2 Oscar Shorts: "God of Love" and "Wish 143"

It was a treat tonight to be able to watch two of the Oscar nominated live action shorts at the Celluloid Social Club, both were well done, and gave a whole new perspective on making short films.  ***WARNING SPOILERS***

The first "God of Love" (USA) is the one I preferred (though the crowd was split).  It follows the story of Ray who is in love with a girl in his band, who unfortunately is in love with his friend, who seems to not be in love with her.  Ray regularly prays to a God that she will notice him, and his prayers seem to be answered when he gets a mysterious delivery of a box of darts, that when used to prick someone will make them fall in love.  The catch though is that it's not permanent, and the person has 6 hours to make the other really fall in love. After a successful trial run on another band member, Ray takes action and pricks Kelly.  Unfortunately, after the 6 hours, despite all his careful planning, Kelly is still in love with his best friend.  Ray takes to the streets to find another woman on his best friend's advice, and soon he is surrounded by lots of women.  Sadly, they're not Kelly, they offer to help him romance Kelly, and he is astonished and surprised.  When he asks the women why they would help him, when it was clearly a conflict of interest, he learns, "When you love someone, you will do anything for them so that they are happy."  It is with this message that though he sets off to pursue Kelly again, that he realizes that things have changed between his best friend and Kelly, and uses the dart to help their relationship progress. 

I really enjoyed this film, the story I think was one of the keys that's contributed to its success in addition to the visual elements.  The pacing is tight and well paced, we like the character, and the film is well structured.  It's also concise and more complex than our usual short film fare.  Excellently executed.

From the UK, "Wish 143" is the last wish for terminally ill teenager David - he wants to lose to his lose his virginity before cancer beats him.  Unlike your usual sick children last wishes, this was one they could not make come true for him.  Frustrated, David takes to the streets himself, only to be refused boarding on the bus due the "liquid" (aka iv) he had to carry around, be refused by prostitutes on the street, and even by a girl he's been long time friends with because she has a boyfriend.  Eventually the hospital chaplain takes pity on him and takes him to a working girl's place to fulfill his wish.  While the film doesn't actually show whether they did it or not (we assume not), the conversation he had with her probably benefitted him more and we see him at the end of the film with a change of heart, sitting outside, casually shooting targets while sitting next to the chaplain.


This feels like a portion of a feature film, though it still has a beginning, middle, end.  While some of us would have liked to see more beyond the end, the ending itself was alright and somewhat fitting in line with what other sick children might wish for, just some happy time outdoors instead of being in their sickbed all day.  The acting is what stood out in this piece, with the rest of the film elements well in support. The pace was a little slow, but perhaps it was meant to echo some empathy in the slow path to inevitable death.