You may inform that the Overlook’s organizer have already cultivated a receptive viewers for his or her programming given how engaged and targeted theatergoers’ questions have been after every screening. Folks have been actually excited to search out out extra about no matter they only noticed, together with a particular screening of “Me,” Don Hertzfeldt’s trippy, unsettling 23-minute lengthy musical. Most individuals within the viewers have been already aware of Hertzfeldt and his idiosyncratic fashion: earlier than the film performed, competition programmer Landon Zakheim joked that the 4 individuals who have been unfamiliar with Hertzfeldt’s work have been in for an actual deal with.
“Me” nonetheless feels very very like its personal factor, regardless of some similarities to Herzfeldt’s earlier work. It’s a largely dialogue-free science-fiction saga about expertise, household, and self-absorption, and it follows cranky-looking potato-shaped stick determine individuals who spend manner an excessive amount of time killing one another and/or gazing techno-mediated pictures of themselves. “Me” is unusual and enchanting, the right alternative for a one-afternoon-only competition screening.
After the screening, Hertzfeldt entertained questions from keen followers. He joked that we have been the fourth viewers to see his new brief, which isn’t fairly #1 and even #2, however nonetheless has some form of attraction. Hertzfeldt additionally offered some welcome insights concerning the making of “Me” which fortunately by no means defined away its distinctive mixture of nightmarish imagery and silver-lined optimism. It was thrilling to hearken to Hertzfeldt discuss delicate musical influences, like Klaus Nomi and the “JFK” soundtrack. He additionally spoke with guarded pleasure about his subsequent mission, an Ari-Aster-produced animated horror film (Hertzfeldt’s function debut). That screening of “Me” felt like an occasion, not as a result of we solely thought we knew what to anticipate, however as a result of that film and the Overlook normally have been clearly designed with the curious in thoughts, and never simply pre-initiated cultists.
Arising: “Useless Mail,” “Infested,” and different Overlook Movie Competition highlights.
