Greetings again from the darkness. Every parent with young kids has been there. That feeling of exhaustion ... a sense of frustration and being beaten down. It's not about loving your kids, because you absolutely do. It's simply the nagging feeling that your own self is slipping away. Your "fun" self is giving way to someone in the mirror you don't recognize.

With two young kids and a third on the way, Alli (Maria Dizzia, MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE, 2011) and her husband Jacob (Greg Keller) epitomize the thirty-something couple described above. When a young couple moves in and proceeds to 'christen' their new apartment ... an apartment without curtains that is directly across the courtyard, Alli and Jacob come face-to-face with their reality. They are now adults whose 'wild' nights are fading memories.

Filmmaker Marshall Curry creates a believable and relatable situation - one that will have viewers either nodding affirmatively with how they react, or putting on some holier-than-thou huffiness trying to convince us they'd never stoop to this. The brilliant thing about Curry's film is that none of that matters. The point being made goes much deeper than peeping.

Hitchcock's REAR WINDOW is the most famous cinematic example of voyeurism, but in this one, Curry isn't trying to solve a crime or expose questionable behavior. Instead, he is displaying adulthood for us. It's a lesson in coveting the life of others. Most of the film takes place in an apartment, although there is a beautiful city lights shot when Alli steps onto the balcony. There is little surprise that this 20 minute short is Oscar nominated, since what begins with the bickering between two parents evolves into a life lesson most of us learn the hard way ... though perhaps not as hard as Curry's way.

It is just a great film. Because it translates, in wise manner, very simple and precise, fundamental truths. Because it is a splendid perspective about the other. Because it explore basic realities with gentle eye. Because it is just...human in profound sense. Short, a magnificent film about family, neighbor life and about what we see from the window ..

First off, this was the weakest Oscar short this year, so that likely contributes to my "meh" reaction to it.

This is just a movie about a middle-class couple with several kids living in an American city, longing for the child-free lifestyle exhibited by their neighbor. A naive story pulled from Diane Weipert (boy life sure is short! it took my neigbor's death to remind me of that!) with its ending changed by Marshall Curry (they never talked to their neighbor/the neighbor didn't know of the family's existence-- but sure, we'll make this about you),twisted into the silliest message we're all aware of: time short. embrace the now.

Duh.

No introspection about whether they should've had that many kids if they're that consistently miserable. No noticing that they have it pretty good if they're able to afford that place that close to the city. No thinking about how other people have their own problems all the time, even if they're not in front of you in full display like animals at a zoo.

So picture this whole story unfolding... ending... and then go into literally any of the other Oscar nominated movies that didn't win: maybe the true story about girls burning alive in an over-crowded orphanage run by abusive guards and dismissive government, or the one about the woman in an abusive relationship barely making it away with her life, or the father who accidentally reported his son to the authorities for thinking he'd joined ISIS.

And then remember that THIS uninspired, disconnected, naive sludge of a movie got the Oscar instead. Let's just be done with them already.