I just completed my yearly pilgrimage to see the Oscar-nominated Live Action Shorts--tomorrow it's the Animated Shorts. This was a very unusual crop of shorts this year, as three of the five nominees were comedies--and usually the films are mostly deadly serious. Only two films are serious this year and NONE are about death, Nazis or other sad stuff! As I said, it's an unusual year. Now I am not complaining--this might just be the most enjoyable group of films I've seen in years.
"Time Freak" is definitely a comedy--no doubt about that one. And, it's a wonderful but very slight film. In some ways, it's tone is a bit like last year's winner "God of Love" (also from the USA) but isn't quite as cinematically refined.
The film begins with a friend coming to a set that looks like a warehouse. It seems he's worried that his scientist friend has been missing for a few days. What he learns is that this missing guy has been absorbed in his project--a time machine!! What happens next? See it yourself!! By the way, if you care, the scientist appears to have an Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder--not Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Folks with OCPD differ in that they like their obsession and wonder why others aren't also as worried about just 'getting it right'!
