Movie Review: 2019 Oscar Nominated Live Action Films

The consensus seems to be that this year’s batch of Live Action Short Film nominees was both incredibly dark and not particularly good. While the former is undeniable – when the “lightest” film is about a dying old woman, yes, it’s a dark batch of nominees – but I actually think it’s a good lineup. While the weakest of the five is very clear to me, I could make the case for the other four being ranked in any order. For now, this is my ranking, which like the Documentary and Animated Shorts lineups I start with my least favorite and end with my favorite.

 

Detainment *** / *****

Directed by: Vincent Lambe.

Written by: Vincent Lambe.

Starring: Ely Solan (Jon), Leon Hughes (Robert), Will O'Connell (Detective Dale), David Ryan (Detective Scott), Tara Breathnach (Susan Venables), Morgan C. Jones (Detective Roberts), Brian Fortune (Detective Jacobs), Kathy Monahan (Ann Thompson), Killian Sheridan (Neil Venables), Martin Phillips (Jon's Solicitor), Caleb Mason (James), Barbara Adair (Mrs. Garrity), Julie Lockey (Mrs. Johnson), Helen Roche (Mrs. Wilson), Tom Pigot (Robert's Solicitor), Alan Buckley (Robert's Social Worker), Martin Durkin (Police Officer). 

 

Based on the infamous case from the 1990s – when two ten-year-old boys in England took a 2-year-old boy from the local mall, walked him around for a little bit, before horrifically killing him, Vincent Lambe’s Detainment has drawn controversy when the victim’s mother complained that she was never told or consulted on the film – and that she would like it to be withdrawn, from the Oscar nominations and distribution. While I don’t agree with her argument (as much as I feel for her as a person), I will say that Detainment – which is based on the transcripts and tapes of the interviews with the two boys (the ones that have been released – a few have not, as they were deemed too disturbing, which is saying something given what we do hear) is one of those films that I can admire, while I still question what exactly the point of it was. The performances – particularly by the young actor playing Jon – the more tearful of the killers – are all quite good, with him feeling guilty, his partner seemingly staying defiant, and various detectives and parents just looking shocked at what they are hearing. While the death itself is never shown (it would make the film indefensible if it were) – we do see a lot of flashbacks to the two boys and the baby walking around, and I don’t know what purpose they serve other than falsely build tension. I’m also not quite sure what we really learn from the film given that the boys could never really describe why they did what they did, and because the film doesn’t go into the lives of the boys after what happened after – which may answer some questions. Detainment is technically assured, gripping and disturbing – but I’m not sure it adds up to anything, and if you’re going to re-open – or at least examine – these wounds, you should know why you’re doing it.

 

Marguerite **** / *****

Directed by: Marianne Farley.

Written by: Marianne Farley.

Starring: Béatrice Picard (Marguerite), Sandrine Bisson (Rachel). 

 

In many ways, the simplest of the five films nominated – this is a one location film, with just two characters. Marguerite (Beatrice Picard) is an elderly woman, who may be in her final weeks or months of life. Her homecare nurse Rachel (Sandrine Bisson) has laid out some options – dialysis – but Marguerite doesn’t want them. When Marguerite overhears Rachel on the phone one day, she asks if it was her boyfriend on the other end – and Rachel responds, “My girlfriend”. Marguerite’s initial reaction at first looks like quiet disapproval – but she will eventually admit that at one point she was in love with a woman as well – but she never did anything about it. “It was a different time. It was considered a mortal sin”. Marguerite is a quiet film, and a sad film – not really because Marguerite is dying (although that doesn’t make it happy) – but because it acts as a reminder of how many people denied who they were – perhaps even to themselves – because of the society pressure, and some still do. The film is quiet and sensitive, and leads to a beautiful sequence at the end that could bring you to tears.

 

Madre **** / *****

Directed by: Rodrigo Sorogoyen.

Written by: Rodrigo Sorogoyen.

Starring: Marta Nieto (Marta), Blanca Apilánez (Madre), Álvaro Balas (Iván), Miriam Correa (Policía).

