The Quinta’s Ghost is an animated horror short that dramatizes the twilight years of Francisco Goya, as he paints his Black Paintings in his house, the Quinta del Sordo (House of the Deaf Man). In a novel twist, the story is narrated from the point of view of the Quinta itself, responding to what Goya paints on its walls. The short, done in computer animation, brings the demons and other nightmarish imagery of Goya’s work to life, incorporating state-of-the-art techniques such as VR painting. It’s a hellish depiction of an artist suffering through grief, madness, and issues of identity.

Chile has had some top-notch adult animation, especially in the horror genre, but Petra and the Sun is better filed under morbid humor, and it was an especially effective example of it too. In the Andes, 71-year-old Petra lives a lonely life until hotter-than-usual weather reveals the frozen body of a century-old mountaineer. Petra takes the body home, thaws it, and spends some uncomfortably in-depth quality time with his preserved corpse…the disappearance of which the police are aware of. Despite its premise, this was one of the funniest films they showed, though it’s definitely not for the squeamish. I felt that the ending could’ve been handled better, but overall, this one I really enjoyed. This short also won a Special Jury Mention.

How is River is Born was definitely one of the more mature shorts in the set. A woman has a sensual experience with what appears to be a nature goddess, but ultimately ends up being something less yet significantly more. This one’s pretty simple in terms of story, and is mostly carried by the beautiful animation.

Ovary-Acting is a comedy short about a 34-year-old woman who is pressured by her family and motherly friends to have children. As the stress gets to her, she unexpectedly gives birth her talking ovaries, leading to a musical argument about the pros and cons of motherhood. The animation style, which uses knit puppets with 2D-animated mouths, brings to mind something out of an R-rated version of KaBlam! This was definitely a fun one to watch, and it has a great sense of humor and heart to it.

Still Moving follows a divorced mother having a stressful car ride with her daughter as they head to their new home. The strength of this short is in the animation, which is probably one of the best depictions of anxiety I’ve seen in recent memory. It’s really experimental, though it definitely seems to be the main focus of the short over the story.

A Night at the Rest Area is an anime short in which a group of anthropomorphic animals on a bus stop at a rest area. There’s really not much to say about this one in terms of story. However, what it lacks in plot it makes up for with gentle yet effective comedy about everyday life. There’s a real appreciation of the mundane, where even the jingle playing as the nearby vending machine heats up your meal is given focus. Obviously, the use of animals adds to a lot of the humor, and the sketchy character designs are great. One of my favorite jokes in this involves a convenience store employee who is anything but convenient, and the punchline being obvious doesn’t make it any less funny (or relatable). This one doesn’t have much but in a way it also has a lot.

The Piano is a hand-drawn short in which a young girl discovers her father playing the piano late at night, creating a bond that lasts into adulthood. The animation is amazing, the music is beautiful, and the ending will warm your heart, if not open the tear ducts. It’s another short with a simple idea done extremely well.

As mentioned before, Best Animated Short went to Playing God, which I definitely feel could’ve fit into either of the shorts programs. This also qualifies it for the Oscars, and I guess I’ll find out if it gets nominated (though the short that won Sundance might be tough competition). Hopefully I’ll get to see it at some point, but overall, the 14 shorts I saw (if we’re only counting the competition) were for the most part highly enjoyable and I loved a lot of the styles used.

Tribeca, while certainly a star-studded affair, typically features films that don’t receive as much of the prestige attention awarded to the output of festivals like Sundance or Cannes. I’m come to accept that, but there are occasionally exceptions. There are always animated shorts, but year’s event comes off of a major achievement for the festival, in that the film awarded Best Animated Short last year, In the Shadow of the Cypress, eventually found it’s way to the stage at this year’s Academy Awards after winning for Best Animated Short there as well. (I don’t think that Tribeca was the reason for the short getting Oscar-qualified, but it was one of them.) Clearly motivated by this, Tribeca programmers not only featured the biggest short film selection yet, but an animated shorts program twice as large as previous years. Not one, but two programs of shorts were needed to fill the space of the selections this year, split into family-friendly and adult-oriented sets. Yet as I learned, that apparently still wasn’t enough. This year’s Best Animated Short winner went to Playing God, a short that was in competition but not included in the two shorts programs and put in the Midnight-themed shorts instead. Unfortunately, I was unable to see it, though I did hear good things. (I do believe that Playing God could’ve easily been included in the shorts blocks, but that’s another tangent.) Anyway, here are the short films that I did get to see, starting with the family-friendly offerings:

Linie 12 follows a conductor on a surreal train journey, whose rhythmic precision is interrupted by the arrival of a chaotic musician. I liked the scruffy linework in this a lot and the imagery in this is absolutely beautiful at times.

