On Saturday, I took a trip to a movie theater downtown for a matinee. I don’t go to the movies often, but it’s awards season. And awards season in films means that there is a crop of short films nominated for the Oscars. There are categories for animated short films and live action short films. I watched the live action shorts, something I started doing in law school and have kept up in many of the years since. Not every movie theater shows these films, but living in a city does have certain benefits.

It was a very diverse set of short films this year in terms of theme, language, and geography. The most politically charged was Butcher’s Stain, but it is set in Israel and not in the United States. The filmmakers tried to do too much and left too much unresolved (though they’d probably respond by saying that was the point). Two films drew the strongest audience reactions. One was Jane Austen’s Period Drama, which drew laughter from the audience and was short and punchy even if teetering over the line into absurdity by the end. The other was Two People Exchanging Saliva. It was the most unique of the set. French. Black and white. Crazy premises but against the backdrop of contemporary Paris. And it was my favorite, though that opinion was not widely shared. Of the others, A Friend of Dorothy was well-executed but I wasn’t in the mood for a sentimental, poignant sort of film and The Singers was both vulgar and ridiculous in the sort of way that only something based on an old Russian short story could be.

It is the variety of these five films, which collectively lasted about two hours, that makes the short films so appealing to me. Not only are they more experimental and novel than the slop coming from the big studios, but if you don’t like one then you only need to wait a few minutes and a new one will begin.