There is an unparalleled, existential magnitude to Don Hertzfeldt‘s storytelling ability, a striking force that is once again experienced through a brief yet piercing time frame of 22 minutes in “World of Tomorrow Episode Two: The Burden of Other People’s Thoughts.” Hertzfeldt’s latest outing is yet another marvellous endeavor, brimming with unadulterated visual poetry and philosophical ponderings.
Bolder visually and more thematically abstract than the first episode, this time around, Herzfeldt experiments with the pains of dwelling in the past and the necessity of moving forward and creating new memories. It’s a more optimistic philosophical musing compared to the morose underpinnings of its predecessor.
In “World of Tomorrow Episode Two: The Burden of Other People’s Thoughts,” viewers gain more insight into the mind of young Emily Prime (Winona Mae) in a timeline set somewhere beyond the destruction of Earth that’s hinted at in the previous film. As subject matter such as loneliness, materialism and death remain at the forefront, the saga’s depressive subtext is funnelled through the genuine naivete of Emily Prime more so than before, which contributes to a more emotionally complex and humorous film than the original.
Even with the sequel’s comparably optimistic tone, Hertzfeldt’s delivery of undeniable existential truth still makes you want to cry, but at the same time, appreciate the necessity of death, mundanity and the other cruelties of everyday living. Nevertheless, beneath what he calls “the bog of realism,” Hertzfeldt hints at an unflinching glimmer of hope — a hope most needed as this dark and dismal year winds down: “We all cling to the same brief flickering windows in the infinite darkness…We cannot live in the past; we have to let it go.” Herzfeldt urges his audience to keep pushing forward because — the past is the past. With a slightly older and more perceptive Emily Prime at hand, the film’s enclosing darkness feels conquerable — it’s a brighter sequel to one of the greatest short films and dark comedies of the century.
Transcendent through and through, the abstraction of Hertzfeldt’s writing as a whole allows his characters to speak simple, accessible truths, as each line is delivered with a wallop and brutal honesty. Keeping the above in mind, Hertzfeldt’s quotable power only augments this sequel’s sense of humor and surreal animation, which is more colorful and detailed than the first episode. With all things considered, what we have in “World of Tomorrow Episode Two: The Burden of Other People’s Thoughts,” is a brazen 22-minute film, which, through sheer imagination and almost every other cinematic element, outperforms almost every feature-length I’ve seen this year. Thank you, Don Hertzfeldt for gifting 2017 with a sequel it needed, but did not deserve. [A+]
