Movie fans should head over to the Avon and check out this year’s Oscar nominated short subjects. They will be screened in the three categories: Animated, Live Action, and Documentary. The New York Times reviewer was not thrilled with the live action entries, “Fans of sticky sentiment will be delighted with this bundle of live-action shorts, only two of which deserve note.” But keep in mind, they are short, running from 15 to 37 minutes.
A separate reviewer assessed the animation group: “Squeeze the ink from these animated shorts nominees and one could paint a banner with their shared message: Be here now. This stronger-than-average selection boasts four excellent entries and one celebrity-studded sugar glop that shouldn’t win (but might).” (That would be the J.J. Abrams ‘The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse.”)
The documentary group includes “The Martha Mitchell Effect” coming in at 39 minutes. “If it hadn’t been for Martha Mitchell, there’d have been no Watergate.” So said Nixon in his 1977 interview with David Frost, one year after her death. We owe Martha Mitchell a great debt. Martha was the colorful wife of Richard Nixon’s loathsome Attorney General, John Mitchell (who ended up serving 19 months for his part in the Watergate crimes). Early on, in an effort to stop her from talking to the press, he had his wife held against her will in a California hotel room and forcibly sedated by a psychiatrist after a physical struggle with five men that left her needing stitches. Then Nixon set about destroying her reputation — drunk, crazy, etc. — we all know the drill. Turns out Martha Mitchell was right about everything. She was the first to call for Nixon’s resignation, and the repair to her reputation is long overdue. And this documentary is very entertaining.
Animation: March 3-5, 6:20pm, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
Documentary: March 6-7, 6:20pm, Monday & Tuesday.
Live Action: March 8-9, 8:20pm,Wednesday/ 6:20pm, Thursday.
Go to ShortsTV for details.
(Seen here is “Ice Merchants” from Portugal.)
Runs through March 16, Avon Cinema, 260 Thayer Street, (directions)