Shortlisted: God of Love

Finding love is tough when you’re a Brooklyn hipster. Everyone is just too cool, which is why Raymond Goodfellow needs a little divine intervention. Yet, even with help from upstairs, he still has trouble closing the sale in Luke Matheny’s God of Love, a Gold Medal winner at the 2010 Student Academy Awards currently on the Oscar shortlist for best narrative short film.

Raymond Goodfellow is an unusual double-threat: a crooner of standards and a highly-ranked competitive darts thrower. It certainly adds a unique dimension to his nightclub sets. Unfortunately, the chemistry with his band is a bit off. He is head-over-heels for his drummer, Kelly Moran, but she pines for Fozzie, Goodfellow’s best friend and guitarist. While the loyal Fozzie rebuffs her constant advances, Goodfellow offers up ardent prayers to a nondenominational God for help in winning her heart. Much to his surprise, they seem to have been answered in the form of a box of magic darts that render their target romantically vulnerable for six hours. Counting on Fozzie’s bemused help, Goodfellow plans to make the most of his window with Moran, but naturally complications ensue.

Witty and somewhat neurotic, Love clearly suggests the influence of Woody Allen, but writer-director Matheny shows wise restraint, never trying too hard. As Goodfellow, he also sounds rather agreeable on Irving Berlin’s “All By Myself.” Though not really a film about music per se, it definitely still feels in tune with a musician’s sensibilities.

Matheny is droll and sympathetic as the loveless, luckless Goodfellow, with Christopher Hirsh’s Fozzie nicely serving as his deadpan foil. As Angela, Goodfellow’s first guinea pig set-up to fall for his bass player, Broadway actress Emily Young also shows surprising versatility in a relatively small supporting role, all within the short’s mere nineteen minute running time.

Love is a fun film that looks great thanks to Bobby Webster’s stylish black-and-white cinematography. Deftly mixing sly humor with unabashed romanticism, it is an attention-grabbing calling card for Matheny. Oscar ballots are now in the process of being tabulated, but Love really ought to have a place on the final slate of nominees. Look for it to play as part of Academy showcases of nominated short films if it successfully makes the cut.

Shortlisted: Wish 143

Wish-granting charities mean well, but they can be awfully square. They keep offering to introduce David to a British footballer. He is about as interested as an American teen would be. As he makes perfectly clear, he would much rather meet a woman, preferably naked and willing. Unfortunately time is tragically short for the young man in Ian Barnes’ Wish 143, which has been shortlisted for Oscar consideration as best live action short narrative film.

Since the “wishman” is not likely to deliver, David gets the word out himself. He even makes the newspapers, generating some slightly scary propositions. The kindly Priest associated with the hospital hardly approves of such unchecked horniness, but he understands.

In all truth, Wish probably represents the most sympathetic portrayal of a priest on film this year. Jim Carter, poised to breakout in America for his work as Carson the butler on Downton Abbey, invests the good cleric with genuine warmth and humor. He also develops an easy chemistry with Samuel Peter Holland, who is admirably convincing as the young man confronting his mortality at an all too early age. Jodie Whittaker makes a strong impression as well, despite appearing late in the film in a rather sketchily developed part.

Director Barnes and screenwriter Tom Bidwell are veterans of British television, so Wish’s pat sentimentality is hardly surprising. Still, it is executed with a dignity that elevates it above standard Hallmark original movies.

Wish is a nice, harmless little short, featuring a deeply humane supporting turn from Carter. Considering how well it synchs up with Academy tastes, it may well find its way to the final Oscar ballot. Still, Eric D. Howell’s Ana’s Playground represents superior filmmaking in this category. If Wish successfully secures a nomination, look for it play as part of the Academy’s nominated short film showcases in the near future.

Docs on the Shortlist: Soundtrack for a Revolution

Eighty-nine feature-length documentaries originally qualified for Oscar consideration. The Academy’s Documentary Branch has since whittled the field down to a shortlist of fifteen, from which the final five nominees and eventually winner will be chosen. Not surprisingly, many of the shortlisted films address political subject matter from a perspective in-synch with Hollywood orthodoxy. This includes Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman’s Soundtrack for a Revolution (trailer here), a combination of oral history and musical tribute to the protest songs of the civil rights movement, which screens Saturday during the Docs on the Shortlist series at the Tribeca Cinemas.

While there are several interview segments with surviving veterans of the civil rights establishment, the bulk of the film consists of performances of the songs themselves, including both archival footage and new renditions performed by top contemporary recording artists. Often though, the artists are reverential to a fault. Their takes on the historic songs are so scrupulously faithful it is frequently hard to tell when the archival version ends and the contemporary performance begins.

It is always touchy criticizing such an achingly earnest film as Soundtrack. It is entirely likely that most viewers will take issue with this review. Indeed, this response may well simply be a product of the jazz aesthetic I have thoroughly absorbed that expects artists to constantly reinvent material to make it their own. This simply does not happen in Soundtrack, except to an extent with The Roots, who brought a distinctive flair to the film’s highlight, “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round,” thanks in large measure to their funkier instrumentation (which includes the sousaphone).

Granted, this is greatly a function of the nature of the songs themselves, which understandably resist adventurous interpretations. (Still, Ramsey Lewis’s decades old cover of “Wade in the Water” remains fresher in my mind than Angie Stone’s performance in the film.) This is truly intimidating material and each and every artist brought their A game. Yet, because most of these songs were written for the same purpose, there is often a marked similarity in tone and tempo that further blurs the program shortly after screening it. Of course, many who share the jazz ethos will still embrace the music of Revolution. After all, longtime supporters of the Jazz Foundation of America, Danny Glover, Jarrett Lilien, and Agnes Varis served as executive and associate producers of the film.

While the performances are truly heartfelt, they are not always served by the filmmakers’ editorial choices. In particularly, the overtly partisan use of the Obama inauguration as the film’s climax dilutes the power of the film's message. Revolution cries out to be called stirring and inspiring, but by playing it safe musically, it never truly takes flight. That really does not matter though, because the film is tailor made for Starbucks merchandising and PBS broadcasts. It screens at Tribeca this Saturday (1/9) as part of Docs on the Shortlist and later this month at BAM for a special free Martin Luther King Day presentation (1/18).

(Photo by Stephen Kazmierski)