Oscar Noms: Live Action Short Film ****

As I said below, this year Magnolia Films has again done us a great service in assembling all of the Oscar-nominated short features into a single film. The live action nominees are headed by my favorite, "Auf der Strecke" ("On the Line"), a dark story from Switzerland about a department store security guard and his fascination with a clerk (pictured above). "Manon on the Asphalt" gives us window into the world of a young woman in France on a fateful day. "New Boy" from Ireland is a gem with a spot-on depiction of Irish grammar school life, and the difficulty of fitting in. "The Pig," from Denmark, invites us to think about symbols and norms in a multi-cultural society. And "Spielzeugland" ("Toyland"), from Germany, is for me an overwrought, almost silly depiction of a glimpse of the Holocaust. This is not a subject that lends itself to a short film. All in all, I was somewhat surprised at the level of seriousness displayed in this year's nominees for live action short. They're definitely worth a view.