Shameless Plugs...in the Third Dimension...

Again, just 'cause only giving you links to junk that I wrote (see below) is pure lame.



Context: These three shorts, totalling at 7 1/2 minutes, were Don Hertzfeldt's opening, intermission and farewell segments for the first installment of The Animation Show, the cartoon cavalcade organized by Hertzfeldt and Mike Judge. Now that the stick figure maven's gone slightly serious (if astonishingly so) with The Meaning of Life, I'm wondering if this fits into some kind of middle period in his ouevre. Like Billy's Balloon and Rejected, each one follows a simple trajectory, with a series of non-sequiturs that pile up, eventually giving way to an implosion surprising in its genuine menace. Say what you will about the (intentional) crudeness of Hertzfeldt's style -- even Ward Kimball wouldn't be able to top the otherworldliness of the second short's 3-D-glasses-aided trip sequence. Also, to paraphrase Larry the Cable Guy And Health Inspector: I don't care who you are, robot-cloud battles are fawesome.

As promised: PLUGS!! In this week's Weekly, you'll find me all over an Editor's Pick (second down) on a Secret Cinema fundraiser that lugs out a pristine IB Technicolor print of the Elvis-Elsa Lanchester pic Easy Come, Easy Go, a review (at the bottom) of François Ozon's Time to Leave, and, as ever, Rep, where I briefly attempt to explain the awesomeness of Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain.