The Side Effects of Endorphins

We usually make a trip to see this every year and this year was no different. This year had five excellent movies and I liked them all . I am also a big fan of short stories. So the opening film was a favorite if mine.

The Singers

Ivan Turgenev’s “The Singers” (1852), from A Sportsman’s Sketches, depicts a dramatic, informal singing contest in a rural Russian pub. An unnamed narrator witnesses a competition between a flashy, technical “contractor” and a soulful local, Yashka, whose moving performance unites the drunken, downtrodden audience.

On The Big Screen

I didn’t know this movie existed. When I saw the title in the previews I was intrigued. It did not disappoint. The opening scene is a smoky bar scene with mumbled talking through cigarette smoke.

True to Turgenev’s story through most of the movie, the departure is in the music.

The music is an integral part of the movie. The movie is all of eighteen minutes long and there is so much there . None of these songs were around when this story took place. That doesn’t matter.

Davis, who previously produced, shot, and edited the Academy Award–winning short Period. End of Sentence., first encountered Turgenev’s story as part of George Saunders’s masterclass compendium A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, but it wasn’t until he scrolled upon a viral video of New York City subway busker Mike Young belting out the Righteous Brothers’ “Unchained Melody” to an indifferent crowd that the idea for his film truly clicked into focus. 

https://www.netflix.com/tudum/authors/troy-pozirekides

This was a similar experience to mine. This was an extraordinary 18 minutes of cinema.

Others nominated.

2026 Oscar Nominated Short Films

• Live Action:
  • Butcher’s Stain (Israel)
  • A Friend of Dorothy (UK)
  • Jane Austen’s Period Drama (US)
  • The Singers (US)
  • Two People Exchanging Saliva (France)

Two People Exchanging Saliva was the most bizarre of the five, Butchers Stain, the most intense and currently relevant. Dorothy is a feel good tribute to aging with a gay sub theme. It is also a tribute to lost art of listening. Jane Austen’s Period Drama is hilarious and clever and serves as a perfect movie to close out the night.

Disclaimer- I am not a movie critic. I never watch block busters and have not been to a non art house theater in years. The Kiggins theatre is a great place to see a movie.