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2011 Oscar Live Action and Animated Shorts

Charlie and I got to see all of the Live Action and Animated Shorts over the weekend (we just couldn’t squeeze in a showing of the documentary short subjects too, alas) thanks to Landmark’s E Street Theatre in DC. Have to say, there are no duds in either category, just ones not up to the strength of its fellows. So good pickings overall. I definitely want to make seeing all of the nominees a tradition.

ANIMATED SHORT:

Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage — The one that, were I a voter, I’d cast my ballot for. Someone’s sketch-journal coming to life and illustrating a trip to Madagascar, which switches styles effortlessly and looks amazing. I was almost disappointed they showed this one first because nothing else could live up to it. (It also helps that I am a big fan of travel writing.)

The Lost Thing — Based on Shaun Tan’s children’s book of the same name, it’s got the strongest “message” and the inventiveness of Tan’s illustrations is just amazing. Beautiful, beautiful work.

Day & Night — The one everyone’s seen thanks to it being at the front of Toy Story 3. Don’t get me wrong, it’s really good, one of Pixar’s best short animated features to date. The only reason why it’s not at the top has to do with the strength of the first two (especially Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage). If Day & Night wins, it’s not for a lack of talent and skill involved. I’ll still be pleased if any of these first three win, honestly.

Let’s Pollute! — A fun parody of informational films from earlier days with a strong, in-your-face environmental message. I suspect that’s going to actively turn some people off though (there’s no subtlety at all involved).

The Gruffalo — My least favorite, it’s not bad but it’s a very literal adaptation of a children’s book, and it overstays its welcome at 29 minutes. The repetition of events and phrases that works well in reading a kid’s book gets tiring in this adaptation. It’s nicely animated and the actors they got for the voices are all strong, but toward the end I began actively wishing it was over.

LIVE-ACTION SHORT:

The Confession — Once again, the best one was the first one aired. Great child actors, emotionally brutal, and even though you see some parts totally coming a mile away it still grabs you and squeezes hard. Really happy this one was nominated.

God of Love — This one was, however, the most enjoyable one to watch. Loved the entire cast, the sensibility, the music, everything about it. It’s very light and fluffy unlike The Confession, and this is one I’d want to watch again. Just great, and I want to see more from this filmmaker.

Wish 143 — It’s good (and it’s got the best basic concept, with a teenager with cancer getting a facsimile of the Make-a-Wish foundation asking what he wants, and he says to lose his virginity), and it earned its nomination, but… this is a short film that felt like it was trying to cram an entire movie into its shorter length. Emotionally it’s all over the place. I’d actually quite like to see this one remade into a full-length film; it’s got more than enough material to do so. (Added bonus: Margaret Slitheen appearance!)

Na Wewe — Is it wrong to say that this short film needed a minute or two trimmed off of it? I can see why it got nominated, because it’s an extremely tense story set during the Hutu/Tutsi conflicts in Burundi. But the cycle goes one too many times, I think, and part of the resolution ultimately relies on an extremely lame pun. This is one that I liked less the more I thought about it, and while it still ended up in 4th place in my book, the amount in which it was in fourth place slid down a great deal.

The Crush — It’s not a bad idea, but the child actor who plays the lead is really poor. As the entire short film hangs on him (he’s in all but maybe two scenes?) he drags this one to the bottom. The other aspects (the writing, the directing) are good, and when it was all said and done I had a smile on my face, but I think this film is lucky that everything else was strong because that kid needed to be recast and badly.

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How Many Chances?

There are times when I wonder if as I grow older I am giving people less chances because I am getting crochety, or if it’s simply that I am better at recognizing warning signs.

Here’s a hypothetical example. Let’s say I’ve known someone as a friend of a friend (whom we’ll call Raoul, because that is always my fake name for people be they male or female) for quite a few years. I run into Raoul at least once or twice a year, always been cordial. And through the world of social media, I’ve started to “know” Raoul a little better in terms of likes and dislikes, that sort of thing. I ran into Raoul this year, we chat for a while, and in the process it comes up that Raoul loves to go to museums and is simultaneously sick of friends whose sole social interaction is late-night boozing. And I said, “Hey, great, I love going to museums, next time I will let you know.”

