Welcome to this year’s edition of Last Cinema Standing’s Countdown to the Oscars, where we will break down each of the 23 categories, analyze the films, and make some guesses at their awards prospects.
Best Live Action Short
The nominees are:
The After
Invincible
Knight of Fortune
Red, White, and Blue
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
The After
Produced by and starring David Oyelowo, this acclaimed short follows family man Dayo (Oyelowo) in the aftermath of a mass murder that claimed the lives of his wife and daughter. Oyelowo gives a stirring performance, and it’s easy to see why, on paper, the material would attract a star of his caliber. Unfortunately, the film kind of fizzles out right at the moment where it feels like it could begin to take off.
In his grief, Dayo quits his high-powered job and takes up driving for a rideshare company. He listens to people’s lives and observes, sometimes happily, sometimes with sadness, until one day a family gets in his car: a mother, a father, and a daughter who looks remarkably similar to his own deceased child. It has all the makings of an interesting climax, but filmmaker Misan Harriman doesn’t quite know how to land the plane. All else aside, Oyelowo is excellent in the leading role, and Harriman certainly has the chops to make a great film next time around.
Invincible
Inspired by a true story, this highly lauded Canadian film tells of Marc-Antoine, a troubled kid who has been sentenced to a period of time at a youth detention center. We never learn exactly what his transgression was, but it doesn’t matter. The point of the film is to show how incarceration can wear on the souls of those imprisoned.
We see that Marc-Antoine, portrayed wonderfully by young actor Léokim Beaumier-Lépine, is smart and sensitive. He writes poetry. He gets along well with his little sister. His family loves him, even if his parents are perhaps a bit exasperated by him. But, the walls of the detention center close in around him, forcing him to believe he has only one way out of all of this: escape, in whatever form that takes.
Knight of Fortune
This is a lovely little film about love, loss, and moving on, told in a darkly humorous style that Danish filmmakers just seem to have a way with. Karl (Leif Andrée) is at the morgue to say his final goodbyes to his deceased wife, but he can’t quite bring himself to do it. He meets another man at the morgue who is there for the same purpose. They bond. Lies are told. Antics ensue. And, it’s all tremendously funny and heartwarming.
The film is written and directed by Lasse Lyskjær Noer and produced by the Danish short film master Kim Magnusson. Magnusson, who is not on the list of nominees for this film, has seven previous nominations in this category and two wins, for 1999’s Election Night and 2013’s gorgeous Helium. Knight of Fortune does not quite reach those heights, but it is an excellent effort nonetheless.
Red, White, and Blue
For me, this is far and away the best film of the bunch. Nazrin Choudhury’s short is a superbly executed thriller with amazing performances and a gut punch of a twist that will stick with you long after you see it. Brittany Snow, star of X and the Pitch Perfect film series, plays a single mom in Missouri dealing with an unwanted pregnancy. With her preteen daughter in tow, she scrapes together the little money she can and sets out across state lines to procure an abortion.
The message of the film is clear, concise, and urgent. The anti-abortion laws that are spreading across certain pockets of this country are putting people’s lives at risk, turning necessary healthcare into a harrowing fight for survival. Red, White, and Blue plays less as a warning and more like reportage of the world we have wrought, either through stunning indifference or active ignorance.
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
This film played last during the nominated shorts program that played in theaters. As the screening I attended let out, a woman in the back of the theater made a comment to the effect of: Thank god this movie played because the rest were trash and this was art. Meanwhile, I sat there for 39 interminable minutes and marveled at the fact that people sit through whole feature-length movies in this style and claim to enjoy them. To each their own, I suppose.
Backed by the power of Netflix, Wes Anderson crams virtually every word of the Roald Dahl short story on which this is based into the mouths of his actors as they move about the director’s precious dioramas. I walked out of The French Dispatch when it played in theaters, and if this had been one second longer, I might have considered that course of action here, too. Benedict Cumberbatch is fine in this, as is Dev Patel. Even given that, I despised every twee little moment of this movie. But, to each their own.
The final analysis
It’s usually a good idea to point to the short with the most star power when attempting to pick the victor in this category. And, hey, look, there’s one with Cumberbatch, Patel, Ben Kingsley, and Ralph Fiennes, all working for a big-name director at the one company known for getting short films in front of voters better than any other.
It’s a shame because in a year with a deck that was less stacked, the excellent Red, White, and Blue would have a real shot at the win, but it is almost certainly not to be. It seems that everything has aligned for Anderson, working on his eighth Academy Award nomination, to win his first Oscar.
Will win: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
Should win: Red, White, and Blue
Should have been here: The Anne Frank Gift Shop
A note about my favorite snub: It may occasionally be a tad on the nose and just a bit too preachy, but Mickey Rapkin’s The Anne Frank Gift Shop sure knows its way around a dark joke. Equal parts lament about the lack of Holocaust education in schools and satire of influencer culture, this black comedy has the style, wit, and performances to stand out among a sea of shorts. Rapkin will be someone to watch in this space.
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