Oscar Shorts - starting this weekend

[Ghoulish Delight]

Still have one more at home to watch (Logorama), so I'll reserve final judgment until then, and of course we're still missing two of the live action (aww, but I wanted to see child slavery!!). But here are my thoughts thus far.

Agreed with iSm re: New Tenants. Started out so strong, but just got...gratuitous, blunt, and clunky. And you can't blame it on the talent, they had some heavy hitters acting wise. Gotta chalk it up to writing and/or directing. Bleh. Plus, I was distracted the whole time trying to figure out which This American Life contributor was playing the smoker because I KNOW that voice (it's David Rakoff).

We may be missing 2 of the nominees, but thank god we got to see at least one oppressively heartbreaking film. Phew, thought we were going to make it through a year without. I guess the door thing is a Russian tradition. For a second I thought he was making a table out of it in an elaborate attempt to commit suicide by accelerating his, and his wife's, own radiation poisoning.

I really like Instead of Abracadabra. Maybe not the most poignant clever bit of film, but well executed in every way. It has my vote, it'd be nice for a non-message film to win it.

On the animated side: Man am I sick of big-headed 3D old people. Really really sick of it.

That said, Sleeping Beauty was delightfully fun. Best of the bunch (before seeing Logomania).

Wallace and Gromit was Wallace and Gromit. Entertaining but more of the same. Actually, less of the same. Not a single piece of cheese in sight and only mentioned once?! What's with that?

French Roast was odd. I didn't really see the point of it. And why the hell was the old lady in the bathroom so damned long?

The Lady and The Reaper bleh. Scooby Doo schtick? Really? That's what they're nominating now? No thanks.

I wouldn't call this a down year, per se. There haven't been any that left me thinking, "WTF did I just watch?!" as in previous bad years. But nor is it a stellar year.