Diane Warren. Please stop. 

Oscar Gauntlet: #49/54

There’s always one short film that makes you scratch your head and wonder if anyone actually took the time to watch it before selecting it..this year it’s The Night Ride. 

30 minutes of dialogue pulled from fortune cookies and Hallmark cards to form the most saccharine short of the nominees. Less of a movie and more of an ment for those signs you see at TJ Maxx, the ones the suburbia moms gobble up and share on Facebook to show off to their high school friends that they swear they don’t care about (but very clearly do).

Cutesy animals and pretty animation doesn’t distract from the banality of the narrative.

Oscar Gauntlet: #40/54

Hands down the best of the five nominated. Magnificently animated and conveys more emotion in its dialogue-less 14 minute run time than most feature films. If the next short didn’t start almost immediately, probably would have cried much harder. 

Oscars Gauntlet: #39/54

I have no deep thoughts on this one (as of now). A sailor flies through the air, but the animation style is great!

Oscars Gauntlet: #38/54

The Matrix meets Office Space. Extremely entertaining, plus I’m a sucker for stop-motion.

Oscars Gauntlet: #37/54

Life itself is a kinship. We’re all a community of air.

Oscar Gauntlet: #35/54

Plays out like a long episode of Law and Order, I half expected to hear the “dun-dun” between each day. Fairly unremarkable in its filmmaking and its performances, but because the content it chronicles is so harrowing, I was never fully disengaged. I would say I’m surprised this was nominated over Decision to Leave but truthfully, I’m not that surprised.

Oscar Gauntlet: #34/54

Probably would get an extra star but it was difficult to see what was happening through my constant tears. 

Oscar Gauntlet: #33/54

I’m sure this will be a biopic starring Meryl Streep in like 3-4 years. 

Oscars Gauntlet: #32/54

It doesn’t matter what I write, or maybe what anybody writes, about the quality of the film because forever the default question will be: isn’t that the movie that Andrea Riseborough undeservedly was nominated for?

I’m not here defend Riseborough nor her “grassroots” nomination campaign, I would have preferred Viola Davis/Deadwyler, but it’s a shame a movie that is actually quite good with a performance equally as good will forever live in the shadow of this moment.

Oscar Gauntlet: 31/54

Actors on Actors: Mrs. Harris and Paddington when?

Oscar Gauntlet: 30/54