the animation show (2003) – 5 stars

click that link. if it’s playing in a town you live in or can drive to, for god’s sake pay the 8 bucks to see this. not just because they’re working really hard to get it distributed to a wide audience so people can actually see some award-winning and amazing animation that never gets shown in front of wide audiences otherwise. not just because i think you should support the project of someone i have a specific love toward and i want to see this do well so that it happens yearly as they hope it will. see it because it’s great. visually it ranges from 3-d computer animation to cartoony animation to pencil-drawn pieces and claymation, and i don’t think there was a single piece among them i didn’t love watching. check out the lineup, and i can personally vouch that each one of those pieces was excellent. and i can vouch for the fact that there were several others not on that list that were all pleasant surprises too. of course, i especially enjoyed the 3 pieces (yes, three! all on a big screen! that alone should convince you!) from hertzfeldt, even though i’d seen one of them dozens of times already, but overall it was really just a great time. if you don’t live in one of those towns on that list (which i’m sure you’ve already checked), they said in the Q & A afterward it would likely be released on dvd eventually as well.

ps: seeing the two guys in person at the special LA opener was awfully cool, and although you won’t get to see that, the film alone is still plenty worth your time.

and some recent netflix rentals…

hedwig and the angry inch – 3 stars

although the music was at times surprisingly great, and there were some hilarious moments, i don’t know if it was quite my brand of film. i don’t mean this disparagingly at all, but it was pretty gay. i liked it overall but just don’t feel very strongly about it as worthy of a repeat viewing, though i would recommend it for a first time to others.

the good girl – 3 stars

similarly, a decent movie to see once that gets some solid laughs — my favorite character was the bitter and bitchy young coworker cheryl whom i had a big crush on from her first few seconds of screen time — but had what i thought was a very unsatisfying ending. i know it was supposed to, life is unsatisfying, blah blah blah . . . but screw you, i want fantasy dammit.

the man who wasn’t there – 4 stars

as my quest to catch up on my recently-declared-favorites the coen brothers continues, this lived up pretty well. the dialogue didn’t crackle as much as some of their other films, but that’s what happens when you have an unaffected camusian main character who just doesn’t talk much. but the black and white cinematography was excellent, and even though the movie was about as monotone as the narration, the lack of highs and lows did not keep me from enjoying the whole thing.