News
Animal Collective Unleashes Movie Magnum Opus
Shannon Hassett :: Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 1:00 pm
So I can’t tell whether we’re supposed to pronounce this thing as ‘odd sack’ or not, but I’m deriving the same sort of pleasure out of the possibility as I once did at singing ’sodomy’ in a Blink 182 chorus in front of my parents. Oh yes, the witching hour is finally upon us folks: THE ANIMAL COLLECTIVE MOVIE HAS ARRIVED. You’re excited, I’m not that excited, we’re all going to end up watching the trailer, so let’s just put in writing the things you’ll be too ashamed to say when your friends are drooling all over this shit.
The ‘trailer,’ which tempts us with its supposed 26 seconds of footage, is actually 18 seconds of everything you thought the 90s had rightfully swallowed. Don’t believe me? In a mere third of a minute, AC and director Danny Perez manage to pack in psychedelic colored film splices appealing only via club drugs, those flame thrower things ravers use to… rave (again, see club drugs) and a whole lot of kitschy creepy perfected by one David Lynch a century before the collective had entered the womb.
Riding their admittedly impressive exploitation of their own equally manufactured absurdity, Animal Collective even managed to lure Sundance into its shy, limited edition colored vinyl of a niche. Touting the film as an “earthy, psychedelic experimental narrative infused with the band Animal Collective’s aural and musical sensibilities,” it’s clear that the group knows exactly how they got into a festival filled with legitimate attempts at the craft. Speaking to NME, Avey Tare eloquently proclaimed, “It’s kinda like a psychedelic film, it’s not like a narrative film or anything. There are more cohesive moments in it, but then there are some that are a little more abstract.” It is 2010; the word ‘psychedelic’ no longer carries the good-because-you’re-stoned promise from days of yore, and the amount of times you’re forced to use it in a review (let alone the artist’s own description) directly correlates to the piece’s legitimacy. This currently puts us at a one to one ratio of suck (we’re in this together, people).
But who am I to pan this thing? A mere ant on the vast log that is AC who just took the time to review a fucking trailer; point, Animal Collective. If you’re interested in seeing ODDSAC (and didn’t make it to Sundance last night), there will be additional screenings at the Visual Arts Theater in NYC on March 2 and the Music Box Theater in Chicago on March 17. There is another alternative should these events sellout, however, so don’t go all lion in a coma on me just yet (I slipped that one in there special for YOU, diehards). Without further ado, everything ODDSAC is trying to be and will never accomplish: Keith Flint.
