I SAW "LAST DAYS OF CONEY ISLAND"

...by Ralph Bakshi.
 https://vimeo.com/ondemand/lastdaysofconeyisland

For all the negative things I've heard about this...I enjoyed it very much. If one comes to it hoping for a Hollywood cartoon with a narrative and a Preston Blair technique, of course they'll get sore. I came to it with no expectations of any kind, and got a fascinating graphic experience. I got a tour through the art of one man, not an imitation studio cartoon. In that sense, I find it more cohesive than his features. Possibly because I myself am middle aged, I could relate to a lot of disillusionment that is communicated, even though I gave up trying to understand what I was seeing in the first two minutes. The Kennedy shootings I can do without, and I found the loopy freakout stuff less effective than the quieter moments. But this is obviously made, with know-how, by a person who has had a gallery of true life experiences to draw from beyond precious memories of growing up watching TV. This rough line, "unconventional" approach would better serve to animate KRAZY KAT than anything that's ever been done. After all these years, it's the first thing I've seen that interested me even slightly in finishing that film project of my own, not that I ever will.

MK