MOVIES .

Dream Come True

The title of Daydream Nation may refer to Sweden's penchant for surrealistic diurnal imaginings. But the immediate reference is to Sonic Youth's landmark 1988 album


	print	email	reply	rss feed

Published: Nov 28, 2007

The title of this quirky, eclectic collection of animated films and music videos from Sweden — Daydream Nation — may simply refer to the country's apparent penchant for surrealistic diurnal imaginings. But the immediate reference is to Sonic Youth's landmark 1988 album, a comparison that isn't entirely off the mark, given the way that these films echo the record's blend of off-kilter experimentation and harsh noise with pretty pop leanings.

HALF OFF DEPOT

Why live life at full price?

That blend is most evident in the music videos, which take up about half the program. The music tends toward indie-pop with a noisy edge, and it's safe to say that many of the bands represented (most little-known Stateside) would likely not exist, at least not in this form, without the influence of Thurston Moore and company.

Most of the videos are as DIY as the bands themselves, though the Concretes' "Chosen One" is a fun technical show-off, structured as a single zoom out from pictures within pictures within dollhouses. It feels like something that MTV would've introduced with that "Breakthrough Video" opening several years back.

The highlight of the program is probably Peter Larsson's three-minute absurdist parable, The Man Who Got Nowhere. While the story — about a man inexplicably unable to move from his position in a public park, where he eventually dies and becomes a tourist spectacle, literally carved up and sold to onlookers — is a rather obvious attempt at social commentary, the animation is vivid and colorful and the disjointed narration is consistently laugh-provoking.

Johannes Nyholm's claymation The Tale of Little Puppetboy takes a similarly bizarre bent, to lesser results, detailing the stressed, shorts-clad title character's attempts to clean his apartment before a visit. Claymation is also represented by a trio of quick, minimalist pieces from sculptor Moa Lönn. Björn Renner's experimental The Horse's Sanity offers a disturbing, David Lynch-flavored peek inside an abusive marriage, via an unnerving blend of animation styles, live action and a tense soundtrack.

Curated by New York-based music and film presenters Package Deals, the 18-film program is as erratic and variable in quality as any overview program, but offers an eccentric glimpse into a culture that always seems familiar but slightly off from American indie sensibilities.

(s_brady@citypaper.net)

DAYDREAM NATION

Mon., Dec. 3, 7 p.m, $8.50, County Theater, 20 E. State St., Doylestown; Wed., Dec. 5, 7 p.m., $9.25, Bryn Mawr Film Institute, 824 W. Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr; Thu., Dec. 6, 7 p.m., $8.50, Ambler Theater, 108 E. Butler Ave., Ambler, countytheater.org/cinematheque.htm