Tropic Sprockets / The 2019 Oscar-Nominated Shorts: Live Action

By Ian Brockway

 

The literal translation of the French word Fauve (the title of one of the nominated films in the group) translates to “wild beast” and the phrase could indeed be used to describe most of the work here. Depicting fear, rage, revenge and melancholy, at least four of the Oscar shorts highlight the dark side of our human nature. Each story is excellent but not one is for the squeamish.

“Madre” by Rodrigo Sorogoyen features a single mom’s anxiety about her young son. With tones of Michael Haneke, the situation builds slowly with a creeping dread of indecisiveness and panic. A six year old calls his career-driven mother after his dad suddenly vanishes on a beach vacation. The boy is far away, location unknown, left to fend for himself. Concern turns to outright hysteria, when the mother realizes that her son is vulnerable without any familiar or secure landmarks, alone with a suspicious stranger. Spare and concise, this tense and suggestive appetizer sets the tone for what is to come.

From Canada, Jérémy Comte’s “Fauve” begins deceptively light-hearted. Two wisecracking and edgy kids are playing in a surface mine. With shades of Rob Reiner’s “Stand by Me,” the boys ridicule and mock each other and the audience very well may laugh along with them, but then circumstances quickly become no laughing matter. The setting of a blinding white surface mine (very like an odd, isolated and indifferent planet) has to be seen to be believed. The actors Félix Grenier and Alexandre Perreault are terrific and not to be missed in the film, which (were I to guess) could be the odds-on favorite.

Also from Canada and Marianne Farley, “Marguerite” is the story of an aged lady and her caregiver. Intrigue ensues when it is revealed in conversation that Rachel is gay. Recognition and regret register on Marguerite’s face. A bond is made. This is a character study and the actor Béatrice Picard carries this understated and subtle story.

“Detainment” from Ireland by Vincent Lambe, is the disquieting true story of Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both ten years old, who kidnap a three year old, James Bulger, who is ultimately murdered. The subject is absolutely hair-raising. Delivered in impressionistic flashes, Robert and Jon might seem hyper, yet harmless truant kids with ADD, perhaps.

Then in a screen of black, their mugshots are seen. Who was the instigator in this hideous crime? Did the kids initially want to take the kid for a stroll and then return them to his mother? Which kid is lying and which one (by any definition) is capable of any remorse? With scenes showing Jon (Ely Solan) punching his father in a temper tantrum and Robert (Leon Hughes) wrinkling his nose in disgust over baby James, the film is a real life “The Omen” sans the supernatural.

The sight of the blankly smiling baby being led gently by small yet devious hands is heartbreaking and we are all implicated in watching this as little James’s blonde head is squeezed though the canal bars to his future slaughter.

Lastly (but by no means least), Guy Nattiv’s “Skin” from America is a superb but viscerally upsetting story of racism and revenge.

Here is a family of white supremacists. The father (Jeremy A. Johnson) is covered in Nazi SS tattoos. He gives his lively young son (Jackson Robert Scott) a skinhead haircut and then they go shooting. Mom is clearly tickled, recording the AR-15 shooting range on her phone. Their son is a perfect shot.

Later at the grocery store, a charming bagger, who is black, affectionately jokes with the kid, playing with a toy action figure.

The son laughs in delight.

Looking in confusion, dad takes immediate offense and confronts the young man, spitting with rage and the N word. The store worker shrugs it off and turns.

Then in defiance, he says to the father:

You are my problem.

Dad makes a call to his buddies who wait for the man in the parking lot.

The act of violence that unfolds is sick-making in its very immediacy and the sight of it rocked me in my chair. What is most disturbing though is the fact that the father is very caring, light-hearted and jovial with his son. The child is shown to have respect for animals and nature. He even kisses a snake.

The next night, there is a van playing loud death metal. Dad investigates and is thrown in the van to the horror of his kid. A “just desserts” follows that some may well find extreme.

The strength of “Skin” is that it honestly shows the profane ugliness of racism.

The father portrayed here is not horror fiction. Tragically, people as depicted in this film exist with angry hopes and blighted dreams.

While the climax feels a bit like John Landis’s chapter of “Twilight Zone: The Movie” starring Vic Morrow, the ending is well taken: Ignorance and racism are viruses that infect and kill.

These films make a sinister quartet (excluding one hopeful Marguerite) and make for difficult viewing. Tough as these Oscar shorts are, each is overwhelmingly compelling and you will be drawn in, albeit into a discomfiting darkness.

Write Ian at [email protected]

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