I don’t always search out short films, I have a hard enough time keeping up with the full length features, but once in a while, something comes up that encourages a search. That was the case last week when IGN ran a news story that Ari Sandel, the director of last year’s Academy Award winning live action short film West Bank Story, has signed on to direct an upcoming comedy for Fox Atomic.
I wasn’t all that interested in the announcement of Sandel’s new project but the story did kick off a search for his award winning short film and nearly an hour later, I was watching one of the funniest things I’ve seen this year; a year that sported some pretty funny comedies.
It’s a musical complete with Disney-like singing and dance numbers that look like they’ve just come out of a classic Hollywood musical (I kept getting flashbacks to Singing in the Rain). It’s also a comedy that makes use of every conceivable stereotype while not being offensive – it’s a bit too sweet for that.
If you’re curious to see the greatness that is West Bank Story, I suggest you put aside 20 minutes and prepare yourself to laugh out loud. Check out the film after the jump.
I gotta be honest, I saw all five of the Oscar nominated live-action shorts at a special screening last year. I was less than impressed with any of them. I saw about 10 shorts at TAD that were better than all of these. The one exception being the short film that should’ve won that I thought had some really cool shots towards the end that were super innovative:
Binta and the Great Idea – can’t seem to find the movie with English subs.
West Bank Story was amusing, but not academy award winning. I’ve just been bitter the last couple days. Sorry.
That’s alright, you can continue to be bitter but I loved every second of this short. It had me in hysterics, even the third time I saw it.
me too. i laughed the fourth time i saw it. maybe or maybe not academy (who cares) but certainly sundance.