Review of Stutterer (2015) by Michael D — 15 May 2016

The Oscar-nominated live action short that I loved the most but didn't expect to win because it wasn't "important" and topical enough. On the surface, it's a sweet love story about a man whose interior monologue is articulate and clever, but whose vocalized speech is hampered by stops and starts. He attempts online dating, memorizes and trains himself to recite famous quotations to his dad, and even learns sign language, but still feels too crippled by anxiety to meet his internet girlfriend in person.

The screenplay deftly captures the cacophonous swirl of words he wishes he could say, and I really enjoy his calming tactic of listing the letters of the alphabet. It's the clearest and most succinct of the films, but it's also the whitest (American production with British actors and setting) with the stigma of privilege that comes from seemingly low-stakes romantic comedy. Nevertheless, it did win, and perhaps it's not so dissimilar from the other films after all. It's about what gets lost in translation, and it depicts the struggle between the abled, the disabled, and perhaps the differently abled.