In Aleppo, Syria, air strikes are a daily occurrence. The city relies on a volunteer group called the White Helmets who act as first responders on the ground after these attacks.
The Netflix original documentary short film The White Helmets follows members of this organization. Through a mix of Continue reading The White Helmets (2016) Short Film Review
Ah, the plight of the documentary short subject! One theater in my state decided to air these five nominees, and they only chose one showtime: 11:15 am on Saturday and Sunday.
Let’s just say I couldn’t make it.
Luckily a few of these films are available on online platforms. Extremis and The White Helmets are available on Netflix. Joe’s Violin is available through the New Yorker here. With a handful of the five under my belt, let’s try and figure this category out.
Continue reading Academy Awards Predictions 2017 – Best Documentary Short Film
“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
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 is perhaps the Continue reading 2017 Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts Breakdown Review
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
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
Alas, the Academy-nominated short films have not made their way to screens in my area yet. I have had the privilege of seeing and reviewing two of these Oscar short films, but of course this is not enough to give a full-fledged summary of the field as a whole.
Keep this in my mind as I do my best to traverse this category half-blind.
Update: I saw them…let’s do this.
Continue reading Academy Awards Predictions 2017 – Best Live Action Short Film
After watching the nearly eight hour ESPN documentary O.J.: Made in America, I decided not to give it a review. Perhaps it was due to the shear exhaustion. Now that the Oscar nominations are out and O.J. is in there, I feel this analysis can act as a de facto review.
It may seem jarring that a television documentary miniseries is being considered for Best Documentary Feature at the Academy Awards. The series qualified for these awards season film categories by having Continue reading Why O.J.: Made in America Will Win the Oscar for Best Documentary
The nominees for the 2017 Academy Awards were announced this morning, and, as always, there were some unexpected additions that made the cut.
In the acting categories, we see some faces that surprisingly, yet thankfully, edged their way into the race. Continue reading 2017 Academy Awards Nomination Announcement Reactions
At the 2017 Golden Globes ceremony, smash hit La La Land earned a record-breaking seven wins. The film won in every category it was nominated for, and it really was no surprise to anyone.
But does La La Land deserve the gold statue attention that it is getting?
Frankly, no.
Here’s the truth about La La Land. It is not Continue reading Does La La Land Deserve All The Praise?
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