Everyday Activist - Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts 2019

Posted on Friday, February 15, 2019 at 07:00 PM

Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts 2019

Movie Review by Everyday Activist X CalgaryMovies.com

I’m trying hard to get these reviews out before tomorrow’s screening of 2019 OscarⓇ Nominated Shorts at the Globe Cinema! Canadians have a strong showing for the Oscar nominees as the two Pixar films Bao and Weekends are made by Canadians and our beloved National Film Board has it's 75th Oscar nomination with Animal Behavior. The other film I was able to watch was Late Afternoon, which reminded me of another NFB Film The Head Vanishes (La Tete Disparait) by Franck Dion. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to view One Small Step.

Animal Behavior

My favorite by far was Animal Behavior, probably because of all the therapy I’ve been in over the last few years. Every time I watch it, I laugh harder, because I pick out nuances that I missed in previous viewings, such as Dr. Clement’s posters on the wall advertising his book “Heel” and the dermatologist’s office “making rash decisions”. A couple years ago when, Blind Vaysha was nominated for an Oscar, my therapist and I watched it as our sessions were about connecting to the present moment. This year, we watched sections of The End Game. If I show up next week to meditation music playing in his office, I’ll know he watched Animal Behavior.

Late Afternoon

Animation allows for surreal explorations of the mind. As mentioned in the opening, Late Afternoon is an Irish film featuring the confused memories of a woman who has dementia and her relationship with her daughter, a similar premise to Dion’s work done a few years earlier. Curiously, water and the beach are prominent in both animations to symbolize the distressing emotions as well as the comfort. Both directors had elderly women in their lives inspire them to shine light on this difficult topic. Hopefully, this nomination will stimulate more conversations around this disease.

Bao

Domee Shi displays her Asian culture in Bao. Ah Asian mothers who love to hang on to their sons. For people who don’t believe this is a thing, I can assure you my brother and his family still live with my parents! I loved the way Shi integrated Chinese fairy tales into her animation and included her overprotective mother in the filming process. Asians love their families; sometimes a little too much.

Weekends

Another Pixar film with a Canadian born director, Trevor Jimenez, is Weekends. While the animation feels more like National Film Board than Pixar, he still maintains the surrealistic qualities of a child trying to make sense of a world that’s changed his family dynamics. Divorce was difficult enough without children, I couldn’t imagine shuffling a child from Hamilton to Toronto. Mind you I couldn’t imagine living in either of those cities either. Should you miss tomorrow’s screening, if you have a Calgary Public Library card, you can watch Weekends on Kanopy.  

Everyday Activist (CalgaryMovies.com) Review: Oscar Nominated Documentary Shorts 2019 >

Calgary Showtimes: Calgary Film: 2019 OscarⓇ Nominated Shorts >