Everything Will Be Ok

Hertzfeldt delivers a singularly disquieting and unflichingly powerful portrait of mental illness told in a bleak, surreal urban setting. This marks the first chapter of a trilogy, preceding I Am So Proud Of You (2008) and It's Such A Beautiful Day (2011).

We see introduced to our protagonist Bill, an ordinary man in the form of a stick figure leading an ostensibly mundane life with anecdotes told through constantly nonchalant narration, as increasingly disturbing hallucinations and dreams manifests and leads him down the spiral of madness.

This symphony of visual and auditory cacophony, Hertzfeldt's unique stylistic visuals paired with unsettling sound design, captures Bill's intense internal turmoil terrifyingly well. As they reach their boilling point, the nightmarish and incoherent assault both the eyes and ears.

As we think all hope is lost, the film pulls back and returns to its primary mood. Its resolution serves as a sort of reprieve while the soothing (albeit, intentionally, ever slightly discordant) music washes over you.

As the title of my review says, a remarkable, eye-opening trip to say the least. Masterfully executed start to a trilogy, the rest of which I'll be happy to experience if only I can find a copy of it somewhere.

Although this can be watched on YouTube for free, please give Don Hertzfeldt the money he deserves by buying the Blu-ray of his short films!

Life appears to be a nightmare. Bill, the stick figure character, goes through life, doing on mundane thing after another, redundant action being his pall. We are given a tour of his psyche and it is horrible. I'm convinced, as I've said before, that David Lynch portrays his own nightmares. But that's what is happening here as well. I really enjoyed this, but because of my age, it became a bit much for me. Crushing.

This film was included in THE ANIMATION SHOW VOLUME THREE--a compilation of short films arranged by Don Hertzfeldt and Mike Judge. Overall, this is a very impressive DVD--and much of it is due to CITY PARADISE.

Even for Don Hertzfeldt, this is a super-strange short film!! While it is not funny like the films you find on Volume One, it is so incredibly creative and bizarre that it's also quite compelling.

EVERYTHING IS O.K. is a surreal stream of consciousness which features the usual Hertzfeldt stick men drawings. However, instead of violence (which we love) in this film, it's more about a guy who's going crazy. He's either got schizophrenia or a brain tumor (more likely) and you see through the course of this film as he looses his mind. What I particularly liked was his use of multiple screens to show how this sick man perceives the world. Some may find it all quite funny--I just found it strangely compelling.

When I first watched this, the rest of the trilogy had not been completed yet, so I viewed this short film just by itself. At first it seems to show the inner life of a rather strange stick-man with whom some of us can relate. Then it goes completely off the rails and shows that he has a serious brain disease that is making his reality completely fall apart. This becomes terrifying and very affecting. I did not know that it would lead to another two great installments but even by itself, this is a truly terrific piece of animation.

I shared with one of my children, a digital art affectionado, hoping that she finds inspiration and meaning