Strictly average movie

Masterful Movie

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

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

Californian Academy Award nominee Don Hertzfeldt wrote, directed and narrated this 16-minute movie 10 years ago when he was around 30. It's maybe his fastest movie, especially in the first half where Hertzfeldt is constantly speaking pretty much without a break. It's absolutely spot-on , down to the smallest detail. The references he mentions may seem random at first, but if you think about it, it all makes sense. Unfortunately, you will miss the next three sentences if you think about it, so this film definitely deserves more than one watch. I have to say, going only by the first half I may have rated this a 10. The second half is inferior, but it's still pretty good. I guess after watching this, it's safe for me to say that Hertzfeldt is my favorite animation director right now and I am totally looking forward to his next films. I hope there will be many more to come and I am positive that he could also come up with a truly awesome live action movie as he has proved on so many occasions in his short films that he possesses great perception about the human soul. His animation style is very unique. But there is also a raw truth to his films, an approach that I have not seen in anybody else's work. Apart from that, Hertzfeldt of course also has an amazing voice as a narrator. Everything will be okay, but this film will be just great if you decide to watch it what I hope you will because otherwise you are truly missing out. Highly recommended.

This is one of the most amazing films ever. It grabs you quickly by using Hertzfeld's charming (and disarming) stick-figure style, makes you laugh at (protagonist) Bill's simple social flubs, that progress into something much darker and more real. More important and desperate.If you or a close loved one have ever thought you might be going mad, it will certainly touch raw nerves, drawing you into Bill's confusion, helplessness, feelings of inadequacy and depression. No small feat for stick figures. I am someone who gets totally absorbed in movies and must admit I was moved to tears at more than one viewing (I was fortunate enough to see this on a large screen at two separate film festivals and finally ordered my own copy from Bitterfilms.com, the only source for DVD's of the film).In my defense I was not alone, I paid special attention to listen to other patrons. It was amazing to watch a whole theater so quickly laughing and then to be moved just as quickly to sympathy by what are in essence line drawings. I struggle to think of another animator who can so readily evoke such feelings. Perhaps Adam Benjmin Eliot's black & white claymation comes close.Those familiar with Hertzfeldt's earlier work might notice a similar emotional pattern to "Meaning of Life" in it's building intensity that rises to a deafening, maddening din, only to take a long silent reflective pause towards the end, before returning to the original story. Much like the musical structure of many classical operas.Likewise it shares "Meaning"'s use of many beautiful "in-camera" effects to awe inspiring ends. By various method of folding, crumbling, burning, staining and otherwise distressing the paper that the animations are being produced on, Bill's whole world is shown to crumble around him, both in his reality and ours.I don't think there is one frame of this that isn't completely enjoyable. The editing keeps us constantly looking to another area of the screen to catch up, and I don't think there's one shot where we see the entire screen filled with one image, further showing the frantic thoughts of our hero.For some reason one of the images that sticks with me is what (I imagine) is footage of rain on a black garbage bag. Another is of an rubber pig, hand puppet filmed out of focus.Fans of animation will like this easily, but I've already made new fans of other friends who are are almost film snobs and normally wouldn't choose to watch what they call, with a noticeably condescending tone, "Cartoons".I can't wait to see what Hertzfeld does next

The banal life of a young man is represented by stick figures and described by a monotonous narrator. We hear about his moments of awkward social behavior, the silly ideas that occur to him, his goofy thoughts about death and dying; the stick figures and the narration make the banality funny. The audience laughs.Then the one-joke premise overstays its welcome. We're waiting for this thing to end, barely aware that the writer and director Don Herzfeldt, through his narrator, is sneaking in some disturbing items on the list of banalities. It hits most of us that something is seriously wrong when the young man notices a trickle of urine sliding down his pants leg. Is he sick? It turns out he is, both mentally and physically; and it seems he may die. We see, and hear about, the reactions of his mother and uncle. They buy a casket for him. He loses control of his mind.I found this animated short about illness and madness very moving. I know how I feel about it, but what did I think of it? Did Herzfeldt intend to make a short that initially appears to us as a one-gag cartoon? Whether he intended it or not, was this a mistake? Did it add to or subtract from our reaction to the second half? Did Herzfeldt intend to amuse us, then bore us, then frighten us, then sadden us? Is telling a serious story with stick figures a kind of joke? Or were the stick figures the most effective way of telling the story? Or both?In asking these questions, I think I've come up with my own answers. I think Herzfeldt intended the effects he got, and I think they were good ideas. This film is highly recommended.