Nevada

Greetings again from the darkness. No, this has nothing to do with gambling, legalized prostitution, or stifling heat ... although things do get pretty steamy between the sheets for Zoe and Eli. Stop-motion animation from Emily Ann Hoffman is used to its full and unflinching extent in this little story of a situation that likely occurs more often than we'd care to think about.

Their romantic B&B getaway comes to a screeching halt when they experience a birth control mishap. After a straight-forward conversation, a quick trip to the local drug store results in the purchase of Plan B, an emergency contraceptive. The initial anxiety gives way to further intimacy as the drug's timeframe is taken into consideration.

Zoe (voiced by Chet Siegel) and Eli (Jonathan Randell Silver) are pleasant and normal enough. We all likely know folks just like them. As the couple maneuvers the real world decisions required of the situation, filmmaker Hoffman never backs away from how an actual couple might (and probably has) reacted. With some comedic touches - including an overly sexy voiceover by Ronald Alexander Peet - the film deftly and effectively presents real people in a real pickle ... well, as real as stop-motion animation can be!

A young couple have a romantic weekend away, but find it derailed a little by a birth control mishap. What follows is a weekend of dealing with that, while also joking around with what might have been. The result is a nicely played short where the actors have a nice mix of jokey remoteness, but with just enough reality in there to give it a slight edge. The natural way between them helps this, and neither Silver or Siegel feel like they are really acting more than they are chatting. The animation has a roughness to it that may jar with those for whom Wallace & Gromit are their only exposure to stopmotion; but the rough edges do fit with the approach and the material. Within that though it has many nice designs and features (the emptiness of some shots for example) which work well. I would have liked a bit less nudity, as I found it distracting - were it life action it would not have been the case, so it felt a bit like the film was making a point because it could.

Overall, it doesn't have great built or tension, but it is nicely natural throughout, and engages via that.