Hmph [365portraits: 260]So, fast forward a tiny bit. Planning on going to a museum with Charlie and a couple of other friends on a Saturday. So mid-week, I drop Raoul a line saying, “Hey, we’re going to the museum on Saturday, at this time to see that exhibit. We might grab food afterward, too. If you’re interested in coming that’d be great!”

…and I get no response. Not before, not during, not afterward. It’s been long enough that there won’t be even a belated response coming. And I have to admit that I’ve written Raoul off.

Not as a person, of course. That’d be overkill. But I have no real desire to invite Raoul along to anything else. It’s not that Raoul didn’t come (we all have our own plans going on after all) but rather that I sent the e-mail specifically to Raoul (not to a large group, at which point it’s vaguely acceptable to not reply) and got no response. It’s the whole, “Why should I go out of my way to invite you to things if you aren’t going to respond?” Especially since it’s not like I have a long history with Raoul where we’ve done tons of things together. If I run into Raoul I’ll certainly be friendly. Raoul is a nice enough person, there’s no anger. But no more invitations, I think.

Maybe I’m overthinking it. And it is certainly better than other behavior that gets you written off entirely. But the way I see it, I’ve got too many friends that I barely see as it is to try and add in someone who can’t even bother to respond. Why wait around for a non-responder?

Is it just me who feels this way?

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Wine-Book Wednesdays: Jose Garibaldi

Jose Garibaldi provided this awesome sketch for me; he’d just drawn Maria’s Wedding for Oni Press, which sang so very true to me when it came to families and weddings and the best of intentions and all that. Since then he’s worked on a variety of projects, but most prolifically a lot of Jingle Belle comics. (The adventures of Santa’s slightly naughty hockey-playing daughter, as written by Paul Dini; they’re rather hysterical.)

I love that this one tells a whole story, and while most were upbeat and adorable, this one shows the down side to my sketchbook’s theme. Nicely done.

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Wine-Book Wednesdays: Doug TenNapel

Doug TenNapel, when he drew this sketch for me, was probably still better known for his work on the computer game Earthworm Jim, but he’d just had the graphic novel Creature Tech published. Since then he’s had a lot of graphic novels published (I believe the most recent is Ghostopolis), but I have to admit that Creature Tech is almost certainly still my favorite.

Anyway, TenNapel took a distinctly different (and funny) approach to the book. Maybe he was trying to purify my book after Brian Azzarello’s sketch two pages earlier?

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Goodbye, Jeff

It was in January four years ago that I woke up to a telephone call that a friend had died; this time, it was through e-mail but no less shocking.

Jeff AlexanderI’ve known Jeff Alexander since 1998, when we both started volunteering for the Small Press Expo (SPX), a local convention for alternative and independent comic books. We quickly bonded over our love of not only comics, but all sorts of things; Doctor Who, Japanese culture, gaming, mysteries, movies, card games, and everything else in-between.

Jeff was part of a group of friends that for about three years, every Friday night would meet for drinks at Ireland’s Four Courts in Arlington, then walk across the street to the AMC theatre and catch a movie. And even when I inadvertently ended that ritual (due to marathon training at the crack of dawn on Saturday mornings), for years we also would meet up for half-price hamburgers at Whitlow’s on Wilson on Monday nights, catching up on everyone else’s lives and talking about anything and everything.

He was an amazingly talented artist, able to shift styles and techniques at the drop of a hat. Every year he drew a comic strip for the SPX program in the style of George Herriman, and the number of times where I was asked how we’d found pieces of original Krazy Kat art to use for the program was too high to count. For SPX 2010 he drew one in his own style, and I am so happy that everyone got to see just how good his own method of drawing looked, too.

He loved paint ball and gaming, and had just asked if my partner and I were interested in playing mahjong with him and his fiancee Erika. I never knew when I was going to get a random question (from ideas on what to do for a friend’s 50th birthday, still half a decade away, to questions on where to get rid of old manga volumes) but I always welcomed it. Jeff loved giving presents but hated receiving them. I still have a Christmas present for him, wrapped and labeled, sitting in my hall closet that he’ll never receive now.

