The Great Oscar Baiter

As a kid, I didn’t really like Westerns. Now that I’m older, I’ve grown out of that for the most part. Oh sure, I’m still pretty picky with the genre. But there are several Westerns I’d rank amongst my favorite films, both conventional and otherwise. Today’s short, Andrew Coats and Lou Hamou-Lhadj’s Borrowed Time, certainly falls in the latter camp. Is that for better or worse? Well, there’s only one way to find out! (via Wikipedia) Made as a part of Pixar's co-op program (in which they allow their artists to use studio resources to make their own films), Borrowed Time was released in 2015. It tells the story of a nameless sheriff who finds himself returning to the site of his father's violent death when he was a boy. So, you know, cheerful stuff. (Although honestly, probably very typical for what Coats and Hamou-Lhadj did at Pixar.) Suffice it to say that Borrowed Time is a fairly depressing film about loss, regret and the omnipresent specter of death, which certainly isn...

While their overall track record remains strong, Pixar has had its fair share of misses in the past decade. Brave was not very good. The Good Dinosaur was forgettable. And don’t get me STARTED on the Cars sequels. (No seriously, don’t. It’s pointless. I haven’t seen them so I’ve got nothing to add to the conversation.) But for my money few have been as disappointing as Finding Dory. A sequel to Finding Nemo, one of Pixar’s best movies, focused on its best character? How could it go wrong? And sure, Finding Dory wasn’t bad. But it wasn’t great, or even that good. Still, seeing it in theaters in 2016 wasn’t a total loss. At least I got to see Piper. (via Wikipedia) Pixar may have a (well-earned) reputation for being a dominating force in the field of Best Animated Feature, but when Piper was released they were in a bit of a dry spell when it came to Best Animated Short. The studio hadn't won in that category since For the Birds, which was released alongside Monsters, Inc. ...

Today’s short poses something of an interesting philosophical conundrum for me. You see, Patrick Osborne’s Pearl is no ordinary film. Released in 2016, Pearl is the first VR film to be nominated for an Academy Award. Which is all well and good, but I don’t own a VR headset. So while I am able to watch Pearl, I’m not able to experience it in the way the filmmakers intended. So can any review I write be entirely fair? Of course, every other short I’ve covered was meant to be seen in theaters, and that’s rarely been the case for me. And I guess it doesn’t matter either way, because Pearl is a perfectly lovely film with or without VR! (via Wikipedia) If the name Patrick Osborne sounds familiar to you, it's because he won himself an Oscar the year before with Feast , which we covered here ages ago. And while Pearl didn't win the Oscar (that's what happens when you don't have the power of the Mouse behind you), I think I like this one a little better. It tells the story...