I love short movies, and have an annual tradition of watching every short nominated for the Oscars each year. However, this entry was so bad, it has got me wondering if the time has come to stop. Because this film is so abysmally dreadful, that it's painfully obvious the award has absolutely nothing to do with quality any more.
I won't go into much detail about the hamfisted way the filmmakers tries to jam their message down the viewers throat, as other reviewers have written more than enough about that.
But even if you were to take all the clunky propaganda out of the story, and focus instead on the actual filmmaking, you'd still be left with absolutely atrocious craftsmanship. The acting is bad, the directing is bad, the editing is bad and the soundtrack is bad.
But worst of all, is the screen writing. I mean, COME ON! How is it possible to write such drivel, and not have anyone punch you in the face? The only explanation I can think of, is if the screenwriter is five years old. And indeed, there are many scenes in the film which support that theory, most notably when a grown woman brings a grown man home to her apartment, and actually starts running around a Christmas tree singing children's songs! WTF? It felt like it was supposed to be a remake of the Tom Hanks movie Big (1988), where a kid has his body transformed into an adult, but still has the mind of a child. And as fun as that might have been, I'm pretty sure this was not the filmmakers' intention.
Rather, it's just a political piece about a subject which people are so terrified to debate, that they will celebrate an excruciatingly bad film in fear of what someone might say of them if they dared point out what utter trash it is. YUCK!
