The live-action films for this year’s Oscar-nominated shorts seemed curated around the sensation of confronting unfortunate situations that none of us can truly plan for.
Multi-Oscar-winning director Brad Bird once said that, “Animation is about creating the illusion of life, and you can't create it if you don't have one.” It’s a simple observation that is often taken for granted, one that nonetheless highlights the detectable traces of life found in every pen stroke, clay imprint and line of code collected together to produce this year’s nominees for the Animated Short Films Oscar.
2
A lovelorn filmmaker attempts to use his craft to find the love of his life in a pathetic, creepy and pitiable act of desperation.
5
Jasper Mall takes you inside the titular mall in Alabama to witness the slow, monotonous process of its closing down.
Chris rounds out our year-end releases with his top 25 movies of the year (number 25 may surprise you!). Click here to check out all of our year-end lists.
25. Cats (Tom Hooper)
The first entry in a best-of-the-year list
8
CATS is an immeasurable, inscrutable, atrocious failure that I love.
8
Salacious and nonsensical in such admirable manners, the film sees Strickland harnessing his more obtuse qualities as a director and stylist to great effect.
9.5
Knives Out is an intricate murder mystery that revels in delightful menace while constantly subverting your expectations.
3.5
Like all great science fiction, The Wrong Todd asks the big questions, like "Is it possible to cuck myself?"
10
Parasite is a defiant piece of class critical cinema which features a director in obstinate control of his message, vision and artistry.
6.5
Settling comfortably into the familiar subject of a yakuza turf war, First Love sees eccentric director Miike delivering a standardized but darkly comedic action-crime odyssey.
2.5
Auggie broaches the issue of A.I. relationships with the diminutive, surface-level approach of a bad “Black Mirror” episode.
7
Deerskin is one or two expertly told absurdist jokes whose repetition comes close to tedium.
8
As a self-criticising exploration of travelogue shows and the internal biases that structure them, To the Ends of the Earth is an enlightening dialogue about being feeling lost in a foreign country.
8
Preying on the anxieties over religious zealotry, Saint Maud is an auspicious horror debut that burns with a quiet terror.
8.5
It is not everyday you walk away from a film and think the 30-minute, one-take aspect is the least interesting about it, but it is rings true for Ueda's layered horror comedy experience.
