BoksBalet (2020) User Reviews

Sweet

[Neon_Gold · 8/10 · 11 February 2022]

I loved this, i like how it played with being completely opposite but also how people are not just 1 thing there can be duality.

The story was simple but so sweet and I an always impressed when you can fall for characters when it is a movie with no dialogue.

The score was also really well done. It once again played with hard and soft. It just worked.

Fresh, imaginative, funny

[patronusquill · 8/10 · 16 January 2022]

Fragility and strength come face to face again in this short film to show that opposites attract... or do they repel? A little of both maybe, or a little of neither, a little coincidence and almost none of the typical fairy tale reverie.

In Boxballet there is a well-told story, interesting and tense in parts, which never forgets the juxtaposition and constant comparison of opposites. His style seems to pay homage to the silent cinema of exponents such as Chaplin and Keaton and adds current humor and the usual problems in which power is offered through fraud and degradation, especially powerful men abusing their power. All this while also balancing the political context of the dissolution of the USSR and its inevitable connection to Swan Lake.

The heroes of our short film are not, therefore, as opposed to each other as the title and the initial premise suggest: they are both faced with a moral choice, and their lives depend on that choice; they both want to follow their dreams, and for one reason or another they are prevented from achieving them; both are at the mercy of their political situation and will face the consequences sooner or later.

The plot weight of Boxballet goes beyond a love story. It implies sacrifice, dedication, devotion, bravery and even a little madness.

Certainly very different, but also very watchable

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 17 March 2022]

"Boxballet" is a Russian animated short from 2021, so still relatively new and fresh. The director and writer of these 15 minutes was Anton Dyakov and he has been working on short films for over a decade now, so this one here managing the Oscar nomination is quite a success for sure. Good for him. Russia has had some success in the animated short film category in the past and I think you never know what happens with this category, so he can win, even if I don't think this film is very likely to take the trophy. What could help it is that most other nominees are American, pretty much all even if we count Middle/South America as well. I wonder which role the current political climate plays and if it results in some voting for or against this film. I hope not. Art must be judged without politics changing anything. I am already glad it was not disqualified because of that. Anyway, this quarter of an hour was really a prime example of how a film can get so much better as it goes on. I was not won over at all at the start, then started liking it in the middle and towards the end I really enjoyed it and was curious about what would happen next. Surely, the moments when he brought flowers for her, when he saved her cat (cats have a hard time this year in animated short, always antagonists) and just courted her in general in his own slightly clumsy ways were nice to watch somehow.

How the ballerina and he are indirectly holding hands in the end was also interesting. The insanity of the other boxer there was so strange. I still wondered why she changed her mind. I initially did not expect her to enter her teacher's car, but she did (maybe because she thought the boxer was not god enough for her with how he behaved) and out of nowhere a little later still decided the brute is who she really wants. Not the ballet master. Perfect example also of a film that would not work the other way around in terms of gender roles. If the guy picked the "wrong" girl initially, we would have to see him as a fool who does not deserve the female protagonist, but here no such thoughts against the ballerina. You know it's true. Don't deny. Think about it. So yeah, I liked this film, a lot in the end even and shortly also thought about giving more than six stars out of ten, but now 60% seems accurate. I would definitely be happy if this takes home the Oscar, even if I doubt it somehow. But we will see. In general, animated short has seen better years where I would put this one in third or fourth maybe. Instead it's pretty much in a shared first position for me here together with the Aardman production. In any case, go watch this one. It's really worth seeing and I am curious what Dyakov maybe comes up with if he moves on to full feature film territory at some point. Oh and by the way, there is no spoken Russian language in here, which maybe also helped the film in getting the Oscar nomination, so you can watch it and no need for subtitles. Just two or three words maybe, like the one from the boxing coach after the male protagonist proves that fairness is important to him. That's all now. See it.

very good but very niche cartoon

[shmailmail · 10/10 · 28 March 2022]

Downright classic, but only those who grew up on Soviet cartoons can understand this, and to say that this cartoon was not given an Oscar because of political considerations is more like a joke when a stutterer was not taken as an announcer on the central radio because he was a Jew, I repeat this very much good but very niche cartoon.