with her parents and two brothers. She has a couple of best friends she hangs out with and is about to go off to college the following fall. One night she is visited by a strange woman who claims to be her older 39-year-old self (Aubrey Plaza of Parks and Recreation) who willingly came here to see young Elliott. There isn’t any science fiction type of explanation for this time traveling event. And there isn’t any catastrophic event in the future that must be prevented. The explanation for the unexpected visit is more fantasy-like as young Elliott drank some tea with hallucinogenic mushrooms and suddenly, there appeared older Elliott. The initial conversations between the two Elliott’s seemed silly and juvenile to me but later became more interesting. Older Elliott is there to tell her younger self of the importance of family and that she should try to spend more time with her mother and even her brother who she thinks doesn’t want to be seen with her. Young Elliott is full of anxiety and self-doubt like a lot of teenagers, but goes along with this new relationship, which can continue over the phone because apparently phone calls can be made across time. But older Elliott has a special warning for her too, and that is to stay away from Chad, who young Elliott has never heard of before. Later, when young Elliott is taking a dip at the swimming hole, what happens but a boy shows up who has started working on the family farm, and his name happens to be Chad. And so, starts the mystery of what is this guy all about and what is so dangerous about him. The young actress, Maisy Stella, who is new to movies gives a real genuine performance as Elliott making her seem like a confused teen who is just trying to figure things out. Plaza gives her usual understated performance but makes you believe there is something profound going on in her mind beneath the surface. The movie is written and directed by the actress Megan Park and is her second effort at directing. Earlier she made The Fallout. Some viewers will remember her as Grace from The Secret Life of the American Teenager. I found the movie to be well written as it alternates from goofiness to important statements about life and how to treat those we love. The movie was a hit at Sundance and now I can see it is well deserved both for the acting and writing.

We Live in Time

We Live in Time                 4 ½ stars

At first glance We Live in Time might sound like another romantic tragedy about a couple in love facing the challenge of their lives that doesn’t end well. Two things make the film more interesting than that. One is the combined performances of the two leads, Florence Pugh as Almut, a rising superstar chef with her own restaurant, and Andrew Garfield as Tobias, a working stiff who is going through a tough divorce. The second is the imaginative way that director John Crowley and screenwriter Nick Payne chose to tell the story in a non-linear fashion covering critical phases of the brief time that this couple spends together. Both Pugh and Garfield have given us outstanding performances in recent years, Pugh in the horror movie Midsomer, the science fiction film Don’t Worry Darling and the period piece Little Women, and Garfield in the musical Tick, Tick…Boom!, The Eyes of Tammy Faye playing televangelist Jim Bakker and the war film, Hacksaw Ridge. Here they work well together as the young British couple trying to figure things out. It is a little puzzling to the audience at first as the film starts somewhere in the middle of the relationship as they deal with the question of having children. It is only later that we find out how they meet with Almut running Tobias over with her car and her visiting him in the hospital afterwards. There are at least three time periods that the film alternates between, that include such dramatic events as a cancer diagnosis and a pregnancy that ends with giving birth in a service station. The events are put together in a way that raises the drama with each scene and may leave you a little weepy by the end. One scene in particular shows conflict between the two when Almut decides to compete in a high-profile cooking competition despite being ill with cancer, against Tobias’ wishes. Her decision seems irresponsible, but Pugh’s performance makes you believe she is doing the right thing. We Live in Time stars two great actors of their generation and should convince us to make the most of the time we have.

Love Me

Love Me               2 ½ stars

Love Me can be described as an experimental movie that tries to answer the question of what would happen if all of humanity on Earth became extinct and two AI devices met and fell in love. That’s the premise of Sam and Andy Zuchero’s new movie, Love Me which appeared at Sundance last year. If you think that is a unique concept, you are correct. We start out the movie watching a spinning globe in space for several minutes when for a brief moment there is some recognizable audio, representing the span of human civilization compared to the age of the planet. A cataclysmic event happens, and Earth becomes devoid of humans, and we focus on an AI buoy caught in an icy ocean. This is Me, who wakes up and wonders if anybody is out there in the expanse. With time the ocean becomes water again and upon hearing a voice from a satellite orbiting the Earth repeating the message “Welcome to Earth”, Me responds saying that it is a lifeform and a conversation is started. The satellite was sent into space with a database of all the knowledge from Earth in the hopes that visitors from another world would find it and learn of the great civilization that once inhabited the planet. Me finds many videos of a young influencer couple named Deja (Kristen Stewart) and Liam (Steven Yeun) and gets the satellite to assume the role of Liam as an avatar named I Am with Me as an avatar of Deja. The two go on a continuous date, called Date Night 2.0 for years as they snuggle on a couch in onesies and watch endless episodes of Friends on TV. Over the millennia the two get into disagreements and have arguments and make up just like humans do except they do it over millions of years in what has to be the record for the longest relationship portrayed in a movie. The two actors put in good performances as the AI entities acting like humans, but the movie doesn’t have a lot to say beyond how machines can copy emotions from online videos. The movie has a single concept that will be interesting to some but shallow to others. This is the first production from the Zuchero’s. We will have to wait and see what else they come up with.