From Aardman Academy comes Awaiting the Lightning Bolt. Told in stop motion, an inventor tries multiple times to capture lightning, but his comic attempts hide a more heartwarming purpose. This one’s short, sweet, and really funny.

Actor Kate Siegel is mainly known for her work in horror. The short she directed, Lily, is a more family friendly take on the genre, even with the fact that it was written by Stephen King. Told in scratchy, Edward Gorey-esque pencil art, a young boy needs to go to the bathroom but is embarrassed in front of the class by his sadistic teacher. When he finally gets there, he makes a frightening discovery. I absolutely loved the animation for this, and the story is really fun.

Captain Zero: Into the Abyss Part II follows a superhero who, after losing a battle against a villain, finds himself on the receiving end of social media backlash and the taunts of a depression demon (expertly voiced by Keith David), ultimately finding himself in therapy. The anime-styled animation is superb, and I always enjoy genre fiction about mental health. It’s pretty clear this is intended to be a pilot for a series of sorts (in addition to being the second installment, it ends on a cliffhanger), and I hope the filmmaker finds the means of making more. Another thing I liked was his use of worn VHS as a visual aesthetic.

Ostrich takes an avian look at social media body image. A pudgy bird goes through extreme measures to be like the ostrich pop star plastered over the media. I liked the art style for this, which felt like something out of Adult Swim, and while the ending was pretty obvious the punchline was genuinely funny.

Tigre is, according to the festival site, “the animated story of a friend’s grandfather, a refugee from Laos, living in Thailand,” and “a narrative full of uncertainty and curiosity, where a young man who goes deep into the jungle without understanding that not everything is as it seems.” I liked the animation style, which is seemingly modeled after shadow puppetry, but to be honest I genuinely had no idea what was going on in this short. Maybe I needed more context.

Finally, the environmental-themed short Snow Bear follows a lonely polar bear who, unable to find others like him, builds a snowbear to spend time with. Unfortunately, it can’t stay cold forever. The short is directed by Aaron Blaise, a veteran animator who did the character animation for the Beast in Beauty and the Beast and directed Brother Bear among working in other Disney projects, so it’s no surprise that this has the best animation of the entire set. What is surprising is that Aaron apparently animated this himself, while still looking like the professional-grade work he did for the House of Mouse. (I asked him how long it took to make the film after, and he said three years, which is still less than I expected.) This was a beautiful short that will warm your heart.

In my next article, I’ll spotlight the adult animated offerings at the festival.

The Hollywood idea of “fake it till you make it” is taken to horrifying extremes in the new documentary Bad Actor: A Hollywood Ponzi Scheme. It’s a true-crime documentary that should be of interest to film aficionados like myself who follow the industry and pay attention to its many wheelings and dealings. As a movie, it’s fairly standard in execution, but does have a few added twists that not only enhance the central themes, but also may leave you thinking long after the film ends.

Perhaps if you frequent the dark corners of film libraries that I do, you may have heard of or even seen a film starring Zach Avery (whose real name is Zachary Horowitz), an aspiring actor whose output never really rose above the D-list, which raises the question of how he ended up in some of these movies in the first place. However, his film career hid a ponzi scheme of massive proportions. Roping in his friends and others though a web of lies and deceit, he had them invest in his enterprise to buy the rights to independent films through his company, 1inMM (One in a Million) Productions, and sell them to Netflix and HBO. Everything seemed legit. Documentation was provided. Contracts had been made. The films were certainly real. Yet, it eventually became apparent that they were the only things real about any of this, and by the time the scheme fell apart, it was worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

