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Despite having a sex doll at the center of its story, LARS AND THE REAL GIRL is a charming tale about a young man who submerges himself in a fantasy world to escape from reality. Lars Lindstrom buys a sex doll and tells everyone that it is his new girlfriend Bianca from Brazil. Nancy Oliver’s Oscar-nominated screenplay handles this premise with a great deal of tact. This isn’t AMERICAN PIE, folks; it’s more like apple pie and church and milk and cookies. And if you found some way to make any of that sexual than you’re not Lars.

Lars (Ryan Gosling, THE NOTEBOOK) has become more and more reclusive, moving into the garage of the family home. His brother Gus (Paul Schneider, ALL THE REAL GIRLS), and especially his sister-in-law Karin (Emily Mortimer, LOVELY & AMAZING) worry about him. Then one night, he introduces them to Bianca like he’d introduce any Brazilian missionary he met on the Internet to them. The next day they take Lars and Bianca to see Dr. Dagmar (Patricia Clarkson, THE STATION AGENT), who tells them that Lars is having delusions and that if they want to keep him they will have to play along with the fantasy. Under the guise of treating Bianca’s low blood pressure, Dr. Dagmar sets a weekly appointment to meet with Lars and his quiet girlfriend. Gus and Karin struggle with accepting Lars’ condition, while trying to explain it to the community at large. With Bianca around, Lars is able to easily avoid his sweet co-worker Margo (Kelli Garner, BULLY).

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Philippe Pollet-Villard’s THE MOZART OF PICKPOCKETS won the Best Live-Action Short Oscar this year, beating out more serious fare. Pollet-Villard stars as a pickpocket named Philippe who along with his partner Richard (Richard Morgieve) work with three other thieves robbing tourists and female shoppers. As the white guys in the gang, they always play the cops in the scam and only receive stolen passports as their cut. One day a deaf boy, who begs for change, follows them home. At first Philippe wants nothing to do with the child, but Richard is an old softy. To make it worth their time, they decide to teach the boy the pickpocket trade, but things don’t turn out as expected and the little boy may have something to teach these hapless crooks.

The story is cute and charming with solid laughs sprinkled throughout. But I kept thinking back to SIX SHOOTER, which won the Live-Action Short Oscar in 2006, with its witty dialogue and twisting storyline. MOZART isn’t bad, but in comparison it lacks the spark that the previous Oscar winner had. Cocky and clueless Philippe and kind Richard are characters we’ve seen many times before. Pollet-Villard’s pacing is nice and ends the film on a nice joke. The last quick shot can be viewed with several meanings, leaving us wondering whether it’s a simple happy parting wink or representative of something more devious. I’ll leave it up for you to decide. In the end, the film has a winning combination of humor and heart, which is allows a great combination for winning an Oscar in the shorts categories.

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This Danish short film (if you consider 39 minutes short) received an Oscar nomination in 2007. The melodrama tackles the tragic issue of young people suffering from severe forms of cancer. Staying on the same ward, Stephanie (Julie Olgaard, AFTER THE WEDDING), Sara (Laura Christensen, THE KINGDOM) and Mette (Neel Ronholt, AFTER THE WEDDING) have developed a close bond. It’s Christmas and the trio look forward to celebrating New Year’s together. Stephanie is cynical and pessimistic, a deadly combination. She’s having a hard time emotionally with her condition and gets defensive when asked about her parents. Mette is a Christian, which helps her cope. Bedridden, she desperately needs people around her at all times. She doesn’t like taking her morphine pills so she has amassed a nice collection in her nightstand drawer. Sara is very close with her father, whose quiet sad eyes can’t hide his emotions. Due to the tumor on her spine, Sara must have surgery on New Year’s Eve.

Director/writer Christian E. Christiansen handles the bleak material with a bit of humor and a bit of heart. Though the material is melodramatic, Christiansen never pushes for effect. He honestly deals with the emotions of his characters without pandering to theatrics. His three lead actresses give natural and often moving performances. Christensen is especially good in the least flashy role as the middle ground between Mette’s optimism and Stephanie’s pessimism. Olgaard’s emotional breakdown on night is filled with pain and longing. Toward the end, there are a few moments when the film feels like it’s going to dive head first into sentimentality, but pulls up just in time to reveal its real message about death. It’s not a revolutionary statement, but during the course of experiencing these young women’s story we come to believe in its simple truth.

