Rocks in My Pockets (2014)
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Rocks in My Pockets Movie Review
Rocks in My Pockets is a 2014 Latvian animated drama film directed by Signe Baumane. It is an overly personal, though undeniably brave movie.
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“The feeling of warmth and love melts a small part of my pain“
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A young artist uses her imagination and wit in order to overcome the insanity that plagues her family. This movie functions as an autobiographical tale of the director’s own life and her family as she tracks each woman in her family’s history as they all grappled with insanity and suicidal thoughts. I am in favor of everybody telling their own story, but similarly to Pixar’s ‘Turning Red’, Rocks in My Pockets ended up being too intimate and thus rather limited in its appeal.
Still, dealing with mental illness in such a brave and unabashedly honest manner was admirable on the part of Signe Baumane, who both wrote and produced the film along with directing it. This film is her story in essence and she is the one who made it basically all on her own, which needs to be respected in and of itself. The frank discussion of these very important and painful issues is the best part of this otherwise rather uneven movie.
My main issue with the way the movie was approached and told lies in its excessive narration. This is one of those films where the protagonist acting as the filmmaker herself narrates the entire screenplay, which is needless to say rather overbearing on the viewer. Not only is it excessive, but her voice is also grating and insufferable as she employs that overly comedic, goofy way of speaking where she seems to be ridiculing everybody and everything. It simply did not work, and even though I got used to it eventually, I still never came to like it.
The animation is also a mixed bag. The various styles employed made it diverse, but they don’t quite click together. The surrealism on display made it quite artistic, especially in some of the stranger imagery that deftly counteracted the dark subject matter at hand. But the rough quality to the paper-like aesthetic was never especially appealing and it seemed too amateurish.
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Rocks in My Pockets has very solid sense of humor and its lighthearted tone made it palatable for larger audiences as the straightforward handling of these very difficult subject matter would have made the movie too depressing. The various people that we meet from her family are quite colorful and their stories are undeniably important and unique. I just wish that she included a bigger message and purpose to this narrative.
Rocks in My Pockets is impressively frank in its unabashedly honest portrayal of mental illness and depression. The film is too personal for its writer-director, but her family’s story was powerful and quite unique. The movie is particularly interesting in its lighthearted approach at dealing with its very difficult subject matter. I just wish that the narration wasn’t as excessive and annoying and that the animation wasn’t as rough in its look.
My Rating – 3.5
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