Category Archives: Short Films

[Cuts eye with straight razor]

2017 Academy Awards, All Movie Reviews, Like It, Short Films

Joe’s Violin (2016) Short Film Review

February 24, 2017 Alex Brannan

“How long can you live with memories?”

This is one of the first lines of Joe’s Violin, coming from the eponymous Joseph Feingold. It is an expression of his carefree attitude about donating one of his most prized possessions: a violin. What Joe’s Violin aims to do, however, is supplant that throwaway notion with the creation of new memories.

Joe’s story is one of Holocaust tragedy. At the age of 17, in eastern Poland, Feingold was taken by the Russians and put into a Siberian labor camp. Of the few things he had after his time in the camp his violin becomes, in retrospect, a Continue reading Joe’s Violin (2016) Short Film Review →

2017 Academy Awards, All Movie Reviews, Short Films

2017 Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts Breakdown Review

February 23, 2017 Alex Brannan

The Academy Awards are this Sunday, and as such it is fitting to take a look at one of the more overlooked categories: Best Animated Short Film. While the favorite to win is clearly Piper, although the short film categories always have a chance to hold an upset, it still is warranted to put a spotlight on all five films.

Borrowed Time

Borrowed Time is perhaps the Continue reading 2017 Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts Breakdown Review →

All Movie Reviews, Like It, Short Films

La Femme et le TGV (2016) Short Film Review

February 22, 2017 Alex Brannan

A woman named Elise (Jane Birkin) who lives by the train tracks with her pet bird, an irresponsible youth in a sports car, and a series of correspondences with an unseen train engineer are the backdrop of Switzerland’s La Femme et le TGV.

The film strikes a great tone of Continue reading La Femme et le TGV (2016) Short Film Review →

2017 Academy Awards, All Movie Reviews, Like It, Short Films

Ennemis Interieurs (2016) Short Film Review

February 22, 2017 Alex Brannan

An Algerian-born man (Hassam Ghancy) applies for French citizenship. At least, that’s what he thinks he’s there for. Instead, he becomes party to prejudiced politics and interrogation.

Ennemis Interieurs is a series of elongated conversation scenes between the man and the government official (Najib Oudghiri). They are scenes largely told in Continue reading Ennemis Interieurs (2016) Short Film Review →

All Movie Reviews, Like It, Short Films

Silent Nights (2016) Short Film Review

February 22, 2017 Alex Brannan

A Salvation Army volunteer (Malene Beltoft Olsen) struggling with an alcoholic mother (Vibeke Hastrup) and a homeless refugee (Prince Appiah) dealing with racism and an impoverished family in Ghana come together in Silent Nights, a short film whose title is a play on the somewhat irrelevant time of year in which the film takes place.

The film is a bitter examination of the underbelly with a sliver of a silver lining of heartfelt humanism. The doomed romance of the film is introduced as Continue reading Silent Nights (2016) Short Film Review →

2017 Academy Awards, Award Ceremonies, Short Films

2017 Academy Awards Nomination Predictions – Best Live Action Short

January 5, 2017 Alex Brannan

The short film categories were something I was not going to tackle pre-nomination, as it is impossible for me to see the films this early. However, in the case of the Live Action Short category, I have had the privilege of seeing four of the 10 films that have been shortlisted for nomination.

This by no means makes my predictions definitive. But I will do what I can to shed some light on the elusive subject.

Best Live Action Short

Continue reading 2017 Academy Awards Nomination Predictions – Best Live Action Short →

All Movie Reviews, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words), Short Films

The Rifle, The Jackal, The Wolf and The Boy (2016) Short Film Review

January 5, 2017 Alex Brannan

In a rural forest, the snap of a rifle shot breaks the quaint silence. Two brothers (Fidel Badran and Jad Badran) stand over their unseen prey, taking a beat before they go about covering their tracks so their father does not realize what they have done with his hunting rifle.

The Rifle, The Jackal, The Wolf and The Boy is the familiar feeling of childhood guilt ratcheted up to grim stakes. The narrative itself is almost absurdly simplistic, and the film chooses to rely instead on Continue reading The Rifle, The Jackal, The Wolf and The Boy (2016) Short Film Review →

All Movie Reviews, Long Reviews (>400 Words), Love It, Short Films

Timecode (2016) Short Film Review

December 31, 2016 Alex Brannan

“Luna (Lali Ayguade) and Diego (Nicolas Ricchini) are the parking lot security guards. Diego does the night shift, and Luna works by day.” This is the IMDb description for Juanjo Gimenez Pena’s short film Timecode. It is terse and unassuming, seemingly mundane. Yet the CCTV cameras in the lot, when set to secret timecodes, tell a different story.

There is a heartening simplicity to Timecode. Marked by its levity and brevity, the short film follows Luna in her isolating Continue reading Timecode (2016) Short Film Review →

All Movie Reviews, Like It, Short Films

Graffiti (2016) Short Film Review

December 29, 2016 Alex Brannan

Seven years after an unknown “incident,” one man (Oriol Pia) lives in a world of isolation. Graffiti is quiet in this regard. Indeed, no words are spoken. The most we get out of Pia verbally is him howling in a call-response fashion with his dog.

Graffiti has a familiar feel to other post-apocalyptic stories, most overtly Continue reading Graffiti (2016) Short Film Review →

All Movie Reviews, Love It, Short Films

Mindenki (Sing) (2016) Short Film Review

December 20, 2016 Alex Brannan

Zsofi (Gasparfalvi Dorka) is a new student at school, and her experience is less than comfortable. The hall monitors hover over class authoritatively. The teacher barely stops to introduce Zsofi. And the teacher of Zsofi’s favorite subject, choir class, pulls her aside and tells her to mime the words instead of sing them.

Mindenki is a film about the simple cruelty of childhood, coming mainly in the form of a choir teacher. Rarely does cinema capture Continue reading Mindenki (Sing) (2016) Short Film Review →