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Nominated for the Best Live-Action Short Oscar, this sweet comedy seems like a well-told conventional love story until a late revelation sends the soaring in a new direction. Andre (Dirk van Dijck) is an office clerk who during quiet times at work has struck up a relationship with a tango lover online. Not knowing one thing about the tango, he desperately enlists the help of all-work co-worker Frans (Koen van Impe) to teach him to dance. With only two weeks to learn, Frans doesn’t think that is up to the challenge.

Dijck is a nerdish fellow with a good heart. He has misrepresented himself to the woman online, but his intentions are noble. Frans is a man who doesn’t like to mix his social life with his work life, so Andre has to prove that he has the passion it takes to dance the tango. Frans is an intense man, who once convinced to teach Andre, never lets Andre have a moments break from his training. Accompanying Andre to the tango event with the woman, Frans watches with eagerness to see if his student can do it, allowing the stoic man to open up his personality as well. Director Guy Thys plays on conventions so well that when hidden truths are revealed we are thoroughly and joyously surprised. The end makes a reevaluate everything that had come before. This charming short uplifts with a surprising hopefulness.

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Based on an Elmore Leonard story, this Oscar-nominated British short tells a solemn story of redemption. Ruben Vega (Francesco Quinn, TV’s INTO THE WEST) is a horse thief who has come to rethink his thieving and whoring ways. When he discovers a pretty woman named Sarah (Charlotte Asprey, TV’s ELIZABETH I) living alone in a shack in the desert, he becomes captivated with her story. Eleven years prior, she was kidnapped by Indians, tattooed on her chin and forced to live like a squaw. When her husband finally finds her, he is ashamed of her condition and hides her away from polite society. Ruben makes it his mission to bring Sarah out of her isolation and take back her life.

The film has a meandering tone that isn’t uncommon to the Western genre, but robs the film narrative thrust. From the direction to the acting, the short goes for a simmering dramatic effect, which at times feels more theatrical than cinematic. The actors move like their striking a pose, not conjuring a performance. Moreover, despite its slow pacing, the story seems to make emotional leaps that ring false. I can’t comment on whether sections where cut from the original story, but director Daniel Barber and screenwriter Joe Shrapnel never make us believe in the relationship between Ruben and Sarah. She goes from guarded and removed to trusting and vulnerable too quickly.

Barber, with cinematographer Ben Davis and production designer Johnny Green, paints a cinematic landscape that is beautiful. This look, the pacing and the muted performances all come together to create a nice somber tone, which is right for the material, but also distances us from the characters. As a result, the movie techniques get in the way of the story. All this said the film isn’t a complete failure by any means. With all its problems, it held my interest, especially from its wonderful photography. Barber plays one note well for 35 minutes, but it leaves us wanting to hear the rest of the song.

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This Oscar nominee for Best Live-Action Short Film is an absurdist comedy that careens from one unfunny gag to the next, leaving a hundred-gag pileup in its wake. Set in an Italian middle school, director Andrea Jublin gives us a few peeks into the lives of the stereotypical teens before thrusting his crazed substitute onto the class. This manic juvenile adult leaves the class of students in shock at first, but as he prances around the room like an ADD patient on acid, he forces the students into bizarre behavior to beg for high grades.

Jublin plays Il Supplente so over-the-top that none of the humor hits. The pacing is at a fever pitch from the start, making the audience warn out quickly. In many ways, the often mean-spirited “teacher” reminded me of an Adam Sandler character. Let’s not hope for an American feature length remake. When the supposedly humorous twist arrives, it is no surprise to the audience, because it could only be the logical outcome to the substitute’s actions. The film is trying to embrace the joy of youthful silliness and exuberance, but does so in creating an adult character that doesn’t come off as young-at-heart, but as psychotic. Jublin dedicates the film to “all the people who have problems with conduct.” This class clown has never grown up to discover that his childhood antics were annoying back then, and even more so now that he has grown.

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