Oscar Nominated Live Action Shorts

I saw this on February 10 at Coolidge Corner.

I'm not going to bother rating them either collectively or as a unit but I will give my thoughts on each.

On the Line - This was good, deep at times and interesting. The main guy was good although I found his facial expression off-putting. I didn't care for the girl who played Sarah, which is a shame because I think it was a good role. I'm torn as to whether I would have liked the main character to admit that he'd seen the beginnings of the assault and not done anything. There is a case to be made for that and for how they actually ended it. It definitely seemed to be worth a nomination but it didn't blow me away or anything.

New Boy - I really enjoyed this one. It may stand a chance to win. Maybe a smidge to short to develop as much as needed but I liked it. The flashbacks to the boy's past could have happened a bit more and been a bit more vivid but I like how it was mixed in with the current school scenes and the mean kids in his class. The little girl was good too. And how can you not love Irish kids?

Toyland - I bet this will win because it seems a very "academy-esque" film and holocaust features always seem to do well. It was good but it also seemed like a less deep knockoff of Life is Beautiful. A kid with a Jewish friend wants to go to the camps with them cause his parent (mother in this case) told him they were going to Toyland.

The Pig - I really enjoyed this one. I hope it wins. The main character's attachment to the pig as his guardian angel struck a chord with me. I thought his daughter was a good, forceful role. I also have a personal bias towards stories of butt surgery. It was amusing and off beat and I think was just solid overall. The twist at the end was cute and funny.

Manon on the Asphalt - This one grew on me near the end but overall I found it probably the most irritating. The perspective (person dying narrating how her friends and family will react) seems like it would be a good idea on paper but wasn't that interesting to me.

I wouldn't be disappointed if any of them won because they were all pretty good and the quality overall was quite high in my opinion. My guess is that Toyland wins but I hope the Pig wins.