Lantern to feature Oscar-nominated shorts

If you didn’t catch the Oscar-nominated Animated and Live-action Shorts that played briefly at AMC River Park Square, you might want to catch them beginning Friday when they open at the Magic Lantern .

My partners on “Movies 101,” the weekly show that Mary Pat Treuthart and Nathen Weinbender do for Spokane Public Radio, discussed the two programs on a recent show. (The second half of the show we discussed Clint Eastwood’s most recent feature “The 15:17 to Paris” ).

But if you don’t want to take the time to listen to 11 minutes or so of our discussion, check out the following comments from other critics:

Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: “The Oscar-nominated (animated) shorts may have smaller running times, but the themes tackled are often big.” (Note: The Animated program includes three films that did not make the final list of nominees but were added to fill out the program to a fuller running time.)

Glenn Kenny , New York Times: “The mastery of computer animation here is staggering.”

Ella Taylor , NPR: “This year’s crop of Academy Award-nominated live-action shorts — several of them made as newbie filmmakers’ calling cards — make up in earnest humanity for what they lack in technical sophistication.”