What was your leg doing by his mouth?

February 12, 2020 6:13 AM

The Neighbor's Window, a short film by Marshall Curry. And winner of this year's Oscar for short film.

Possibly burying the lede and well deserving of its own FPP (but someone already got there first)- Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry, now the winner of the animated short film Academy Award.

posted by Mchelly (15 comments total)

Worth noting that The Neighbor's Window is based on a true story, told by Diane Weipert on Love + Radio's "The Living Room," produced by Briana Breen and Brendan Baker. You can hear the original story here: loveandradio.org.

It's a very powerful short. Both this and Hair Love deserved these awards. They rip at your heart. Someone must be cutting onions in here.
posted by Fizz at 6:31 AM on February 12, 2020 [4 favorites]

Wow. Watching children play through their bedroom window is creepy AF, but so is watching people fuck, so they're all creeps.

It occurs to me that the children can see into the sexy couple's place too.

Fucking curtains. We live in a society.
posted by adept256 at 6:58 AM on February 12, 2020 [1 favorite]

I saw it as part of the live-action Oscar Shorts showing in the theater on Friday and it was cute but easily the worst of the five nominees. Brotherhood or Saria were so much better but were in foreign languages and didn't involve rich New Yorkers.
posted by octothorpe at 6:59 AM on February 12, 2020 [5 favorites]

I enjoyed it, but Brotherhood was to me far and away the best short, and I think this one won because Hollywood.
posted by Lutoslawski at 8:03 AM on February 12, 2020

I was actually gunning for Kitbull to take Best Animated short (Kitbull FPP previously), but if it had to lose, I'm glad Hair Love was the one it lost to.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:03 AM on February 12, 2020

Hair Love was excellent and I was happy it won, though my personal favorite was Memorable.
posted by Lutoslawski at 9:41 AM on February 12, 2020

Hair Love was great but I felt like Memorable and Daughter were doing much more interesting things with animation.
posted by octothorpe at 10:09 AM on February 12, 2020 [1 favorite]

I didn't see the rest of the short films, but this was mesmerizing, for the intimate qualities, the reflexive relationship, kind of like that O Henry story about the gift, in which one lover sells her hair to buy a chain for his watch, and he sells the watch to buy combs for her hair. Wonderful tale, human scale, a small piece of the infinity of possibilities.
posted by Oyéah at 10:40 AM on February 12, 2020 [2 favorites]

See this.

That is all.
posted by Mental Wimp at 12:48 PM on February 12, 2020

HOLY SHIT I KNOW ONE OF THE CAST MEMBERS.

Greg Keller, who plays the husband, was in a play I stage managed in the mid-aughts (same play with Colman Domingo) and also was one of the first winners of a playwriting contest I was running for a few years.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:56 PM on February 12, 2020 [1 favorite]

Fucking curtains. We live in a society.

Exactly, but the curtains are for *you* to put up between you and whatever it is you don't want seen or to see.

Sometimes I walk around the city at night just so I can get little 2 second flashes of open-curtain peoples' living rooms and kitchens and the life that's happening in them. Great little film there.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 8:59 AM on February 13, 2020 [1 favorite]

I came across as too harsh in my comment. This is a fun little film and I enjoyed it and any friend of The National is a friend of mine but the other four nominees are all so good, especially Brotherhood.
posted by octothorpe at 9:12 AM on February 13, 2020

I though Hair Love was really sweet, but the ending felt a little flat - it didn't really tie into meeting the mom. My favorite of the animated shorts was Daughter (Dcera).

The Neighbors' Window felt a little too O. Henry-ish for me. My fiancé and I actually brought The Gift after watching it. The one I would have voted for is A Sister, which while a fairly simple story, was very well done.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 10:11 AM on February 13, 2020

how did you all watch Memorable? I'm considering paying to rent it on Vimeo.

Refinery29 has all the short films (live action, animation, documentary) nominated in this list along with where to watch them, if available.
posted by numaner at 12:23 PM on February 14, 2020

how did you all watch Memorable? I'm considering paying to rent it on Vimeo.

Saw it in the theater as part of the Oscar Shorts showing.
posted by octothorpe at 11:03 AM on February 15, 2020