Welcome
to our special OSCAR WEEK SERIES of
reviews. This series will go through the seven categories in which an award is
given based on the entire film (rather than any one constituent element). This
first review in the series will go through the DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
nominees.
EXTREMIS
Extremis is a short subject
documentary directed by Dan Krauss. The short chronicles the work of a variety
of doctors at a public hospital as they discuss ways to handle end of life
treatment for all sorts of patients. Overall, I thought Extremis was a fine documentary short that was tough to watch in a
lot of ways.
I
think the strengths of this short lie in its unflinching look at an extremely
trying subject. The film shows off many patients, families, and doctors with a
variety of different views on end of life treatment. This made for an
emotionally effecting viewing experience. Extremis
suffers from an excess of dialogue and conversations that felt canned for the
film. Further, at the end, it left me with too many questions to think about
rather than one unifying concept that makes it feel overwhelmingly disorganized.
Ryan’s Score: 7/10
4.1 MILES
4.1 Miles shows the story of a Greek
coast guard captain who has to save fleeing refugees from drowning at sea. It
also addresses the impact on the community and the choice continue to help
ferry the refugees to safety. The film is directed by Daphne Matziaraki. I
found 4.1 Miles to be an extremely
solid documentary short overall.
The
best thing about 4.1 Miles is how
imbedded it felt in reality. The access the crew got in shooting this film was
pretty special and puts you literally in the boat alongside these people making
the voyage. This differentiates it from so many similar pieces making it a
strong entry. The only weaknesses of note are that this is a topic that has
been covered elsewhere and the film didn’t leave me with any desire to think
further on the subject. Both of these are real issues in a documentary film
which is why my score is lower than my positivity about its quality would
suggest.
Ryan’s Score: 8/10
JOE’S VIOLIN
Joe’s Violin is a documentary short
directed by Kahane Cooperman. It presents the audience with a story about a
donated violin to a school and uses that to both document a love of music as
well as the history of the instrument and its donor. This documentary felt
extremely cute and was a pleasantly happy diversion from what is an
overwhelmingly somber category. However, it also didn’t feel like an especially
important film to watch.
What
this film does well is present an incredibly simple thing and find the layers
in it to make it compelling for an audience while they’re watching. You
wouldn’t think much of a violin donated to a school, but this film did that. What
the film didn’t do was give me a reason to watch it again or to recommend it.
It’s fine, in and of itself, but it doesn’t matter in any sense. That is
troubling at the awards level.
Ryan’s Score: 8/10
WATANI: MY
HOMELAND
Watani: My Homeland is a documentary short about
a refugee family from Syria who moves to Germany to escape the perils of the
conflict and to provide the children with an opportunity for a better life. The
short is directed by Marcel Mettelsiefen. This is a superior documentary short,
balancing both careful realism with a compelling narrative that gets audiences
thinking.
What
was most effective about this short was limiting it to the experience of one
family. It gave a sense of very personal stakes and we got to know everyone
involved making you care more for their specific plight. Conveniently it also
left the audiences with a variety of perspectives as the different members of
the family react differently throughout and feel differently about the
situation at the end of the film. The only small quibble I have with the film
is that it wasn’t very impressively shot and didn’t have a specific reason
justifying the different time jumps it includes.
Ryan’s Score: 8.5/10
THE WHITE
HELMETS
The White Helmets is a documentary short
telling the story about the Syrian aid group known as ‘The White Helmets’ who
go about the country saving lives on both sides of the Syrian Civil War. This
short film is directed by Orlando von Einsiedel. Overall, I left this feeling
underwhelmed because it felt more like a commercial primer for who ‘The White
Helmets’ are and not an interesting take on what they do.
The
strengths of this documentary are that it is documenting a significant subject
and does so with a fantastic level of access and on-the-ground style reporting.
This genuine and real focused look makes it potentially impactful and does show
a truly significant story. The problem was that it didn’t dig into the story at
all. If you literally didn’t know what ‘The White Helmets’ are you might get
something out of this. For anyone minimally informed this is a strict rehash of
information they already know. The lack of illumination in this film is really
disappointing for something that could have been great.
Ryan’s Score: 6/10
Extended review here.
PICKS AND PREDICTIONS:
Ryan’s Pick: Watani: My Homeland
Ryan’s Prediction: The White Helmets
GoldDerby Experts Prediction:
Extremis
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