I Married a Strange Person! (1997)
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I Married a Strange Person! Movie Review
I Married a Strange Person! is a 1997 independent adult animated comedy film directed by Bill Plympton. It’s a silly, but undeniably artistic and funny flick.
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“When’s the last time you tried to tell
two fifty-ton tanks to stop having sex!?“
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A newlywed develops a strange lump on his neck that gives him the ability to transform people or objects at will. His wife is very upset. This was my first time experiencing a Bill Plympton animated work and I was mostly quite delighted by his style. When it comes to the plot, there is not much to talk about here as the movie forsakes storytelling in favor of surreal animation, weirdness and insanity. The basic premise was a solid one that led to some fun action in the second half, but overall this was more the case of style over substance for better and for worse.
In Plympton’s world everything is extremely sexualized. The movie begins with two ducks mating and it then proceeds to include the main couple having sex repeatedly while everything around them is making similar thrusting movements in sync with them. The result is this almost psychedelic, highly surreal and moody piece that was very authentic as a viewing experience.
With that being said, because this is a feature film, I Married a Strange Person! felt overlong, repetitious and way too quickly it lost some of its edge and momentum. This type of material is much better suited for short form medium and I bet Plympton’s shorts are much more striking for that reason.
But the movie is so gorgeously animated that ultimately the plot did not matter much. Yes, I wished for a more coherent and meaningful storyline, but what we got instead was a whole lot of memorable imagery involving sex, violence and even some grotesque details regarding bodily fluids and stuff like that.
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All the while Plympton imbued the film with a lot of joy of the world and its surroundings, which was infectious and beautiful to witness. The characters are hardly developed and the voice acting is amateurish, but the soundtrack is jazzy and vibrant and the editing and directing are both quite accomplished.
I Married a Strange Person! offers a very intriguing look inside animator Bill Plympton’s insanely inventive and surreal mind. His filmmaking is more suited for short form medium instead of features, and thus this film was not as effective. It’s also slight in plot and characterization. However, the animation is so fluid and the score is so vibrant that the movie felt infectiously kinetic and delightful throughout.
My Rating – 3.5
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