I just saw this in a collection of the Oscar nominated shorts this year. While I thought the live action ones were excellent (all of them), it was the animated segment that had me mixed. Some were decent, but others not so much. This one is so conflicting on me that I just have to say something about it. For an animated short it looks excellent, and seems quite reminiscent of a graphic novel. The style and execution of such here is brilliant. The story is also decent, and so is the choice of music.
On the other hand, the execution of anything other than the visuals and music is iffy. The story is one that I believe would make for a good feature-length film, given the right director and screenwriter... but, being 30 minutes only serves to limit how this story can be told, and it cripples it in my opinion.
The story is completely narrated from the first person, as with the animation style. This wouldn't be so bad if a) it worked with the story being presented and b) the short wasn't half an hour long. Surprise! It doesn't work with the story too well and this is the longest animated short of the bunch. The issue with this decision is that it's not as investing as a story like this SHOULD be. It's one with ups and downs, a realistic setting, and the potential for great characters, but all of that feels wasted the 45th time I heard the name 'Techno' narrated to me, an audience member.
My point is: as far as the Oscar shorts for this year, this one is easily the most risqué (I mean, it did give us a fair warning before it played, and it deserved it more than last year), with probably some of the best 2 dimensional animation I've seen in a while... but, given the fact that it's short, it FALLS short on what more it could do brilliantly. For some this will be moving, for me, it just felt like it moved all over the place, way more than it should, and that's a real shame.