| USA, 2008, 78 min Directed by BILL PLYMPTON |
The world is a blue, gray, drab one. Any color that represents life, from a yellow butterfly to the terrible red of spilled blood, becomes that much more vivid for the relentless gray of reality. At home in this world is a vicious, abusive businessman who bullies and boozes his way around until the day he sprouts wings--huge, angelic, graceful wings. But he doesn't like them. Doesn't want them. Tries to do awful things with them. When fate has singled you out for grace, however, it's really difficult to keep being a bastard. This guy puts up a helluva fight. Two-time Oscar nominee Bill Plympton has been enlivening the Florida Film Festival for years with his vibrant animation and signature edge. In his latest feature-length project, Plympton's raw, gyrating style and pinpoint characterizations (you know these people the second you see them) are the perfect medium to show the human predicament in all its sadness, absurdity and glory. It's a twisted tale of redemption . . . and what happens when you try to off the angel within.
