It's Such a Beautiful Day (2012)

Director: Don Hertzfeldt
Runtime: 62 minutes

Synopsis: Bill struggles to put together his shattered psyche, in this new feature film version of Don Hertzfeldt's animated short film trilogy.

Verdict: The very thought of watching Don Hertzfeldt's unified collection of three shorts has terrified me for years. Even though I knew that I was going to love it, and even though its short runtime of only an hour encouraged me more than once to contemplate putting it on, I had the feeling that it was the type of film that was going to stick with me for much more than only 60 minutes, without necessarily putting me in a good mood. I knew that, by the end of it, I was going to be struck with an existential crisis like very few movies manage to achieve, and I was never sure that I was in the right mood to be able to handle it.

That changed today.

I finally gathered the courage to view "It's Such a Beautiful Day", a two-dimensional animated film mostly know for its simplistic and minimalistic style. The main character of Bill is quite literally a stick figure, and most of the environment in which he resides resembles drawings made by children. Even the frames are not complete as they consist of spots on the screen showing us different perspectives simultaneously. Some would call the style a lazy gimmick, but I found it incredibly aligned with Bill's struggle with dealing with both his illness and his views on the meaning of life. By utilizing this method and introducing a very fitting score and exceptionally thought of narration, Herztfeldt successfully managed to recreate Bill's perspective for us to experience. And by becoming Bill, the audience becomes a more conscious version of themselves, which is both terrifying and enlightening at the same time. The importance of mortality is a major theme that glooms over the chaotic narrative in which Hertzfeldt argues that no one really lives until the realization that death can come at any moment hits us. Ignoring death is ignoring life and its details. Ignoring death is succumbing to boredom, to repetition, to routine. Ignoring death makes the world uninteresting, like a stick figure in a colorless drawing where houses are all square and trees are made of branches.

"It's Such a Beautiful Day" is perhaps one of the densest pieces of art I have ever watched. And while it can feel overwhelming in the moment, you have to allow it to consume you after watching it to properly experience it. But trust me when I say that by the end of it, you'll appreciate life a little more than you did an hour prior.

FINAL GRADE: 9/10