Directed by: Don Hertzfeldt.
Written by: Don Hertzfeldt.
Starring: Winona Mae (Emily Prime), Julia Pott (Emily).
I’ve
seen Don Hertzfeldt’s World of Tomorrow about five times now – and I’ll
probably watch it quite a few more times until my Vimeo rental is up in a few
weeks. The film is only 17 minutes long – which is what allows it to be
endlessly rewatched – but it’s so densely packed that most features cannot
claim to anywhere near as complex as this film is. It’s a funny, sad, tragic,
intelligent, poignant animated sci-fi short, which mixes together primitive
stick figures drawings, with some rather complex digital animation. The film
looks great from start to finish, and Hertzfeldt doesn’t waste a second of his
time. Hertztfeldt has been doing his short animated films since the 1990s –
often to great acclaim (including an Oscar nomination) – and to a loyal, but
small audience. I only “discovered” him myself with his first, and only,
feature It’s Such a Beautiful Day (which is actually three previous shorts,
edited together, to get to the hour mark and qualify as a feature). That film
was unique, haunting, funny, sad and wonderful. World of Tomorrow is even
better. In short, it’s an animated masterwork.
I
don’t think I could spoil World of Tomorrow if I tried – it’s such a heady movie,
that takes surprising turns, and only reveals itself gradually, that even
knowing its secrets in no way diminishes the film (in fact, it enhances them –
as multiple viewings make clear). The film is basically about a young girl
named Emily, in our time, who is visited by a clone of herself from the future.
The two talk, the child basically not understanding anything her future clone
is telling her, and their conversation is at times funny, and at times
unbearably sad – as we gradually get to see the horrifying new reality that
humans live under in the future – and how even that is slowly coming to an end,
as the clones have glitches, and the world is on the brink of disaster. The
clone from the future has no real concept of what our reality was like – and
that makes her a tragic figure – someone who thinks they are living life to the
fullest, when in reality they have a pale imitation. The child has no clue, and
is just trying really hard to be happy and play.
World
of Tomorrow is in some ways an absurd film. The film takes several bizarre
turns, especially when detailing some of clone Emily’s companions over the
years, and the child Emily is constantly threatening to derail the conversation
with her non-sequiturs, that make no sense, unless of course you have a child,
and you realize that yes – this is precisely how they talk. They live in their
own little world.
I
realize now that I probably haven’t really done World of Tomorrow justice. It’s
almost impossible to. It’s such a bizarre, visually stunning and unique movie
that in reality, all you have to do is watch it and see for yourself. It’s
available on Vimeo right now (in Canada, $4.99 gets you a rental for a month –
and although that is the price of renting a feature most places, trust me it’s
worth every penny – and you’ll probably spend more time watching it over the
next month than you would a feature. I know I will). This is one of the best
short films in recent memory – a true masterwork, and one of the most unique
films of the year.
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