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Idiots and Angels
2009
Directed by Bill Plympton
2008 / USA / 80 minutes

SCREENINGS:
April 23/ 9:00p.m./ UNCSA-Babcock April 25/ 8:45 p.m./ UNCSA-Babcock



 
Bill Plympton is a prolific animator who has been making films for more than 20 years. From his early films like Your Face, Plympton has used sex, violence and gross-out humor to illicit visceral reactions from audiences. However, his films have also always had underlying messages, furtively hidden beneath the surface of his gritty, swirling pencil lines. His new film Idiots and Angels, takes these ideas even further, centering an entire film on a disgusting, unpleasant character who deals with the significant themes of redemption and resurrection due to unforeseeable challenges.

The film centers on Angel, a violent, abusive and wholly unlikable man, who spends his days in a dark and smoky bar frequented by three other unpleasant characters, the obnoxious bartender, his browbeaten wife and the aging floozy. When not at the bar, he is often found harassing anyone who happens to wrong him in any way. One morning, Angel awakes astonished to find he is growing wings. As if that weren't bad enough, the wings have a mind of their own and prevent Angel from doing anything cruel and instead help him to right wrongs.

Angels’ bloody, violent attempts to rid himself of the wings are unsuccessful and he eventually must learn to live with his new appendages. Plympton's use of religious themes works well to contradict and compliment the overall viciousness of the story. The film has no dialogue and therefore we watch as Angel goes through all of his hardships without ever once hearing him say a word, which is all the more dramatic and uncomfortable. His movements and actions are grotesquely, yet realistically portrayed by the hand of Plympton and the harsh, dark nature of his animation lends an even greater effect to the story. While Angel is not a character we would want to befriend, his life, as conceived by Plympton, is superbly fascinating to watch.


The animated short STYX AND STONES will play before all screenings of IDIOTS AND ANGELS.





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