Live action
Where feature films conform to the three-act structure of drama, movie short subjects are more like short stories.
“The Shore,” the best among this year’s Oscar nominees for live-action shorts, has the surprise twist of an O. Henry tale. Written and directed by Terry George, the Northern Irish filmmaker behind “Hotel Rwanda” and “In the Name of the Father,” this vignette set in Belfast stars Ciaran Hinds as an accidental activist who left for the United States to avoid arrest during The Troubles, and Conleth Hill as his estranged friend left behind. When Hinds’ daughter, nicely played by Kerry Condon, tries to reunite the men, she doesn’t know whether they will come to blows or come together.
From Ireland comes “Pentecost,” a slapstick comedy that likens the religious church with the church of soccer. The focus is on a priest who prepares his altar boys for the World Cup of masses: the return of a local hero, now an archbishop, to his parish church. The priest addresses his soccer-mad altar boys as a coach might his players: “Now, go out and have the Mass of your life!” Will the youth who mistook a censer for a soccer ball be permitted to officiate? It may be a one-joke movie, but the joke is irreverent fun that stops just short of the sacrilegious.
“Raju,” a German film set in India, is the one straight drama among the predominantly playful nominees. It centers on a German couple who arrive in Kolkata to adopt an orphan. On the way to the orphanage, they are overwhelmed by the proximity of beauty and poverty. The boy’s mysterious disappearance leads his adoptive father on a search throughout the city, where he discovers more about Raju — and about himself.
If “The Shore” doesn’t take the Oscar, my bet is that Andrew Bowler’s “Time Freak” will. This modest American sketch comedy stars Michael Nathanson as a shaggy physics student who builds a time machine. The reverse of “Groundhog Day,” the more the physicist attempts do-overs of his social failures, the more socially maladroit he becomes.
The black comedy “Tuba Atlantic,” a short from Norway, takes place during the deathwatch over a crusty fisherman whose doctor gives him six days to live. The film’s tone is both magic realist and surrealist, as if Ingmar Bergman directed a Monty Python sketch written by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. The film touches on estrangement and connection: Said fisherman has not been in touch with his brother who has emigrated to America.
-- Carrie Rickey
Animation
The moon is made of twinkling gold stars — and you can reach it by climbing a ladder in “La Luna.”Old books soar aloft like flocks of birds in “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.”
A chicken is right at home walking down a city sidewalk — and seems able to survive a zombie apocalypse, too, in “A Morning Stroll.”
An Englishman heads to the wide plains of early 20th century Alberta, to start a ranch — but starts daydreaming instead in “A Comet.”
And the routines of a small-town family include church and a big meal — and bracing for the train that shakes the house when it trundles by in “Dimanche (Sunday).”
Magic, whimsy, a fair amount of darkness, and a wonderful mix of old-school cartooning and digital animation are on tap as the five 2012 Academy Award nominees for animated shorts are available for viewing on the big screen.
Pixar may have broken its feature nominations streak this year — its 2011 release, “Cars 2,” is the first of its titles not to land in the best animation category — but “La Luna,” Enrico Casaroasa’s dreamy short, shows the CG studio in fine form. Accompanied by his father and grandfather, a young boy voyages to sea, and then climbs a ladder from his boat to the moon.
“La Luna” is delightful, even as it forgoes the crazy sight-gags that typically define Pixar work, but the real standout in this strong lineup of nominees is “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.” The work of children’s book artist/author William Joyce and animator Brandon Oldenburg, this 15-minute gem borrows from “The Wizard of Oz, Buster Keaton and old nursery rhymes (Humpty Dumpty is featured prominently). But along with its gentle surrealist tone, there’s a note of melancholy, and of danger.
Interestingly, just as many of this year’s nominated features (“The Artist,” “Hugo,” “Midnight in Paris”) hark back to old times and old cinema, so too do these animated shorts: “A Morning Stroll” uses title cards and iris effects, while “A Comet” incorporates old archival footage.
The Oscar-nominated shorts will be screened at the State Theatre, 130 W. College Ave., State College. Visit www.thestatetheatre.org or call 272-0606 for movie times and information.
