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A magical road trip film shot entirely on 16mm. The journey the characters take rushes through the screen and right into the viewer, allowing them to take it as well. You are not only experiencing a visually gripping film, but also an emotionally captivating one. Through a mix of storytelling and character portrayal, writer-director Brian Tetsuro Ivie allows audiences to feel themselves flow through wavelengths of emotion in such a short period of time.
At its SXSW Film Festival premiere, Anima.
Beck (Sydney Chandler), an anti-social engineer, has just been let go from her job at a robotic companion start-up. She next finds herself working at a company which preserves people’s consciousness inside the digital cloud system. Her first task is to drive the company’s most valuable client, Paul (Takehiro Hira), to his final appointment. As a lonely button manufacturer, Paul has a list of tasks he must complete before his final procedure. As Beck takes Paul to complete his list, the two learn a lot about each other and life. A journey that forever changes the way they see the world.
Anima: Sydney Chandler and Takehiro Hira Deliver Career-Best Performances
Rarely does it feel like you can find a film lately, that fully brings you on the same journey the characters take. When Anima begins, both Beck and Paul, and even this futuristic world they live in, are unknown to the viewer. But within the 90-minute runtime, it feels as if you are given the chance to understand them as people. Anima brings memory, love and the inevitability of death out of the shadows. Slowly introducing the audience to Beck and Paul as people allows for more time to understand the intensity of their decisions and ultimately life choices.
Love is the underlying theme in Anima and it can truly take the viewer awhile to understand this. It is in no way detrimental to the viewing of the film itself. Mostly with the viewer, relying on how much they can interpret what Beck and Paul experience, the film can unfold differently depending on the person. In my viewing experience, I began to understand how they both needed each other to get through this one period of their life. Beck, to be able to step past her previous job and get out of a rut, and Paul to be okay with the thought of death. Through their friendship, and yes platonic love that they develop on this one car trip, they both can move on in their own ways with their lives.
Anima might take place in a time period where technologies exist that do not yet exist in our world today. Yet all the occurrences are still so relatable. We all wish we could live forever. Maybe not through all the terror and hardship there is in the world, but mainly so we can live to accomplish all that we so desire. Sadly, the fact of the matter is there is never enough time. Seeing Paul, and yes Beck understand that you cannot live to do everything, is just another way that Ivie reminds his audience that death is coming and you cannot truly preserve yourself.
Beyond the love itself, comes the craftsmanship of cinema. Choosing to shoot in 16mm, even with a digital viewing, the beauty can be seen within the art form. In such a tender story, it only feels right to have that roughness from the film itself to be overlaying the characters. We as the viewer are fully transported through the medium into the time and experience what these characters go through. Inserting ourselves into the film itself gives us a new opportunity to try and understand why they make the decisions they make, as well as feel the emotions they feel within each moment.
The way in which Anima is presented feels somewhat familiar, like you could pinpoint another film that it reminds you of. Yet you cannot name it. Perhaps it is the cast that remind you of something or the plot itself, but you may never know. Somehow, though you recognize it, Anima is most definitely a fresh and new film. Ivie has created such simple yet compelling characters presented to his audience in such a way that you cannot help but connect with them. We may not have the existential feelings Beck and Paul experience, yet the universality of it is there.
In such a calm, soft, romantic, and subtle way, Ivie takes his audience on a journey of cinematography and character in Anima. With two stellar lead performances, a touching plot, and idyllic cinematography, as the viewer you cannot help but connect with all elements of the film.
Grade: B
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Anima
A young woman and an old man embark on a road trip to preserve his consciousness at an experimental facility.
