It's Such a Beautiful Day (2012)

IMDb plot summary: Bill struggles to put together his shattered psyche, in this new feature film version of Don Hertzfeldt's animated short film trilogy.

Directed by Don Hertzfeldt. Stars Don Hertzfeldt and Sara Cushman.

It's Such a Beautiful Day is a short experimental animated film following a stick figure character named Bill as he goes about his life dealing with some sort of unexplained neurological symptoms that cause seizures and memory loss, among other things. This is truly a fascinating film that does some very unique things, not only in its simplistic visuals, but also in the way that it chooses to tell the story of this character, with an omniscient narrator telling Bill's story from a third person perspective, rather than giving dialogue to individual characters. Its unique format hit me on a strange emotional level. I found it deeply unsettling, to the point that I think I maybe had a mini panic attack during the movie. Given that, it's a little bit hard for me to evaluate this on any kind of objective level, at least not without a little bit more distance between me and the film. It's certainly very effective at putting the pieces together to evoke an emotional response and provoke deep thought and questions about life and death and purpose. I did find the shaky camera focus on the animations to be a little tough on my eyes over the course of an hour, but fortunately it is only an hour so it was workable. This is definitely one that should be seen, but it's going to be a while before I can articulate exactly why or what about it was so powerful.

How it entered my Flickchart:

It's Such a Beautiful Day (2011)

beat Be Kind Rewind (#2000 → #2002)

lost to Widows' Peak (#998 → #999)

beat Hook, Line and Sinker (#1498 → #1514)

beat Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (#1247 → #1262)

lost to A Midsummer Night's Dream (#1122 → #773)

beat Suspicion (#1184 → #1185)

beat Whip It (#1153 → #1159)

beat The Railway Man (#1137 → #1211)

beat It (#1129 → #1137)

beat The Last Seduction (#1125 → #1128)

beat Gone Girl (#1123 → #1126)

📊 Ranked #774/4005 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 81