the audience applauded

The first must-see film of the year.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Three words to describe Adam Elliot's (master of clay animation) 22 min and 7 sec film Harvie Krumpet: sardonic and poignant. This Academy Award winning short film follows the title character, a naïve but optimistic Polish who ends up in Australia, and his unlucky life. That is an understatement; he gets struck by lightning, has his testicle removed, is plagued by Tourette's Syndrome, just to name a few. But one single phrase (Carpe diem) causes him to embrace life despite his unfortunate circumstances (hooray for nudist colonies and chickens!). Crafted in both a humorous and distressing manner – you will laugh one moment then sink back into depression out of sympathy for Harvie – and superbly narrated by Geoffrey Rush, this film will make you smile and want to lead a better life. After all, if Harvie Krumpet can do it, you can too.

Fakt: This is a work that matches its ambitions. It successfully takes on the task of using the most whimsical of mediums to ask the most difficult question: "Does life really matter?" Of course, that question is the knockout punch. You won't see it coming until you're punch-drunk from its sarcastic jabs about the absurdity of existence. Its humor definitely stays close the the pain that gives it power. Some may be offended by its disdainful, even disrespectful treatment of Christianity. Harvie Krumpet finds his answer to the question elsewhere. But, by making a point of mocking Christianity, this film invites not scorn, but a rebuttal work of equal artistic grade (a tall order). All-in-all this film accomplishes more in twenty minutes than most can in two hours. Not bad.

To be quite frank, I expected Destino to win the Oscar and was surprised and a bit disappointed on hearing that another short had won instead. Until I finally saw Harvie Krumpet the other day. Here there be mild Spoilers.Harvie Krumpet is both funny and frightening, sometimes at the same time. A modern-day version of Job (Job would probably look at Harvie's life and shudder), Harvie goes through a life that is tedious and tragic, all the while collecting "fakts" that are interspersed as graphics throughout the short.There are sight gags aplenty here. You'll never look at a pair of false teeth in quite the same way after you watch this. Given that this is set from the 1920s through the 1980s, some of the references are topical and somewhat dated and I'm sure there are in-jokes and references that anyone more familiar with Australia would get that I missed, but I found this extremely engaging and well worth my time. Though there are a couple of nominees I haven't seen yet, I think that this one probably won the Oscar walking away, deserved to and certainly is no disgrace to the Academy in having done so. Happily it is currently in print. Most highly recommended.

I actually went to the same school as the creator Adam Elliot, about ten years below him though but still noticed the interesting Aussie subtleties of this film, i.e. the bus stations. I loved Harvie Krumpet, like I loved his other films, plus I got meet first hand the people who influenced his life, I meet him when he did a speech at my school. He was a true gentlemen and another interesting fact, he went to school with Jamie Blanks, Director of Urban Legend. I definitely recommend HK, even if you're not Aussie, and it was deserving of the Oscar, lets cut though the American crap for once.Best Wishes Brett~R.I.P~Ben Bourke