As a true crime documentary, it makes an effort to stand out from the typical talking-head-and-re-enactment fare. Since getting Avery to be in the movie was a borderline impossibility, the filmmakers obviously had to resort to re-enactments, but the process of casting them is a part of the film itself. As the main theme of this movie is the slippery nature of truth, the experience of actors getting inside the head of someone who used their talent for acting for nefarious purposes is an interesting detail that elevates this. Granted, Avery’s talent for acting applies solely to his crimes. The footage of Avery’s filmography makes it obvious why he never made it legitimately. However, the archival footage of Zach doing interviews is chilling in just how believable he is even as he’s lying through his teeth. There’s seemingly not much that sets him apart from any other aspiring actor talking about their potential big break.

There’s a lot of details to this story I won’t spoil, and the filmmakers do a decent job putting everything together. As someone with a pretty extensive knowledge of film, The extent of Avery’s criminal enterprise did shock me, as his influence spreads to more legitimate projects than I anticipated. This is a story of a top-shelf fraudster, and a number of the reveals of how he pulled some of this off I legitimately did not see coming. In addition to the re-enactments and footage of Avery’s career, the filmmakers incorporate heavy use of famous film clips to get their points across, but I did think they used this device a bit too much at times. I feel like this story will definitely appeal more primarily to film buffs compared to a lot of other true crime fare. As a film buff myself, though, i was pretty stunned for the whole thing.

Despite seeming like a pretty standard movie structurally, there is one last trick the film has up its sleeve before the credits roll. I won’t reveal what it is, but it’ll make you question everything you just watched, and give you pause on the nature of documentary filmmaking in general. Overall, I’d say that if you’re into movies, it’s worth a watch. It’s the tale of a despicable yet fascinating actor that, while devastating, is certainly thought-provoking.

Side note: In an unexpectedly niche example of industry competition, shortly before the film’s premiere at Tribeca Film Festival, Amazon MGM Studios announced their own documentary on this story, Hollywood Ending. Whether Neon’s or Amazon’s documentary ends up being superior is yet to be seen, and it could just be a total coincidence that the announcement was made when it was. It’s not like competing documentaries on the same topic is a regular occurrence, but it does happen. Regardless, I saw this one first, and maybe I’ll review the other one when it comes out.

The animated shorts program returned to Tribeca this year, which as always was curated and hosted by Whoopi Goldberg. The shorts varied from the sweet to the devastating, from thought-provoking to utterly bizarre. The Mayfly was by Sue Perroto (an alum of several Cartoon Network shows) and featured a mayfly who, in her short day of life, breaks off from her family to pursue her own path in music. The animation is adorable and the film is sweet and sad, but I can’t say too much aside from that. Nate & John is about the long form friendship between a barber and his customer over decades. It’s a beautiful and touching story that ends on a note that will melt your heart. In LUKi and the Lights, LUKi is a robot whose joints are powered by lightbulbs. Don’t be fooled by the cute art style—this is easily the most devastating short of the set. One day, LUKi’s lights start shorting out, and a trip to the doctor reveals he has ALS. What brought me to tears more than the premise was the reveal that the creator of this short has ALS and made it so that his kids could understand what their father was going through. It was easily one of my favorite shorts of the set.

Another short that rose above the rest was In the Shadow of the Cypress. Made in Iran, it’s about a father with PTSD who is struggling to be a good parent to his daughter in their house by the sea. The use of animation in this film is utterly superb, with a lot of surrealist elements to complement the grounded storyline. I felt like it may have been a bit too abstract in execution, but it was still one of the better selections. It also won the award for Best Animated Short at the festival, which puts it on track for the Oscar race. Scrubby tried to evoke the feelings of a children’s book, and it accomplished that, but not much else. It’s about an adorable furry creature who wants to live in his mother’s fur forever, but it starts to fall out. There’s not much here, to be honest, and was one of the weakest shorts for me. In Budō, a widow finds a pair of shoes given to her by her husband, and while going for a walk, takes home a hungry stray cat. I thought this would be another sweet story, but I was wrong. This is actually the most bonkers short film of the bunch, and ended up being a total laugh riot by the end. I honestly don’t wanna say too much about this one, as it’s that good. Finally, Ruthless Blade is an action short about a white tiger fighting its archenemy…or is it? This one had the best animation of the bunch (it was created for a Chinese streaming series), and ends on an unexpectedly amusing plot twist.

