Sunday, February 03, 2008

Review: Persepolis (2007)


Hip hop Persopolis. 

First of all I thought the trailer for this made it look amazing. I guess because there was no story, and just the animation and music was all that got to me. But that was in a trim 2 minutes. 
Persepolis is based on the auto-biographical graphic novels (there should be a faster way to say that. auto-biographic novels?) by Marjane Satrapi. 

From IMDB.com: 

"Poignant coming-of-age story of a precocious and outspoken young Iranian girl that begins during the Islamic Revolution."

In this cheeky slice of life tale told by a bitter Iranian-turned-French woman, it isn't quite as enjoyable as it makes itself out to be.

But first, I will say that the animation was very new and interesting. It's certainly a refreshing look, far from the new age of 3D animation (and nothing but). Also, the soundtrack it spine-tingling and catchy. Maybe too catchy? Anyhow, it matched the movie perfectly and is definitely the finer point of this film.

Other than that, there was no real story. It's a girl who is being moved around in life. She falls, she gets back up. She meets a boy, they break up and she's heart broken. She tries to kill herself, then she decided to conquer life instead. That kind of circular story-telling makes me dizzy, and frankly, not too interested in what happens next, because will it really matter?

As I said earlier, the trailer led me to believe that this film would have a happy ending, where she finally gets out of this repressive situation and lives, goddammit, lives! Well, she doesn't, and she's the same, sad, mopey person. And why do I care? I don't know.

Persepolis is up for the Best Animated Film Oscar. 

Grade: C+

1 comment:

Amanda Mitchell said...

The whole "eye of the tiger" montage made me feel more awkward than I have felt in a long time.