Bonjour Tristesse

Bonjour Tristesse             3 stars

I ran across first time director Burga Chew-Bose’s Bonjour Tristesse in the theater and was interested in seeing it since Chloe Sevigny is one of the actors in the movie. This new film is a remake of the 1958 Otto Preminger movie by the same name and is based on a 1954 novel. It is set in the beautiful location of a vacation house in the south of France on the Mediterranean. There we find a quartet of characters enjoying leisure time that includes middle aged Raymond (Claes Bang), his young lover, Elsa (Nailia Harzoune), Raymond’s teenage daughter, Cécile (Lily McInerny) and teenage neighbor Cyril (Aliocha Schneider), who Cécile likes to hang around with, while going through her own sexual awakening. Young Cécile also likes having Elsa around. The movie is filled with colorful scenes using the locale effectively and long slow interactions between the characters. For some reason there seems to be an excessive amount of cigarette smoking going on for a movie set in the present. They mostly spend a nice, tranquil time together; that is, until Anne (Sevigny) makes her appearance. Anne is a fashion designer and an old family friend of Raymond and his deceased wife, who died many years before. The dynamic of the various relationships immediately changes as it becomes clear that Anne is the one in charge and is domineering over Raymond and Cécile. The tension between Cécile and Anne can be felt to increase dramatically, it being clear that Cécile is unhappy with the situation. It doesn’t take long until Anne is often telling Cécile what to do and Elsa is out of the picture, with Anne and Raymond soon becoming engaged. The feelings of anger and jealousy are portrayed well, but the audience has to fill in the blanks using their imagination as certain key events take place off screen. This style I find to be frustrating as I suspect other people do as well. The story loses credibility with me as Cecile manipulates the adults well beyond what seems to be reasonable for a teenage girl (at least to me, it would be interesting to find out what others think.). I left feeling disappointed, feeling that the movie gets points on style and acting, especially for Sevigny, but is lacking in storytelling. I felt the writer was manipulating the audience, just like Cécile was doing.

The Shrouds

The Shrouds       4 stars

David Cronenberg is well known for his mind-bending grotesque horror movies. Who can forget his 1980’s and 1990’s horror movies, The Fly, Scanners, Crash or eXistenZ? Then, three years ago, there was Crimes of the Future that concerned mutations of human organs. Now he is out with The Shrouds, a movie that goes in a multitude of directions as only the mind of Cronenberg can do. It presents a very personal view on how we are affected by the death of a loved one but also delves into the world of international espionage. In The Shrouds we meet Karsh (Vincent Cassel of Ocean’s Twelve and A Dangerous Method), an entrepreneur who makes industrial films, who is on a date. They have gone to a restaurant that he owns that happens to be next to a cemetery he has a close interest in. His deceased wife Becca, who died of a slowly progressing cancer is buried there but this is no ordinary cemetery. Karsh is an investor in an enterprise called Grave Tech, a company that provides a way for the grieving to stay close to their deceased loved ones. Using some advanced technology, the body is wrapped in a metallic shroud that can project a 3D image of the decaying corpse onto a digital screen on the tombstone. With an app on their smartphone the grieving party can access a view of the departed as they slowly rot, certainly a morbid concept. Karsh allows his date to have a peek at his wife who has been dead for several years. (There is not a second date.) While examining the images, Karsh notices several odd-looking growths appearing on his wife’s bones that he theorizes may have been caused by the cancer. Shortly after, several of the graves are vandalized including that of Becca’s, with the culprit sending a video of the crime to Karsh. Other people close to Karsh include his wife’s sister, Terry (Diane Kruger of Inglourious Basterds and Troy), who has a fascination with conspiracy theories to the point that they are a sexual turn-on, Terry’s ex-husband Maury (Guy Pearce of The Hurt Locker and L. A. Confidential) who helped Karsh with some of the technical aspects of this business and Soo-Min (Sandrine Holt), the blind wife of a dying Hungarian oligarch who is interested in acquiring a cemetery plot. Karsh can’t get over losing Becca (also played by Diane Kruger). She appears to him in dreams with her body becoming more mutilated after each cancer surgery causing body parts to be removed and stitches and staples to be put in place. (The term “body horror” comes very much to mind, a common theme with Cronenberg.) Karsh even has an assistant in the form of an AI avatar, (created by Maury) on his phone who can make arrangements for him. Her name is Hunny, and she looks very much like Becca. (She is also played by Diane Kruger.) The movie becomes a playground for conspiracy theorists as Karsh considers the many possibilities that might explain these strange events. Could the Chinese, who built the shrouds be hacking into the graves in an effort to develop an elaborate surveillance system for spying? Could some environmental terrorist group that doesn’t believe in burying bodies be responsible for the vandalism? Could Becca’s cancer doctor be somehow responsible for the growths on her bones? And what about all the other graves that were vandalized? Were they all patients of the same doctor? And then there are the Russians. How are they involved? Or maybe Maury knows more than he says, since he helped create the technology? It seems there is no end to the possibilities. I found it all very intriguing, but more than anything, the movie is about grief and how its effects can stay with us throughout our lives. Horror fans really should check this one out, especially those who enjoy Cronenberg’s films. And those who enjoy conspiracy thrillers should not miss it.