Finally, here are some of the other things I saw at the festival this year. The restaurant renovation documentary gets a stranger-than-fiction twist in ¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor! Casa Bonita is the Mexican restaurant famous in Denver, Colorado for its massive scale, wealth of attractions, and comparatively lackluster food, but when the pandemic closes its doors, the establishment ends up on the verge of bankruptcy. Enter some unlikely investors: Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park, who famously featured the restaurant on the show. Purchasing Casa Bonita allows Trey and Matt to realize a childhood dream, but those dreams turn into nightmares fast when they discover the restaurant is in far, far, far more dire need of repair than originally thought. As the renovations costs balloon, and the community becomes more and more eager to return to Casa Bonita, Trey, Matt, and the team are determined to see things through and, yes, serve some food that’s actually good. The documentary is a must-see for South Park fans (Trey admitted that Casa Bonita is responsible for the lack of output for the show recently), and Trey and Matt’s sense of humor brings an edge to the proceedings. At the same time, the idea of a television celebrity going headfirst into the restaurant business creates tension that carries the project, especially as conflicts within the employees begin to rise. Funny and heartfelt, it should be a welcome watch for fans of the show. This movie also won the Audience Award for Best Documentary.

Sacramento is the feature debut of Michael Angarano, and it ended up being a pleasant surprise. Michael plays Ricky, who suddenly re-enters the life of his former friend and father-to-be Glenn (Michael Cera) for an impromptu road trip from LA to Sacramento. There’s a lot of laughs in this movie, mostly coming from Ricky’s often reprehensible behavior. It’s not a great movie, but it was better than I expected, and near the end takes a turn that I legitimately not anticipate. Sacramento also has theatrical distribution and should be hitting the big screen soon. I also attended a screening of an untitled docuseries about Tim Burton. Coming from the angle of Burton’s outsider nature, it delves deep into his rise to fame with plentiful examples of his art and even a few revelatory details (such as Tom Cruise being considered for the lead in Edward Scissorhands). With 3 more episodes yet to be seen, I hope this gets picked up by somebody. So far, as a Burton fan, this was a real treat. Well, I hope you enjoyed my coverage of this year’s Tribeca Festival. Here’s hoping you’ll get to see all that I talked about soon.

Boys Go to Jupiter is something rare these days: an animated feature with a fully unique vision. The first and self-financed feature from artist and animator Julian Glander (Off the Air, Summer Camp Island) is many things: a commentary on hustle culture and the gig economy, a musical, E.T. if it took place in the suburbia from Edward Scissorhands, and a teen hangout comedy. Featuring Glander’s signature low-poly CGI aesthetic and surreal humor, this is a future weirdo animation cult classic in the making, and a clear hidden gem at this year’s festival.

Set in suburban Florida at the end of the year, the film follows Billy 5000, a 16-year-old high school dropout who operates a a delivery guy for Grubster. (Deliverers are required to call food “grub” and say “have a grubby day” upon leaving.) Billy’s goal is to make $5000, which he attempts by delivering food to various bizarre inhabitants. When Billy isn’t trying to grind out as many deliveries as possible without sleeping, he’s hanging out with his troublemaking friends and striking up a friendship with Rozebud a.k.a. Rosario Dolphin, the daughter of ruthless juice magnate and scientist Dr. Dolphin of Dolphin Groves (which Rozebud is trying to take down from within). It’s clear that Billy’s workaholic life is increasingly taking its toll on his health and his friendships, and the fact that he’s trying to hide that a mysterious gelatinous, donut-shaped creature has suddenly befriended him doesn’t make things easier.

