Sunday 19 May
 
 

The Last Stand

Early in The Last Stand, the small-town sheriff played by Arnold Schwarzenegger says, "It's my day off. Should be a quiet weekend." That's the new way of saying, "I've got one week to retirement," because it signals — with flashing neon and everything — that life is going to royally upend those plans.
05/17/2013 | Comments 0

Texas Chainsaw

One of the most inconsistent franchises in movie history is the one beget by Tobe Hooper's 1974 classic, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. How does one follow all those less-than-beloved sequels? Lionsgate's latest in the series — the seventh — has a solution: Ignore 'em.
05/17/2013 | Comments 0

Captain America: Collector’s Edition

Not long after Batman changed Hollywood in the summer of 1989, every studio wanted to have the next comics-based blockbuster. I remember visiting Penn Square Mall’s multiplex (as I did often back then) and seeing a poster for Captain America. The one-sheet was comprised of little more than a close-up of Cap’s iconic shield and a promise to arrive next summer.
05/16/2013 | Comments 0

Dark Circles

With the Broken Lizard comedy troupe becoming increasingly broken, member Paul Soter has branched off to write and direct something about as far away as one can get from the likes of Super Troopers and Beerfest: a horror film. Now that I've seen it, I'm thinking maybe he should stay on his own.
05/16/2013 | Comments 0

Die! Die! My Darling!

File 1965's Die! Die! My Darling! under that now-dead subgenre dubbed "Grande Dame Guignol." The Hammer Films production may lack the dueling duo of two twilight-era titans of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and the others, but truth be told, Tallulah Bankhead is fierce enough to provide all the fire it needs.
05/14/2013 | Comments 0
Home · Articles · Movies · Drama · Idiots & Angels
Drama

Idiots & Angels


Clipped wings

Rod Lott January 25th, 2011  

Animator Bill Plympton’s “Idiots & Angels” is not what you’d think, for several reasons.

First, it’s not a short, but at 78 minutes, his first feature since 2004. Second, it’s decidedly darker than his usual terrain. Third ... well, in the opening scene, what looks like the main character’s morning wood rustling under the covers is actually an alarm clock. (The end scene? That’s another story.)

The film plays 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, along with Plympton’s latest short, “The Cow Who Wanted to Be a Hamburger,” a colorful, five-minute piece that looks more like the work of Gary Larson than Plympton.

But back to “Idiots”: Free of dialogue, its unconventional, oft-frustrating story concerns a man who becomes a literal angel, although his behavior is more devilish.

For example, he drinks heavily at his neighborhood bar, to the point where he molests a woman who works there. Once his wings make their surprise sprouting, he wants nothing to do with them.

But when cutting them off just makes them grow back, he gives them a spin, allowing for activities like spying on nude sunbathers. Yeah, he gets shot at a lot.

With its scenes of sex and violence, neither too graphic, it’s definitely not for kids. Plympton has a distinct style recognizable to many who’ve never seen his work in motion; hand-drawn rather than created by computer, “Idiots” should be seen by those more interested in the sheer craftsmanship behind the flighty, freaky events that may not sit well with mainstream tastes. In storytelling terms, it would work infinitely better at a fraction of its length.

 
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