The Meaning of Life

Hertzfeldt's version of 2001: Space Odyssey? Only saw it once, and I feel it has a potential to grow on me.

I have to say I loved it. Maybe the orchestral music manipulated me emotionally, but somehow I was touched and it seemed so authentically pensive. A nice lead-up to Everything Will Be OK.

There's imagination and cynical spirit in this, as well as a sophomore college student level of expression and societal dissection.

I don't know, I want to like it, it's certainly creative but I wasn't really engaged.

Unbearably tedious work from Hertzfeldt. There are a few bold techniques at work, but it doesn't make up for the dreary pace. He should stick to comedy.

Will make you sit back and go 'hmm'. [not for that long, though]

A reminder of the insignificance of life's problems, and some of the aliens are kinda cute, but it doesn't engage with its slow pacing. Just some animation and a message, with little connective tissue.

Ambitious yet inscrutable, though Hertzfeldt remains one of the most inventive, artistically gifted filmmakers out there. Worth a watch.

Certainly not his best but it has some moments that stuck out, and a couple that made me laugh. Pretty cynical, basically saying how cyclical and self-absorbed we are, but done in a pretty creative way. Drags a little, found it hard to get fully immersed in it, especially as he draws out certain scenes for way too long.

The animation is simple and lovely, and the film is filled with imagination. Not perfect but quite delightful nonetheless.

I didn't really get the idea but it was interesting and kinda bizzare. And I like it that way.

Not much here that interested this viewer.

Somehow, with stick figures as its central characters and probably less of a budget to use then many other filmmakers, Don Hertzfeldt manages to take a repeatedly used idea and makes it far more epic and interesting than most could ever attempt. If that does not deserve applause I do not know what does.

This is one of the most cliche ideas every animator out there get for their first short. But Hertzfeldt delivers it with wit, elegance, yet with simplicity.

I'm not sure what to make of this.

some impressive moments. not particularly cogent and the soundtrack is very inconsistent.

I waited for years for this film, watched Hertzfeldt post single frames from this as he toiled over 4 years. The making of this short seemed as magical as the final product. This is a hard film to rate and classify. There's no story, but there's kind of a message, but it's more like a lesson you let wash over you. The father and son at the end, showing is the repetitive or cyclical or reccurring nature of life in the universe. What does it mean? Probably nothing.

beautiful but doesn't say anything new

Perhaps cliched, but the way it removed the familiarity - and exposed the facade of importance - of human behaviour and gave it an abstracted objective babble was skilfully done. It was also really funny in moments.

27 Nisan 2015 &

Silent contemplation instead of noisy discourse/debate. Maybe there is something interesting in there. But it's so thin...

Creative, but has betters.