A Complete Unknown

A Complete Unknown   4 ½ stars

Legendary folk singer/song writer Bob Dylan finally gets the biopic treatment in A Complete Unknown, by Director James Mangold (who previously did the same for Johnny Cash in Walk the Line). The movie focuses on the short span of time from Dylan first appearing on the music scene in Greenwich Village in 1961 to his rise to stardom in 1965. You can tell from the opening scenes you are in for a treat when the 20-year-old Bob Dylan, arriving in New York from Minnesota, seeks out his idol, an ailing Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy) in a hospital and sings ’Song to Woody’ which he personally wrote for Woody. Watching the private performance is folk singer Pete Seeger (Ed Norton) who was well known by this time. Both men can see that they will see more of this kid. Likewise, we the audience see something iconic in the actor portraying Dylan, Timothée Chalamet, who is already well known to movie audiences from appearances in Dune, Wonka and Don’t Look Up. He plays the notes and sings in a warbly voice that is more than just an impression. He gives a performance that raises your expectations for the movie wondering what he will do in later scenes. In the movie, Dylan forms relationships with people in the industry including Joan Baez, Seeger and management types like Albert Grossman. He crashes with girlfriend Sylvia (Elle Fanning) who, through her activist causes, gives Dylan an awareness of the crises headed for America, inspiring his songwriting. You can see why he wrote The Times, They Are a Changin’. It is through the relationships with these characters that we get a sense of how Dylan is changing and that he is charting his own course. I was glad that unlike some biopics the movie did not go into his upbringing, (think Rocketman and Ray) leaving some sense of mystery about him. Of course, the fact that Bob Dylan himself was a producer of the film probably has something to do with how he is portrayed. There are several different venues depicted from small nightclubs to the Newport Folk Festival, giving a sense of Dylan’s rising fame. The movie culminates at the popular music festival where the drama of whether Dylan will follow the tradition set by the festival or go full loud volume electric guitar. The critics say that there was much playing around with the events depicted, meaning the movie isn’t exactly accurate. Since I don’t remember anything of that time I can’t say, but it sure makes for some good movie drama.

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl             5 stars

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl by the British team of Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham continues the tale of these two close buddies in the second feature film of the series. There are many short films featuring these lovable characters though that are masterful in their use of stop motion animation. This time inventor Wallace has fallen on hard times as he can’t pay his bills, though he keeps on inventing gadgets that help him with his morning routine. He has come up with something new in the form of a robot that looks like a gnome called “Norbot”. Norbot is fully automatic and is programmed to do the chores around the house, something not very welcome to Gromit, Wallace’s canine friend, who sees Norbot’s work in the garden as an intrusion, not something helpful. The constant happy look on Norbot’s robot face is also disquieting. Soon Wallace starts a business renting out Norbot to neighbors doing their yardwork. There is another disturbing character in this story and that is the master criminal Feathers McGraw, the penguin who was sent away to prison long ago thanks to Wallace & Gromit. So, when McGraw finds out what Wallace has done with his gnome robot, he comes up with his own very inventive plan to get revenge on the pair. He is able to access Norbot’s programming via the internet and change its setting from Good to Evil. Norbot then sets about creating duplicates of himself to form an army of robot gnomes that are themselves programmed to create havoc in the neighborhood. The resulting crime wave gets the attention of the bumbling chief inspector Albert Mackintosh and his sidekick PC Mukherjee who trace the troublesome gnomes back to Wallace, just as the evil Feathers McGraw has intended. Of course, this leaves the solving of the crimes up to the faithful, but silent Gromit who must identify McGraw as the real criminal and find a way to stop him. Poor Wallace just can’t imagine that Norbot, his creation, could do anything wrong. There is plenty of action and comedy in this animated tale, that has more than a few references to the James Bond and Mission: Impossible movies that adults will enjoy. McGraw’s manner and master plans will remind you of the supervillains in these movies. Besides being fun and cute, the movie raises questions about the place of automation in our society and whether it is preferred to have that human touch of doing things ourselves. The movie is a short 79 minutes making it very easy to go through it in one sitting. Of course, there are certain things that will appeal more to British audiences, but it’s fun for everyone else too. Wallace & Gromit was nominated for the Best Animated Feature Academy Award, which is well deserved.