Oddsac

Animal Collective's streak of brilliant but divisive work continues; from a musical standpoint ODDSAC is fantastic. They've been working on the film since 2006, and, unsurprisingly, the music is reminiscent of their albums Feels (2005) and Strawberry Jam (2007). For a band so set on changing their style between albums it's nice to see them revisit a less electronic, more unhinged sound. The songs here rank with their best work from that period (And yes, despite the film format there are definite songs, many of the sequences contain singing and lyrics. For all intents and purposes this is a new Animal Collective album.).

It is easy to see why it would be badly received by film critics. ODDSAC is described on the box as a 'visual album' and it works best if you treat it as such. There is no overall plot, but the styles of the different chapters create a thematic whole. Think schlocky b-movie forest psychedelia paint splattered light show.

But would an Animal Collective film have worked with a more cohesive plot or direction? There has always been an abstract streak to their music, a sense of playful weirdness. In that respect, as a fan of the band, it only adds to the experience. The visuals complement and reflect the music well where a less abstract film format might have distracted from it. So, if you're familiar with the band then go for it. You'll be used to the initial sense of confusion and will appreciate the new music. If you're approaching this as someone new to Animal Collective, then, no offense, but you probably wont get it.

Rarely does a new filmmaker have a built-in audience. An audience so rabid yet loyal, they would venture to a venue teeming with puffy coats, Uggs, and D-list celebrity to see a project connected to one of, as the purple-velvet-sport-coated announcer put it last night, "the hottest" bands today. Yes, I'm talking about the Sundance Film Festival.

Director Danny Perez lucked out. As a roadie for the Black Dice, an oft favorite opener for the aforementioned "hot" Animal Collective, he became friends with the Collective and together embarked on a four-year long process of collaboration to create ODDSAC. Luck seems to cut both ways: Perez pairing with Animal Collective clearly got his first film a world premiere at Sundance, but when not backed by the sometimes brilliant soundtrack created by the band, the movie comes off as a disjointed film school project.

The movie opened with a young woman pacing a room with fire dancers visibly outside the window, she is then occupied by black tar oozing out of a crack in the wall of the room. Perez should have saved this montage for the end, since it was the strongest and most beautiful of the film and it proved to be a tough act to follow.

Unfortunately, it was all down hill from there. Heavily influenced by Matthew Barney of the Cremaster Cycle, the audience was forced into a disjointed journey that included a sad vampire, marshmallows eating a family, a food fight with a glittered man (straight from the Barney play book), and a midnight canoe ride, to mention a few. The bright points in the film were strictly auditory. The first line from Panda Bear's honeyed voice had audience members unclenching their armrests and settling back in their seats to listen to why he wishes he "wouldn't feel so drained, if he could only keep his hands away." Beautiful and pared down, this song was an oasis of calm after what seemed like an eternity of stylized TV snow and feedback.

It was clear who had filled the seats of Prospector Square Theatre. The Q and A was directed mostly at Deacon, the Geologist, and Avey Tare (Panda Bear was sadly absent), while Danny Perez nervously swayed side-to-side. Questions about the collaborative process, where the band would be playing after the screening, and favorite films dominated over technical questions regarding ODDSAC. When one audience member directed a question at Perez in regards to the editing process and what tools he used, he answered candidly that you need, "...black curtains to block out the light and your girlfriend...leaves for the day and you spend five hours on YouTube..." Bless this lucky schmuck's heart.

A part of me realizes that Danny Perez didn't expect his film to be graced by a world premiere at Sundance. This film would have fit better at Tromadance or Slamdance. Had the film been cut into shorts and peddled as music videos, it would have been easier to handle. Understanding that when this process began, Animal Collective had yet to create their more accessible albums Strawberry Jam and Merriweather Post Pavilion. This seems a better explanation for the "tweaked," less "songy" soundtrack, as explained by Avey Tare.

When questioned about the meaning or plot of the film, Perez wanted to "leave it to you" to figure out what it means. I think he may not have known, either.

-Wren Wangrud http://goldteef.blogspot.com/2010/01/oddsacat-sundance.html

Let me first off lead by saying I am (or perhaps was) a rabid animal collective fan. I've seen them perform live before, and am familiar with their entire discography. This movie does little to provide an extra dimension to the animal collective 'experience' (and no, sadly, drugs don't seem to help much either) The visual experience of this movie is headache inducing, and it just keeps coming. Watching this, you quickly wonder how it became a full length movie project. Lots of quick cuts between disjointed scenes come together over heavy layers of visual effects and editing create a narrative that is impossible to follow. There are long stretches of this movie which play out similar to a winamp visualizer. There's never any attempt to explain the purpose of the visuals, and therein lies the conundrum of oddsac. The narrative isn't compelling enough to add up to anything, and the visuals simply aren't interesting enough to occupy a viewer for the running time.

As for the music, I'm lukewarm about it. It's a continuation of the musical direction taken with merriweather, which wasn't my favorite but there seem to be many who disagree with me. There's a whole lot of geologist tweaking knobs in this soundtrack, creating music that would sound more at home on warp than anything else animal collective has ever released. It's less pop-infused than merriweather however, more suited for a background situation than being blasted at a party. If you like that artistic direction, you won't be disappointed with the music of Oddsac.

My advice would be to simply close your eyes when this starts playing, or find a soundtrack later on if you're an animal collective fan. The visuals distract from any value that the soundtrack creates.