Animated with the style (and humor) of a quirky PS1 game, the lo-fi animation not only charms, but also makes it stand out in a generally uniform CGI landscape. Honestly, the visuals made me smile just as much as the film’s absurdist comedy, which is complemented by an incredible voice cast of alt-comics and a few notable names. Of particular note is Janeane Garofalo’s great turn as Dr. Dolphin, as well as Miya Folick’s performance as Rozebud. Her song “Winter Citrus” will likely remain in your head long after the film ends. Taking inspiration from such films as Napoleon Dynamite and Ghost World, the eccentric locals Billy delivers food to make the already fantastical premise seem par for the course. Among the customers are a shadowed figure who insists Billy pre-chew their food for an extra tip, a mysterious spaghetti critic, and an aging mini-golf course owner perfectly voiced by Joe Pera.

Fittingly for the film’s animation style, the neighborhood has the feel of a video game where one travels around to interact with various oddball NPCs. Yet this also speaks to the deeper melancholy of Billy’s character, constantly going from place to place in pursuit of “G-points” (Grubster’s system that makes it more difficult to track how much money one is actually making). The frequent absurdity is mixed with social commentary, and as Billy grinds out deliveries, he occasionally breaks into synth-laden, often existentialist tracks about his life choices and the constant pursuit for his economic goal. A lot of this movie has the feel of something you don’t so much watch as let wash over you, and the musical portions definitely add to that. (“I Hope They Have Chickens In Heaven” serves as an unexpected tear-jerker.)

To be honest, I really haven’t seen an animated feature like this. If you grew up watching Adult Swim or are simply looking for something different in animated movies, this movie is for you and I really hope this gets to be seen by a wider audience. Boys Go to Jupiter is a trippy, funny, otherworldly take on our workaholic world. Stay tuned for more on my coverage of the 2024 Tribeca Festival.

Mars is an adult animated feature, and a quick look at the cast list makes it clear this isn’t just another raunchy animated comedy. It comes from sketch group The Whitest Kids U’ Know as their first project together in over a decade, and while their taboo-shattering comedy has raised more than a few eyebrows over the years, their inclusion in this festival should raise eyebrows for a different, less funny reason. Trevor Moore, the de facto leader of the team, died in an accident in 2021, and while he managed to record all of his lines for his movie before his death, it was clear from the introduction prior to the screening that the other members are still reeling from his death. As a result, Mars is essentially the last hurrah for the team, and the good news is it’s a fitting note to go out on.

The film focuses on an expedition to Mars led by an eccentric billionaire. Five people are picked from a pool of submissions to be the first humans to set foot on the red planet, among them a devout Christian, a woman with an unsettling backstory, and Kyle, a dentist feeling unfulfilled with his life and practice who ditches his fiancée on her wedding day in favor of space travel. The team’s excitement for what lies ahead very quickly fades as things go south fast due to some very unexpected developments.

If the crowd at Tribeca was any indication, fans of The Whitest Kids will absolutely love this movie. (I noticed a lot of nods to the sketch show, as well as some tributes to Trevor Moore sprinkled throughout.) I had a lot of fun with this, and likely so will anyone with a twisted sense of humor. Yet while the group’s signature dark comedy is out in full force, they also try and keep a more mindful eye on what they joke about. That’s not to say there still aren’t some pitch-black gags in this (though many of them got a big laugh out of me), but other times they’re definitely aware that times have changed and even address that, while still being funny. Some of the movie did wear a bit thin in my opinion, though I sorta expected that given that they’re a sketch group.

The animation was crude, but I’ve gotta be honest, I’ll give it a pass. Seriously, if you think you can do better with a DIY animated feature, be my guest. It still takes full advantage of the medium, incorporating a number of scenes that that would otherwise break the bank on a live-action feature, and the twisted comedy definitely works well within an animated framework. That’s the nice thing about animation: if you put in the work, you can make a blockbuster premise on pocket change. The plot is elaborate and honestly not something I want to say too much of. There’s a lot of twists, and seemingly innocuous moments ultimately later play big roles in the story. Overall, I had a lot of fun with this, and if you’re a Whitest Kids fan, you will too. It’s a shame this ended up being the end for them, but the fact that they were able to finish this is nothing short of a miracle.

Stay tuned for more on the animation at Tribeca Festival 2024, including Boys Go to Jupiter and the animated shorts.