Sunday, March 21, 2010

Plastic Bag and Other Stories



Proving that almost anything with the words Werner and Herzog in the synopsis probably gets my seal of approval, for your viewing pleasure comes this unbelievably beautiful short film 'Plastic Bag' by wunderkind director Ramin Bahrani.

I hold my hand up and admit that I haven't seen any of Bahrani's previous feature length efforts, Man Push Cart, Chop Shop or Goodbye Solo but all have been highly praised. Roger Ebert named Bahrani as 'Director of the Decade' for what it's worth.

Plastic Bag is that rare beauty, a short film that is perfectly suited to the short form. The film is kind of 'Wall-E' meets Herzog's own 'Lessons of Darkness' and is poetic, uplifting and timely all at the same time. It's social message touches on that black hole of human waste that no-one seems to want to dredge the 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' alluding to the issue without beating us over the head with it or resorting to any kind of environmental hyperbole or hysteria.

Plastic Bag is part of the recently launched Futurestates project, a series of short films by established and emerging directors that aims to 'present a different filmmakers vision of American society in the not too distant future, fusing an exploration of social issues with elements of speculative science fiction.' Check em out...

2 comments:

Niall O'Brien said...

Really reminds me of A.I. Nice short.

Ian Sheard said...

The next time I read a blog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as much as this one. I mean, I know it was my choice to read, but I actually thought youd have something interesting to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about something that you could fix if you werent too busy looking for attention.

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