The Hollerings: Three Stories in Wood

I'll call this an animation but it is hard to really define it as such because aside from a clock or the occasional unseen light source, very little actually moves here. The film delivers three stories – a child mulling over his fighting parents, a woman returning home to her husband and a man in a hotel far from home but, as the title suggests, the characters are all blocks of wood shaped vaguely like figures but with no specific features. If it sounds like an odd idea it is but somehow it works. It is a novelty in the approach but it is quite interesting to see the static figures with each story mostly told in one or two takes or camera angles.

What makes it work is that the narration that tells us the story is not only really well written but also well delivered. The dialogue has a laconic drollness which adds color to the general malaise and ordinariness of the wooden characters; the words have a nice flow to them and feel like a well written novel in their construction and choice of phrasing. To add to this, the delivery from co-writer and co-director Ellmaker is really good, his accent and his pacing really sets the tone for the whole film and the seriousness and literary style contrasts nicely with the static, featureless wooden figures making a nicely absurd short film. An odd one for sure, but worth a look.