Oscar-Nominated Live-Action Shorts (2024) review
Some years the Oscar category for Best Live-Action Shorts has me puzzled. One would think that the five nominees are the best of the best, but there are years where only a couple are really great…that’s how it feels this year. I thought there were only two real standouts this year. Of course, it’s all subjective and you may like director Wes Anderson’s “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” (which is predicted to win the award) more than I did. Typically, I expect to see something different or new in this category and Anderson is delivering a shortened version of what we’ve come to expect from him. Apart from Anderson’s short, I only found a couple that stood out. The rest were woefully heavy-handed and painfully obvious, with frustrating endings.
A couple of the nominees can be found on Netflix, but all of the Live-Action Shorts are currently in select U.S. theaters. You can check out ShortsTV for a listing of theaters in your area that are showing all the nominees in this category. In Chicago, you can check them out at the historic Music Box Theatre.
Below you can find my thoughts on all five nominees in this category, from Worst to Best:
THE AFTER
Tragedy, trauma, and grief are stuffed in this 18-minute short from writers John Julius Schwabach and Misan Harriman (who directed), offering very little room for nuance or subtlety. “The After” kicks off with a surprising start and concludes with a baffling ending as it follows businessman Dayo (David Oyelowo), who experiences a tremendous personal loss after he finally chooses family over work. After that tragic event, we find him working as a rideshare driver, which brings him to unexpectedly experience catharsis with one of his customers. There is an emotional breaking point at the end of this catharsis, but the build-up to it feels inauthentic and the behavior of many of the characters involved is just strange. There’s no real resolve and the poor guy is left to deal with insurmountable grief all on his own. Clearly, this is a story that needs more breathing room. Spending more time with the protagonist and offering more naturalistic development would definitely help. So, maybe this is a story that could’ve benefited from a feature-length treatment, but even then I think it’d need some better writing. (avail. on Netflix)
RATING: **
RED, WHITE AND BLUE
Over the past 20 or so years, Nazrin Choudhury has written and produced many shows for television, yet hasn’t taken on directing duties until now with “Red, White and Blue”. Choudhury (born in London/based in Los Angeles) wrote, produced, and directed this 23-minute short, which follows a single white mother of two children (Juliet Donenfield and Redding Munsell) named Rachel (Brittany Snow), who works paycheck to paycheck as a waitress in an Arkansas diner. When a pregnancy test comes up positive, Rachel has to make the trek to Missouri since abortion is illegal in her home state. It’s a straightforward story worthy of expansion in this post-Roe v Wade United States, but there are unfortunately too many predictable and stereotypical beats present here for this story to elevate beyond what you’d expect. Some of the storytelling decisions made here are overtly heavy-handed, like when a misogynistic customer smacks Rachel’s butt as she passes by his booth as her boss just shrugs it off. But how Choudhury decides to end the story feels like a manipulative provocation out of left field. Ultimately, it feels like those in authority who make such decisions for a woman’s body will be unphased if they see this short.
RATING: **
THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF HENRY SUGAR
Having been a fan of the work of Wes Anderson since 1998’s “Rushmore”, it pains me to admit that not all of his films since have resonated with me. From production design to dialogue delivery, just about every live-action feature-length film he’s done has seemed interchangeable. While the acting by Benedict Cumberbatch, Ben Kingsley, Dev Patel, and Richard Ayoade (often performing multiple roles) is expectedly entertaining, everything else about the endeavor – from the production design to the cinematography – seems like standard the Anderson style we’ve come to expect. The dry humor goes hand-in-hand with its gimmick approach, which finds the actors speaking at 1.5 speed and narrating their character’s actions (speaking directly into the camera, of course), seemingly to fit within the timeframe of a short. There’s really no way to feel immersed in the story without being fully aware this is “a Wes Anderson story”. This is one of four Netflix shorts that the writer/director adapted last year, all from the short stories of writer Roald Dahl. Maybe additional viewings will warrant a better appreciation for this 40-minute short, but at this time it doesn’t feel like anything different or new for Anderson. (avail. on Netflix)
RATING: **1/2
INVINCIBLE
This “based on a true story” short from Canadian writer/director Vincent René-Lortie has already won a handful of awards recently, including the Prix Iris and the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival. It’s one of the only nominees in this category where I felt truly pulled in and wanted to know more when I learned it was based on real people. René-Lortie plays with timeframes to give us past context to the present in a 30-minute short that focuses on Marc-Antoine Bernier (an impressive Léokim Beaumier-Lépine), a troubled young man who has been incarcerated in a juvenile detention center. Despite getting good grades and a case worker (Ralph Prosper’s Luc) willing to help him, the boy can’t help himself from adding to his mounting history of transgressions. After spending one particular weekend with his family on a furlough, he is determined to go to any means necessary to avoid returning to the facility. René-Lortie’s 30-minute storytelling is both economic and powerful. It’s the only short that made me want to immediately replay it, primarily because it starts out with an ending and then works its way back.
RATING: ***1/2
KNIGHT OF FORTUNE
Stories of grief have been around as long as stories have been told, but the more specific and personal they are, the more memorable they are. Of all the shorts in this category, the 25-minute “Knight of Fortune”, from Danish writer/director Lasse Lyskjær Noer, certainly takes a unique angle on the topic of loss, telling a heartfelt and comical tale set in a morgue. Karl (Leif Andrée) finds himself at a morgue to view the dead body of his wife that rests in a coffin. However, he can’t bring himself to open it up and face the finality that will come with such action. He meets Torben (Jens Jørn Spottag), a stranger who unexpectedly helps him come to terms with what needs to be done, but not before some humorous events play out before the both of them. Inevitably, the two men form a much-needed bond over their shared loss. While this may be a simple story, the subject matter feels very relatable, and it winds up leaving a lasting impression due to the way it is told and performed.
RATING: ***1/2
