Documentary shorts offer two gems and little else
This year’s crop of Oscar-nominated documentary shorts is a wildly uneven bunch, with two standouts, a so-so entry and two more that leave you questioning how in the world they wound up here. Here are my takes on each:
Death By Numbers (33m, U.S.A.): In this impassioned video diary by Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting victim Samantha Fuentes, director Kim A. Snyder puts us in the head of a young woman forever traumatized by the heinous act carried out by Nikolas Cruz on Feb. 14, 2018, when he massacred 17 people and injured 17 more. Rightfully, forgiveness is not in the cards, as Fuentes summons the courage to face her attacker during the penalty phase of her former classmate’s murder trial. Fuentes’ innermost thoughts are wrenching, but Snyder fails to inject urgency and energy into a profile that at 33 minutes plods yet feels rushed.
Grade: B-
I Am Ready, Warden (37m, U.S.A.): The cream of this year’s crop is this unflinching examination of Texas death-row inmate John Henry Ramirez, who ostensibly rediscovers his humanity while exhausting all appeals to stop his impending execution. Director Smriti Mundhra movingly chronicles Ramirez’s final days as he accepts his fate and attempts to atone for the 2004 murder of convenience store owner Pablo Castro by reaching out to his victim’s son, Aaron, as well as his own, 16-year-old Izzy.
Grade: A-
Incident (30m, U.S.A.): Director Bill Morrison is well-intentioned in piecing together surveillance videos of the shooting death of pedestrian Harith Augustus by an overly aggressive probationary police officer after the Chicago barber was stopped for suspicion of concealing a gun. The film is sensory overload, as Morrison bombards us with multiple split screens and overlapping police radio chatter so overwhelming you eventually give up trying to make sense of it. The July 2018 shooting was deemed clean by both Internal Affairs and a jury. Although the officer neglected to initially press the audio record button, his body cam footage shows Augustus appear to reach for a gun in his waistband as he breaks free and flees. In the aftermath, the actions of several police officers proved appalling, but what’s the message Morrison seeks to send?
Grade: D
Instruments of a Beating Heart (23m, Japan): Director Ema Ryan Yamazaki certainly wins points for recording adorable images of Tokyo first-graders auditioning and eventually performing Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” for the class a rung below them. But so much of what we see feels staged, particularly in Yamazaki’s showcasing of one particular child, Ayame, who is often driven to tears by the fierce competition. Why is so much of the footage focused on her when more than two dozen of her peers are under similar stress? More importantly, why is so much pressure being placed on 6-year-olds? That’s the story, but Yamazaki seems oblivious.
Grade: D
The Only Girl In the Orchestra (34m, U.S.A.): Although slight, and occasionally gratuitous, director Molly O’Brien’s hagiographic profile of her aunt, trailblazing musician Orin O’Brien, hits all the right notes. The elder O’Brien, now a very youthful 89, is a blast to be around, as the first female member of the New York Philharmonic eases into retirement. Hired by the immortal Leonard Bernstein in 1966, O’Brien – a master of the double bass – always dreaded being placed in the spotlight because of her gender. And the media’s sexist comments meant as compliments are comical to revisit. As are the clips of O’Brien’s famous parents, movie actors George O’Brien and Marguerite Churchill. This Netflix doc is literally music to the ears – and eyes.
Grade: A-
