2012 Oscar nominated live action short films reviews

An Irish-Catholic altar boy doesn’t care about anything but soccer, causing cutesy conflict with his devout family’s desire to see him serve the Lord. A priest giving a coach-like pep talk before mass is the height of humor in this silly short, which doubles as the directorial debut of Irish actor Peter McDonald. (Ireland, 11 minutes)

A German couple travel to Calcutta to adopt a child, only to face an unexpected moral dilemma. Director Max Zähle milks the melodrama for all he can with a just over 20 minute running time and gets a solid performance from lead actor Wotan Wilke Möhring as the distraught prospective father. Krish Gupta is certainly adorable as the child at the center of the struggle, but the narrative resorts to easy button-pushing on issues of social justice and becomes an example of how an abbreviated length works against a concept demanding more complex consideration. (Germany/India, 24 minutes)

Given the pedigree of director Terry George (a two-time Oscar nominee for co-writing “In the Name of the Father” and “Hotel Rwanda”), “The Shore” may well be the odds on favorite to win this year’s Live Action Short Oscar. It boasts a recognizable cast—“Rome” co-stars Ciaran Hinds and Kerry Condon play a father and daughter who travel from America to Belfast to reconnect with the father’s roots, and Conleth Hill (“Game of Thrones”) plays the man’s long lost friend. But the execution is an underdeveloped slog in which attempts at both humor and sentimentality largely fall flat. Like many shorts, it plays like the warm-up for a feature film but doesn’t inspire much confidence that its characters and storyline would sustain full length interest. (U.K., 31 minutes)

A breezy New York City set comedy turns time travel into a one joke conceit as a neurotic inventor keeps re-visiting the same day in his life. Director Andrew Bowler keeps things light and fast, but the uninspired performances and lackluster jokes reduce the exercise to a brief, bad variation on “Groundhog Day.” (U.S., 11 minutes)

70-year-old Norwegian Oskar learns he has six days left to live, which gets him thinking about the brother he hasn’t seen or spoken to in over 30 years, while also forcing the arrival of irritatingly perky new houseguest Inger who turns up to provide hospice care. This Student Academy Award winner from 27-year-old director Hallvar Witzø is easily the standout among this year’s nominees. It’s the only short where quirky humor is balanced with fleshed-out characters. Not all of it works, but there are enough vivid details in the telling (Oskar’s pleasure in killing obnoxious seagulls, Inger’s eagerness to do her job right) to make the overall effort a fresh pleasure. “Tuba” is the lone selection that tells a satisfying story on its own, while also piquing curiosity about what the filmmaker might do next. (Norway, 25 minutes)