Oscar-nominated short films offer laughs, thrills in small packages

In theaters

THE 2007 ACADEMY AWARD-NOMINATED SHORT FILMS

If for some reason you didn’t find time to jet to the film festivals at Cannes, Berlin, Los Angeles and Tribeca, not to worry. Ellsworth’s The Grand, which continues to prove you can be successful locally by showcasing new theatrical runs of independent films (an overlooked business niche – hint, hint – that would score big in the long overdue Bangor market), is having something of a mini film festival of its own.

It features 10 films and it’s not to be missed.

From Feb. 19-22 (see show times at www.grandonline.org), “The 2007 Academy Award-Nominated Short Films” will be shown at The Grand, which turns out to be one of the best shows going.

This is a rare opportunity to see the range of amazing work being done in the short-film format, both animated and live action, which is so frequently and unjustly ignored in the hype over big-budget films. Because these films must be condensed to their essence, they often are more entertaining minute-for-minute than any other films.

This year’s animated nominees are especially rich, with Josh Raskin’s “I Met the Walrus” offering a brief, trippy account of the day 14-year-old Jerry Levitan interviewed John Lennon on the sly. A riff on cheating death is found in Samuel Tourneux’s “Even Pigeons Go To Heaven,” though that cheat doesn’t exactly go as one man plans, and one woman’s haunting journey by train is the focus of Chris Lavis’ anxiety-ridden “Madame Tutli-Putli.” Also here is “My Love,” a beautifully impressionistic piece from Russia’s Alexander Petrov that follows one young man’s love affair with two women (as with some of the films in this collection, this one is best suited for children).

As for the live-action films, look for Andrea Jublin’s bizarre Italian offering “The Substitute,” which is dedicated to those who have difficulties with conduct (for reasons that immediately become clear); the funny French comedy “The Mozart of Pickpockets,” with director Philippe Pollet-Villard following two bumbling pickpockets whose luck is lifted thanks to a deaf boy; and Belgium’s funnier “Tanghi Argentini.”

That film is from Guido Thys, and in it is a man who promises the Internet love of his life the fire of the tango, a dance he doesn’t know. It’s up to the help of a reluctant male co-worker to get him up to speed within two weeks, all of which makes for a hugely entertaining movie that, in the end, literally is a gift. Also in the mix is Daniel Barber’s “The Tonto Woman,” which comes by way of Elmore Leonard’s deceptively spare short story. It’s an intense, nicely mounted Western romance that’s so compelling, you almost wish its characters could be explored in a feature-length film.

All of the films are special, but one in each category is remarkable. First is Christian E. Christiansen’s harrowing and heartbreaking live-action Denmark film, “At Night,” in which three women struggle to cope with cancer and their own mortality at a cancer ward. The results are powerful. Second is the standout in the animated category, “Peter and The Wolf,” a fantastic entry from the United Kingdom and Poland that sometimes puts a lump in your throat before forcing it out with a laugh. What this film observes about cats alone is reason enough to attend the series.

Grade: A

On DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray

MICHAEL CLAYTON, written and directed by Tony Gilroy, 120 minutes, rated R.

Tony Gilroy’s Academy Award-nominated “Michael Clayton” suffers from a regrettable title (it hardly screams “cerebral thriller”), but here’s the thing – since not much about this tightly wound thriller plays by the rules, why should the title follow suit?

Gilroy wrote every one of the “Bourne” movies and he makes his directorial debut here. George Clooney as Michael Clayton, a corporate lawyer and “fixer” for a New York law firm, is charged to deal with the firm’s chief litigator, a manic depressive named Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), when the man goes off his meds and loses it.

The reason? Edens has learned via a private memorandum that U/North, the company he’s protecting from a $3 billion class action lawsuit, knowingly distributed a product that killed hundreds. By defending them, Edens is throwing dirt on the graves of all those who died.

Now, Clayton finds himself taking on U/North’s formidable attorney Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton), who has plenty to lose herself should that memorandum go public. Her character is one of the movie’s harshest, most pointed jabs at corporate America – as cool as she can be, the woman is a fraud.

To the high-powered world in which she moves, Crowder is polished to perfection, but one of the film’s chief pleasures comes from watching her in private. She’s a nervous wreck, constantly rehearsing speeches in ways that reveal what some authority figures don’t want you to know – they’re way out of their league, they know it, and they hope like hell that nobody figures it out along the way.

As Clayton comes to see through her (Swinton is so good in this movie, she joins Clooney in also being up for an Academy Award), the film begins its slow burn, with all of its fractured elements falling into place and Clooney delivering a performance that demands what only a few in the industry can deliver – a critical, grounded turn that allows the film to savor its well-earned commercial overtones.

Grade: A-

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays, Fridays and weekends in Lifestyle, as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at Christopher@

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