Everything Will Be Ok

When I first watched this, the rest of the trilogy had not been completed yet, so I viewed this short film just by itself. At first it seems to show the inner life of a rather strange stick-man with whom some of us can relate. Then it goes completely off the rails and shows that he has a serious brain disease that is making his reality completely fall apart. This becomes terrifying and very affecting. I did not know that it would lead to another two great installments but even by itself, this is a truly terrific piece of animation.

Life appears to be a nightmare. Bill, the stick figure character, goes through life, doing on mundane thing after another, redundant action being his pall. We are given a tour of his psyche and it is horrible. I'm convinced, as I've said before, that David Lynch portrays his own nightmares. But that's what is happening here as well. I really enjoyed this, but because of my age, it became a bit much for me. Crushing.

I shared with one of my children, a digital art affectionado, hoping that she finds inspiration and meaning

Hertzfeldt delivers a singularly disquieting and unflichingly powerful portrait of mental illness told in a bleak, surreal urban setting. This marks the first chapter of a trilogy, preceding I Am So Proud Of You (2008) and It's Such A Beautiful Day (2011).

We see introduced to our protagonist Bill, an ordinary man in the form of a stick figure leading an ostensibly mundane life with anecdotes told through constantly nonchalant narration, as increasingly disturbing hallucinations and dreams manifests and leads him down the spiral of madness.

This symphony of visual and auditory cacophony, Hertzfeldt's unique stylistic visuals paired with unsettling sound design, captures Bill's intense internal turmoil terrifyingly well. As they reach their boilling point, the nightmarish and incoherent assault both the eyes and ears.

As we think all hope is lost, the film pulls back and returns to its primary mood. Its resolution serves as a sort of reprieve while the soothing (albeit, intentionally, ever slightly discordant) music washes over you.

As the title of my review says, a remarkable, eye-opening trip to say the least. Masterfully executed start to a trilogy, the rest of which I'll be happy to experience if only I can find a copy of it somewhere.

Although this can be watched on YouTube for free, please give Don Hertzfeldt the money he deserves by buying the Blu-ray of his short films!

At 17 minutes, this is a long animated short and one that might bore a number of people, but it was strangely intriguing. Basically, it's just a narrator seen on screen as a stick figure talking about life as it passes him by, his thoughts and some of things that happen to him. It's hard to explain, because it's bizarre humor. As someone who appreciates the absurd, I laughed out loud a half-dozen times at some of the crazy "observations" the narrator made.

Our host, our main figure, has mental problems. Socially, he's a real loser but you root for him and even in monotone delivery, you hang on each word he says.....at least I did. Be warned, however: some of it is a little gross and once the narrator blatantly profanes. (This isn't something a kid would watch, anyway.) Visually, the artist varies from individual to multiple drawings on screen at once. You can literally see several of the man's thoughts at once as he thinks them. Most of the visuals are the stick-figure drawings but there are photos as well. You get a little bit of everything in this strange film.

I also thought the first half of this was far more entertaining and the story and words get darker and more depressing and disturbing as the animation short goes on. If you are familiar with the work of the author of this piece, you know how sick and demented this "movie" might be to many people.

This was included in the DVD, "The Animation Show, Vol. 3" and is very original, as the other entries are on this disc. It's also "not for all tastes."