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Simply A Masterpiece

Instant Favorite.

Beautiful, moving film.

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

"A Single Life" is a 2.5-minute animated short film from 2 years ago that managed an Academy Award nomination. It was co-written and directed by Joris Oprins and it is a Dutch production. However, you don't have to worry about not understanding the dialog in this very short film as there isn't any. The only words are English and come from a record that the main and only character keeps playing. This record is some sort of a time machine for her. Unfortunately I must say that I was neither impressed by the animation nor by the contents of this little movie. The story is very repetitive and the new shades added throughout the film hardly offer anything new in terms of drama or comedy. Baffled to see this one really receive an Academy Award nomination. Not worth the watch. Thumbs down and I cannot say that it got me curious about Oprins' other works. i hope he can step things up in the next years and this film was not already his biggest achievement.

This film was nominated for the Academy Award for Animated Short. There will be mild spoilers here:It will take me longer to write this review than it took me to watch this short, which is roughly three minutes long. It's a cute, funny, clever and wicked short. It's like whipped cream on a dessert-tasty and light.The plot is that a young woman gets a 45 with a song on it. She puts it on her record player and accidentally discovers that the grooves on the record correspond to points on her lifeline.Unaware or unmindful of the admonition that it may be well for you to leave well enough alone when you know not the consequences of your actions (if you don't know what it does, don't mess with it) she starts playing with this, moving the needle around on the grooves and moves all up and down on the time-line of her life.It's done very cleverly and the ending is rather apt, I suppose. I'm not surprised by the nomination and I don't really have a problem with it in general, except that it was a very strong year for short animation, with a couple of shorts I feel are stronger than this and another of the nominees. Still, I'm glad they got recognition and I wish them luck.This short is available for download online and is well worth watching. Recommended.

"A Single Life" is the most enjoyable of the shorts by far. It's a weird story about a cutely animated girl whose record player acts much like a time machine--and she finds that she can travel back and forth in time with this machine. You'll really have to see this one for yourself to understand what I mean. However, at only 2 minutes in length, it's hard to imagine it taking the Oscar. Fortunately, the ending is quite dark and quite funny and I heard many in the audience laugh during this film. I think this Dutch film by Marieke Blaauw, Joris Oprins, Job Roggeveen has little chance to win, but it did make me laugh as well. I certainly would love to see more from these folks, as they have a real knack for CGI and humor.

A young woman finds a record and plays it on her phonograph. It skips -- and her life skips to that point in time.There's little to this Oscar-nominated short but those details -- other than a "Back to the Future" reference if you look very closely. Nonetheless and because of its short length -- it's three minutes if you include the credits -- its subtext warning the audience not to be too impatient, to be willing to enjoy the moment rather than skipping to the next, stands out. As does its wry humor.I doubt this will win the best animated short Oscar -- those usually go to something a bit more pompous. However, if you haven't seen this already, it's worth your time to look at.