Welcome to The Morning After, where I share with you what movies I’ve seen over the past week. Below, you will find short reviews of those movies along with a star rating. Full length reviews may come at a later date.

So, here is what I watched this past week:

Oscar-Nominated Short Films from 2019

Doing a short review of fifteen different short films will be nigh impossible as the main reviews will be short enough. So, I’ll break this down into three additional paragraphs, one for each grouping.

The five animated short films are a strong bunch with all of them standing out more so than those in the other two categories. The best of these five are Hair Love, about a father struggling to tame his daughter’s incredibly curly coif, and Kitbull about a kitten who must come to terms with a new pitbull introduced into his neighborhood. Both films feature bittersweet endings and both are incredibly well made. The former is such a beautiful bit of animation while the latter is a rather rudimentary form. The storylines for both are quite engaging and endearing. The other three films, with Dcera (Daughter) being the least affecting, are also emotionally driven. Only Hair Love of these has any amount of humor to it.

Among the live action short films, the overall quality of the films is a bit less impressive than the animated shorts. The Neighbors’ Window, Saria, and A Sister were the best with Window and Sister close in terms of quality. All three are rather affecting. The remaining shorts are decent, but not spectacular.

On the documentary short subject side, a group of nominees I’ve never typically reviewed, two stood above the crowd, In the Absence and Walk Run Cha-Cha. Each takes a different approach to documentary filmmaking and both are compelling from beginning to end. The other three titles, also dealing with very worthy subjects, all struggle to impress as they seem more interested in form than function. That’s not always a bad thing, but to be compelling, there has to be more to them.