Saw The Spine of Night (2021), a rotoscoped animated film in the spirit of Heavy Metal or something by Ralph Bakshi. It opens with a naked woman walking up a mountainside, her breasts swinging as she slogs through the snow, so you know this isn't a cartoon for children. It's set in a vaguely medieval fantasy world with barbarians and men in cloaks and so one. The plot follows a power struggle kicked off by a mysterious blue flower which is capable of all sorts of magic: healing, visions, fireballs, etc. It's an unusual movie and a fairly solid bit of escapism. It's pretty hammy but is also the passion-project of a small handful of people, so points for that.
The film felt a lot like an animated sequence from a video game. The acting is broad and loud. Evil people all whine through their noses and do the Kubrick stare thing. Good characters are similarly one-dimensional and sometimes seem to be unaware of their surroundings due to either voice or pacing problems, all of this adds to the general feel of videogamish unreality. It's also incredibly violent. People are beheaded, disemboweled, and straight-up bisected constantly. After the first fifteen minutes or so however, I was able to accept that I was not watching high art and was able to enjoy myself much more.
The film is very self-indulgent but it's also a lot of campy fun. Characters say things like "Be careful. I can smell the rotting pages of your books, scholar. They will do little good when the crows come to pluck the eyes from your skull. Doom comes to the pantheon. Doom comes to Pyre! Doom! Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Doom! Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Dooooom!" Like oh my god I can't help but enjoy this. It's very goofy, but with a sort of synthwave over-seriousness that winks at the audience. There's also some absolutely lovely matte paintings to look at. All in all not a bad film. Not very serious but still a bunch of fun.
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