The Oscar-Nominated Live Action Shorts: 2013

From worst to best:

Run & Jump

In Steph Green's Irish import "Run & Jump," Vanetia Casey (Maxine Peake) brings her husband Conor (Edward Macliam - now there's a UK name) home from the hospital after an unexpected stroke from which he will never fully recover.

If You Build It

"Wordplay" director Patrick Creadon's new documentary "If You Build It" concerns business and life partners Emily Pilloton and Matt Miller, who bring their community-based design ethic to the high school in Windsor, the seat of rural Bertie County, North Carolina's poorest.

Like Father, Like Son

Director Hirokazu Koreeda, who bored us with "After Life" (1998) and "I Wish" (2012), returns with "Like Father, Like Son," which is if nothing else at least twice as good as the 1987 Dudley Moore-Kirk Cameron comedy of the same name.

Gloria

Sebastián Lelio's "Gloria" takes place in Santiago, where Gloria (Paulina Garcia in a great performance), a divorcee of 58, looks for new love through her endearingly oversized glasses.

Ride Along

Two stars is overly generous for the Kevin Hart-Ice Cube cop comedy “Ride Along,” but it’s so much more enjoyable than “G.B.F.” or “The Rocket,” I can’t squeeze them into the same star rating.

The Rocket

I’m floored by the 100% fresh Rotten Tomatoes score for Kim Mordaunt's “The Rocket,” an egregious example of the critical bias in favor of foreign films.