 

The Spanish film Madre is a one shot wonder – kind of like a 19-minute version of last year’s excellent Danish thriller The Guilty, which was all about one cop on the phone trying to save a woman who has apparently been kidnapped by her husband. This time though, everything is even more tightly packed and intense – as a young Spanish mother gets a frantic phone call from her six-year-old son, who is alone on a beach somewhere in France. His father – the woman’s ex – said he was just going back to the car, but he’s been gone a while, and there is no one else around and the boy is scared. As the woman tries frantically to figure out what to do – a phone call to the police does nothing – and she and her own mother don’t know what to do, the son, Ivan, informs them that not only is the battery low, but there is a strange man on the beach beckoning him. Other than the opening and closing shots – of a desolate beach – we spend the entire film (in what looks like one shot) inside the apartment with the increasingly frantic mother in real time as she tries to figure out what is going on, and what to do. Writer/director Rodrigo Sorogoyen masterfully builds the tension rapidly to almost unbearable levels – aided by great camerawork and performances. To be sure, the film does kind of play like a trailer for something longer Sorogoyen wants to make – but if so, it’s a masterful trailer, and I would love to see the feature. And as a short, it works wonderfully.

 

Skin **** / *****

Directed by: Guy Nattiv.

Written by: Sharon Maymon and Guy Nattiv.

Starring: Jonathan Tucker (Johnny Aldd), Jackson Robert Scott (Troy), Danielle Macdonald (Christa), Johnse Allende Jr. (Idris), Zeus Campbell (Malik), Lonnie Chavis (Bronny), Jared Day (Adrian), Sam Dillon (Nasty Nate), Shelley Francisco (Savannah), Maliq Johnson (Lonnie), Ronnie Tyrone Lee (Tyree), David Maloney (Timmy), Jahdai Pickett (Draymond), Katie Ryan (April), Ashley Thomas (Jaydee), Michael Villar (Slayer).

 

Out of all the filmmakers nominated, I think it’s easiest to see Israeli filmmaker Guy Nattiv going immediately to features – which, of course, he already has making a 2018 feature that played the festival circuit, also called Skin – although it is not a feature length version of the short (by the way – it’s really annoying to have two films in the same year by the same filmmaker with the same damn name – it makes looking either up on IMDB or Letterboxd tough). This 20-minute short pretty does precisely what short films are supposed to do – build up an entire world in a short period of time. It also offers a twist at the end – that I know some people hated (the reviews on Letterboxd are not kind) – although I would disagree that it constitutes blackface (but hey, I’m a white guy, so I’m not an expert here). Yes, the whole thing is almost like a more realistic (I used that term loosely) episode of the Twilight Zone – but it works. The first part of the film establishes the main characters – racist skinhead Johnny (Jonathan Tucker) – who is raising his son Troy (Jackson Robert Scott) to be a racist as well (although, they are close). One day in a parking lot, he and his skinhead buddies beat a black man nearly to death in front of his family – and they eventually come back an exact an implausible, but fitting, vengeance, on him. The filmmaking by Nattiv is excellent – and he gets great performances from his cast of recognizable faces (Tucker has been in many things, Danielle Macdonald who plays his wife was good in the lead role in Patti Cakes last year – she’s a real talent – and you’ll recognize young Scott from It. Yes, the film is deliberately provocative and controversial. You may hate it for that – or you may find the whole thing too far-fetched. But you aren’t going to forget this one – and I think Nattiv is a real talent we will be hearing from.

 

Fauve **** / *****

Directed by: Jérémy Comte.

Written by: Jérémy Comte.

Starring: Félix Grenier (Tyler), Alexandre Perreault (Benjamin), Louise Bombardier (The Woman).

 

The second film from Quebec to make the cut, Fauve is a quiet and poetic film – which like three of the other nominees is about young boys in peril. This time, the pair of boys is Tyler and Benjamin, and they are playing around where they shouldn’t be playing around – an old rail yard where the tracks have overgrown, and there are old train cars around, and then later what looks like some sort of mine or quarry. Their games have a little bit of danger to them – but nothing too out of control. The film is really about just how quickly things can go from fun to tragic with no one really meaning to get there. Writer/director Jérémy Comte is likely a fan of David Gordon Green’s masterpiece George Washington – and he tries hard, and succeeds, in building that same kind of tone and structure in the film. Whereas I think the others boys in peril films nominated go for the jugular – for an immediate, visceral emotional reaction – Fauve is more a tragic slow burn, building to a poetic ending. The other films grab you more when you watch them – it’s probably why this one is unlikely to win – but this is the film that I find myself haunted by after seeing it. Unlike Nattiv or Sorogoyen, I am unsure if Comte could sustain this sort of thing over a feature length – but I’d love to see him try.