"God of Love" is an English-language short film from 5 years ago. It runs for almost 20 minutes, is black-and-white and I applaud Luke Matheny for what he did here in terms of writing, directing and acting. I do not often completely agree with the Academy, but I believe they got it right when they handed him the Live Action Short Film Oscar. Hilarious acceptance speech by the way. Check it out. Matheny has great recognition value due to his physical appearance and that elevated the film as well. I am really glad to see his recent success with the television show "Maron". I have not seen it (yet), but it sounds a bit like "Louie" to me. I hope Matheny can step into full feature films at some point too. I would certainly watch it.Now, about "God of Love": First of all, do not be misguided by the pretentious-sounding title. This film is everything but pretentious. It's simple, funny (very tongue-in-cheek) and creative and the title reference comes from the very last quote of the main character and it's not really meant seriously. Also the choir at the end is really just for comedic purposes. The story is as simply as effective. A guy (Matheny) loves a girl. She, however, loves his best friend. And his best friend won't date her because it would be wrong to hurt his friend like that. Quite a mess. Then, Matheny's character one day finds a dart with which he can get people to fall in love with each other, sadly only for 6 hours. After that, the two have to have made a real connection so that the love stays, even if the effect from the dart wears off. He tries it on a friend and it works. The two stay together. Sadly, things do not go that well with himself and the girl of his dreams. So what should he do? There were a handful hilarious references and scenes in here, like the diabetes part or the scene where all the girls are following our hero. I very much enjoyed watching these 19 minutes. Give it a chance, you will not regret it. One last thing I forgot, there is also nice singing in here.

This short won the Academy Award for Live Action Short. There will be spoilers ahead: This short is about a band with an unusual twist. The lead singer croons while he throws darts and does trick shots. He's also part of a love triangle, where he's in love with the drummer, who in turn is in love with the guitarist, who is the singer's best friend.The singer, Goodfellow (interesting name, that) prays for help in winning the young lady's affections. He would have done well to recall the old Chinese curse, "May you get everything you wish for". Goodfellow gets a very special box of darts from the Olympus Foundation (one of the nice touches in this short.Goodfellow, oblivious as well as obnoxious, makes life interesting for quite a few people as he pursues what he wants regardless of the consequences, until he has an epiphany.The end of this short is beautiful and Goodfellow makes some very funny and on point observations during the voice-over at the end of the short. This is available on DVD and Blu-Ray as part of a compilation of Oscar winning live action and animated shorts from Shorts International and the DVD is well worth buying. Recommended.

A dopey jazz singer is in love with a female band member who doesn't return his affections. God, or something else, provides him with magic love darts that make whoever they prick interested in the first person he or she sees for six hours. Dopey singer tries to make his crush fall for him, but her affections always wear off. Finally, he gives up and sets her up with a guy she likes. Maybe love will find him one day? I sure hope not. The movie is needlessly shot in black and white and has very sexist overtones. We aren't given any reason for this guy to get a girlfriend other than his desire for one. A bland indie "comedy" is lurking in this concept.Not Recommended

So, somebody tell me, is Luke Matheny actually making all those incredible bulls's eyes with his dart-throwing?? It sure looks like it. That's pretty amazing if he is! The film is kind of like the guy's random talents all in a nutshell: jazz crooning, dart-throwing, Scrabble-playing...and I suppose he probably plays the accordion, too. What a riot!Endearing film. Has a relaxed, jazzy pace, the black-and-white works great, every actor has an interesting face no matter how minor, Sasha Gordon's score perfectly cues the impending schemes, the onset of love susceptibility, the low-key developments. Matheny has a great eye and charming imagination. And culture, thank heaven.Check out his earlier short, "Earano", which can be seen on NYU's website. Somehow Matheny's work manages a kind of innocent idealism and decency that I thought was dead nowadays. Looking forward to seeing his feature film(s).