Jeff was sarcastic but good-natured, dry but humorous, smart and quick to help out. I shared a hotel room with him and another friend when we went to San Diego Comic-Con in 2002, 2003, and 2005, and he was a great traveling companion. It was on that 2005 trip that he talked me into taking over the Ignatz Awards in 2007 from him (so he could become first Assistant Executive Director, then Executive Director of SPX) and I remember a year later thinking, “Wait, how did he get me to agree to this?”

Like so many friends, I look back now and think to myself, “I never did enough with him.” But Jeff was always the kind of person who wouldn’t complain if you hadn’t seen him in months, but rather would pick back up right where you’d left off. I miss the years where we’d run into each other at Big Planet Comics in Vienna on Wednesday evenings after work, and end up chatting for hours until the store closed.

A few months ago I gave him back a handful of DVDs that he’d loaned me years ago, but I’d never gotten around to watching. “You can keep them longer if you want,” he said, but I told him I felt guilty for having hung onto them for so long. Now I look at the spot on my coffee table where they’d sat for years, and selfishly wish I’d hung onto them, a little reminder and souvenir of all those good times together.

Jeff was worried about his hair and bought a fedora, and when I told him he was trying to look more like Peter Davison from Doctor Who he took that as a victory. He just finished up a degree in business and was looking to expand his career possibilities. Jeff loved his fiancee Erika and her two daughters Connie and Wilma more than anyone could possibly imagine.

Jeff Alexander was a wonderful friend, and someone who will never be replaced, only missed.

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My Favorite Movie Trailer

First, I love movie trailers. Good, bad, doesn’t matter. I love seeing the glimpses of films (or in the case of the infamous Days of Thunder trailer, the entire film) and the pieces that the filmmaker and/or the studio have decided to share with us. Often the trailer is the best thing about the film.

But my favorite trailer in recent days? It’s got to be the one for the Coen Brothers film A Serious Man. You not only get a vague idea about the film’s plot, but more importantly, they’ve turned the way they edited those shots into a film in its own right. When this trailer came out I must have watched it 30, 40, maybe 50 times. Seriously, it’s fantastic how it all builds.

Now if you don’t mind, I need to watch it again.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FYtprwg1As

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Wine-Book Wednesdays: Craig Thompson

Craig Thompson is an artist who to most people just exploded out of nowhere. While a fortunate few already knew about him thanks to his mini-comics, most readers (myself included) were introduced to him when his debut graphic novel, Goodbye, Chunky Rice, was published by Top Shelf in 1999. It’s about a turtle moving away from those he loves, and both the physical and emotional journey.

From that point on, everyone was all, “What’s he going to do next?” and when I got this sketch, his follow-up (clocking in at 600 pages) Blankets had just debuted that weekend, a book about first love. I remember him apologizing as he drew this for me, saying that his hand had been cramping from signing and sketching in everyone’s books, and that it wasn’t as elaborate as he wanted it to be. But I love it, and it’s small and sweet and to the point.

I’m happy that his new book, Habibi, is set for this fall—it’s been too long since Thompson’s last book. (He did publish a travel journal since then, Carnet de Voyage, about the trip he took to do research for Habibi.) If nothing else it means he might start hitting conventions again, and the soft-spoken Thompson being out there has been a face I’ve missed.

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Wine-Book Wednesdays: Brian Azzarello

Most people know Brian Azzarello for his work as the writer for 100 Bullets, his crime-meets-conspiracy-meets-revenge-meets-thriller series. But one thing I didn’t know until 2003 was that he actually went to art school (or at least, so he claimed), and he offered to draw in the wine book.

Did I mention before that 100 Bullets is a rather twisted book? No? Well, after this it might not be such a surprise. Could not stop laughing once he was done.

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Grim Truths

I don’t even want to admit how true this is, at times, in regard to myself.

(P.S. Will someone please reissue Dave Louapre and Dan Sweetman’s The Wasteland? I would buy several dozen copies of it as gifts. Instead I treasure my lone copy, and while I’m at it also wish for collections of their other big collaboration, Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children. Seriously people, it’s a license to print money.)