Everything Will Be Okay (2015)

Perfectly adorable

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

Alles wird gut (2015) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Divorced father Michael (Simon Schwarz) picks up his daughter Lea (Julia Pointner) just like he does every other weekend. It starts off as a fun time as the two visit a toy store but soon the daughter begins to realize that this day isn't like the normal visitations.ALLES WIRD GUT is the German short that received a Best Short nomination and it's a pretty powerful film even though I thought it ran a tad bit long at 30 minutes. There's no doubt that director Patrick Vollrath did an excellent job at keeping the viewer in the dark for the first ten minutes before revealing the twist of what was really happening. Another major strong point are the two performances with both Schwarz and Pointner doing excellent work. I thought Pointner was extremely believable as the confused daughter who soon realizes what her father's intentions are.

This was my favorite film out of the five Oscar shorts (almost tied with "Day One"). I'll start by saying it's comparison with the "Room" is obvious.It was intense, darling and flawlessly made. No plot holes or questions. Nothing done in bad taste and while the ending was dramatic (and daring) the story wasn't all in all horrible (like Room). No one almost died and no one was rapped (like in the movie Room) however the intensity and story style was matched.Perhaps the short format is better for a story like this and if Room had been a short, is would have been better but again I mentioned that this film lacked the distasteful subject matter that Room did.

This German language film is shot mostly from the viewpoint of the young girl, a child of about 7. Her parents are apparently divorced and her father has come to take her for the weekend. She's happy to see him and they seem to have a good relationship. However, through the course of their time together, it slowly becomes apparent that he's not telling her everything...and he appears to be abducting her to keep her mother from having custody of her. It takes a while for the girl to understand this, though eventually the horror of her situation sets in.This was the second depressing short of the show. Considering it's about kidnapping, it couldn't help but be depressing and your heart really starts pounding towards the big finale. I doubt if this one will win but it is well made. The biggest strike against it is that a lot of viewers might be a bit disappointed because so much about the story seems missing and it leaves you wanting to know more. But on the other hand, the little girl in the film was brilliant...absolutely amazing in her ability to act and act convincingly. I'd really love to see what this young lady is doing in films in the future.I'll make sure to update you as to whether or not this film ends up winning the Oscar for Best Live-Action Short.UPDATE: "Stutterer" took the Oscar for Best Live Action Short.

Greetings again from the darkness. Dramatic short films are challenged with generating an ultra-quick connection with viewers. German director Patrick Vollrath begins the film by showing a man anxiously pacing and buzzing the gate bell outside a suburban home. Our instincts that tell us he must be in some kind of trouble fade a bit when an 8 year old girl runs into his arms exclaiming "Daddy!" Lea (newcomer Julia Pointer) clearly loves her father, and we quickly figure out this must be the scheduled every other weekend visit resulting from a recent divorce. Lea's excitement is palpable as they stop off at a toy store where her dad tells her she can pick out any two items she wants. A simple gesture that's probably repeated thousands of times each weekend, re-ignites the instincts we felt in the opening scene. Some "little" hints confirm our suspicion as the two hurriedly rush to an appointment at a government office and then on to the airport.Simon Schwarz plays Michael Baumgartner, the dad who transitions from anxious to warm/loving to purely desperate. His performance, and that of young Ms. Pointer, are realistic and so spot on that we as viewers are sympathetic to both. It's an exceptionally tense and dramatic half-hour reminding us that in a broken family, it's rarely the case that "everything will be okay", and sometimes things escalate into a literal tug-of-war that is heart-breaking. This is expert work from a filmmaker that understands the magic of short films, and it's little wonder the film has been so well received at AFI, Cannes and numerous other festivals.