Late Afternoon

Animated shorts have a tendency to be dominated by Disney/Pixar at awards seasons.

Late Afternoon is an Irish short. An elderly lady voiced by Fionnula Flanagan reminiscences through her life inspired by little moments such as dunking some biscuits into a cup of tea.

It looks like she might be moving home, a younger woman seems to be packing some possessions away.

As the old lady's memories progress she makes some important connections.

Slightly sentimental but sweet. There is a simplicity to the animation and the music.

It has some sweet moments but it took a while for me to wrap my head around the story. It's still a convoluted mess, though. Most of the memories are all over the place and some were even there for some cheap melodrama such as some random kids crying and other pointless things like venturing into unknowns such as caves and forests.

I understand the gist of the short and the whole fragmented memories that accompanies all of us but this is a story, it should follow a cohesive plot.

In conclusion, it should've been shorter.

An elderly woman has her memories triggered by a biscuit and cup of tea on a sunny later afternoon. This little animation is quite gentle in the way it deals with dementia, and it does tend a bit towards the sentimental, however it works surprisingly well. We see a few scenes from the woman's childhood and adulthood play out, and then it ends where we suspected it would. The animation is smooth and easy on the eye, and along with the music it does produce this gentle/sentimental tone. Watching it, I was looking for it to have a bit more of an edge, but by the end I knew I was wrong and trusting the film was the better way. The ending is pretty obvious in content, but the way it is delivered is really well done and gave me an emotional impact even as I was feeling a bit cynical and smug for knowing the end ahead of time. A gentle little film but worth seeing.

A tender, loving and absorbing film, which holds on to your attention until the very end. This animation hits the spot on every level and leaves you wondering about yourself as you follow the character swims into the ocean of memories and trying to grab onto one of them and explore it once more as she's putting puzzles together to arrive at anything, something or someone.

I cannot believe that this lost to Bao. It definitely deserved the Oscar.