Almost Home (2022) | Directed by Nils Keller

 3.5/5

Nils Keller’s Almost Home is a beautifully produced sci-fi short with impressive thought and attention put into the world-building, never overwhelming the film but always there in the background. As a medically vulnerable person in this current pandemic, I appreciate that the film’s central dilemma is taken so seriously and with such nuance and honesty – in the midst of a new pandemic, should a medically vulnerable person risk their life or go back into isolation? This is a film that illustrates the deep heartbreak and sadness of continued isolation, of watching friends and family go on without you. It shows the real worry about how to keep safe if you don’t isolate. These are the real emotions and concerns that those of us with disabilities and medical vulnerabilities must continue navigate on a daily basis now that so many in our lives have decided that the pandemic is over. And it is so refreshing to see a film take these emotions and concerns seriously. The fight in the film’s third act – complete with zero gravity pushing and pulling between mother and son – seems overwrought and out-of-place in a film that is otherwise so grounded in the characters’ emotional experiences. However, this is still a wonderful and emotionally rich film that, at the very least, held deep resonances for me and left me feeling seen and known and heard in this time when disability and medical vulnerability are becoming more and more ignored and made invisible in society.

Where to Watch

The Hunt (1966) | Directed by Carlos Saura

 4/5

Content Warning: The film contains several extended scenes of animal cruelty.

Carlos Saura’s The Hunt is a brutal portrait of toxic masculinity and class privilege. Existing as stand-ins for the corruption and decadence at the heart of fascist Spain, it would be all too easy to make each of the four men in this hunting party carbon copies of each other, flattening them each into caricature. It’s impressive seeing the ways that Saura differentiates each of them, giving them all fully developed and richly drawn characters. The use of voiceover throughout is exceptional – by handing the voiceover off between the four primary characters, it helps us drill deeper into their petty grievances, their hopes and fears, their insecurities. And all of this ramps up the always escalating tension that runs throughout the film. The rabbit hunt is a brutal and a difficult scene, but the repetition of images and quick editing rhythms conveys a grotesquerie and a decadence, a stomach-churning disregard for life that had taken hold among the elite within Franco’s Spain. Whether the men are drinking, shooting for sport, looking through their magazines at pinup models, or leering at underage girls, we’re constantly presented with their avarice and greed. The gut-wrenching finale is explosive – the logical outcome of this unchecked sense of entitlement and arrogance. It may be a brutal film, but it’s incredibly honest.

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Nakam (2022) | Directed by Andreas Kessler

 4/5

Andreas Kessler’s Nakam is a gorgeously shot and beautifully performed short film that grips our attention from the very first frame. In exploring the difficult choices faced by Jewish resistance fighters during World War II, the film’s central dilemma is absolutely gut-wrenching. The father and son dynamic at the heart of the film is heartbreaking and painful, and while I would have like to see it developed more (especially in contrast to the boy’s relationship to other resistance fighter), it remains satisfying within the context of this short film.

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BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (2022) | Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu

 5/5

Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths is a magnificent, moving film about what it’s like to exist in liminal spaces – being from one country but living in another, striving to be an artist but retain your journalistic integrity, holding onto your grief while trying to let it go, remaining on threshold of life and death… The use of surrealism as a stylistic choice allows the film to bring this feeling of dislocation to life in a powerful, captivating way as it interrogates the nature of truth, myth, and the stories we tell ourselves and others. This is a film that is keenly aware of the class privilege that allows its main character to traverse borders freely, yet because of his country of origin it also understands the prejudice and racism he faces regularly when coming into the United States. This is undoubtedly Iñárritu’s most accomplished film – and certainly his most personal – and he seems willing to be honest and vulnerable in a way that he hasn’t allowed himself to be in other works, revealing fears and truths that go deeper the surface-level machismo of his previous efforts.

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Sierra (2022) | Directed by Sander Joon

 3.5/5

Sander Joon’s Sierra is a completely wild and unhinged work of animation about a son trying to connect to his controlling and manipulative father. The animation is playful, surreal, and chaotic – yet it’s always fun and engaging. There’s something so sad and truthful about the ways the son remakes and transforms himself to please his father but is unable to change back once he has fully become what his father has always wanted him to be. And it’s something of a small cinematic miracle that, in spite of how dark and tragic the film’s trajectory, it still manages to end on a somewhat hopeful note.

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Night Ride (2020) | Directed by Eirik Tveiten

 3.5/5

Eirik Tveiten’s Night Ride is such a charming short film, one with a lovely sense of discovery as the main character fumbles her way through her attempt to drive the tram she has accidentally stolen. The film uses the confines of the tram exceptionally well – isolating our main character from her unintended passengers and keeping the incident of harassment she tries to ignore just over her shoulder. It’s so moving to see a film that encourages active involvement when harassment occurs, and the character’s approach to challenging fragile and toxic masculinity is absolutely delightful.

Where to Watch

Holding Moses (2022) | Directed by Rivkah Beth Medow

 1/5

Rivkah Beth Medow’s Holding Moses is a short documentary about the mother of a disabled child, but it is unfortunately another film that prioritizes the experiences of a parent or caregiver rather than the experiences of the disabled child themselves. The film spends too much of its time focusing on what the parent has lost in caring for their child, too much time on the parent learning to love their child, too much time on what the parent has had to overcome… so that by the end of the film it paints them as a saintly model of parenthood for all to follow. This portrait of disability also sanitizes the child’s disability so that he becomes a caricature of the sweet, disabled, angelic child. It’s an insensitive, self-serving short documentary.

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Ice Merchants (2022) | Directed by João Gonzalez

 4.5/5

João Gonzalez’s Ice Merchants is a lovely work of short animation, filled with intricate illustrations and beautiful designs. The use of repetition throughout the film is so effective as it sets up for the film’s poignant conclusion. While grief is at the core of this short, it exists in the background as an ever-present emotion, revealing itself in small moments that build slowly to the film’s emotional finale. This is a gorgeous little film that takes you by surprise, that you can’t help but love the more you consider it – from the simple way movement is captured to the film’s heart and soul.

Where to Watch

Black Slide (2021) | Directed by Uri Lotan

 3/5

Uri Lotan’s Black Slide is a beautiful and richly animated short film about a child coping with the death of a parent, but the jumps between past and present get a bit too jumbled within such a compressed timeframe. The film’s central theme about toughening up to face your fears is a disappointment in such a gorgeously crafted film – especially since it feels so psychologically inaccurate to what this child actually needs in the midst of his loss. However, the final moments are truly beautiful and lovely, a stunning visualization of moving through grief.

Where to Watch

My Year of Dicks (2022) | Directed by Sara Gunnarsdóttir

 4/5

Sara Gunnarsdóttir’s My Year of Dicks is a very funny, painfully honest coming-of-age short about a teenage girl looking to lose her virginity. The variation in animation styles used throughout the short is absolutely wonderful and helps differentiate each chapter and the different boys she dates over the course of the titular year, with each style perfectly representing the relationship and her own inner state of being. It’s charming, honest, and oh-so-true true to the experiences of growing up (especially in the ’90s) and of what it is to explore your sexuality for the first time.