olympicator

Let's get the obvious out of the way - this was made on a very low budget, no big stars, not the greatest photography. Get over it.

Leonore is an aspiring writer who has trouble finishing her stories, and one night while trying to finish one she sees a man outside her house. Or thinks she does. She calls the police and an officer come to help.

The story is about an alien invasion. However, like the movie "Another Earth" with Brit Marling, Leonore's story uses an alien invasion as a backdrop to tell a much more personal story, about a young woman who does not fit in. And we gradually see why Leonore felt the need to tell this story.

Why can't people sleep? In Leonore's case, it is anxiety, and she can only get through it by writing about it. She has difficulty trusting people, and it shows in her story's plot twists.

"I Can't Sleep" is a movie about turning your pain into something productive, and to stop feeling ashamed of your vulnerabilities.

This is a series of short films featuring toys that come to life and do silly things while in the back of cars. The main character is Travis, a monster-ish thing with an uncanny resemblance to Domo-Kun. He has suction cups on his hands that he can use to climb the window, and he has a dog named Constantine. His friends in other cars include a Goth doll named Kawaii, a robot named MC Speaker, a Panda named Panda 8, and three wrestlers known collectively as The Vandross.

Travis acquires items such as a paddleball, a TV, a boat, a yo-yo, a toy car with race tracks, and experiments with them. I don't know where these things come from, and I don't care. There's no speaking, no plot, hardly any lesson or point to it. It borrows elements from Toy Story, and like I said Travis feels like a copy of Domo - bit torso with no head, big mouth but never speaks, monstrous yet adorable, super curious about things.

It's the kind of show we could all use once in a while. It doesn't try to be any more than it is, and I think it actually manages to be a lot more pleasant and imaginative than some of the other cartoons we get these days (i.e. The Angry Birds Movie). I am very glad they made this show.