It's Such a Beautiful Day

There's no disputing Don Hertzfeldt's genius, but the unrelenting drone of his deadpan narration flattens the charm of his humble stick-figure animations. More importantly, his misanthropic perspective on life is so relentlessly black that you'll need a dose of "Mary Poppins" afterwards to regain your equilibrium. Not a guy whom I would be eager to meet. More impressive is his ability to layer multiple images (both animated and otherwise) for hallucinatory effect. Some scenes have almost a Stan Brakhage-like appeal, as terminally ill protagonist Bill (his one distinguishing trait: a simple hat) free-associates about death and past traumas. The Flixster/Rotten Tomatoes pages for this film are somewhat confused -- there are two Hertzfeldt works with this title. One is a 23-minute short and one is an expanded feature that's three times longer.