As an exercise in clever if a bit sophomoric and derivative (think Albert Lamorisse's classic 1956 short, THE RED BALLOON) story-telling, PLASTIC BAG deserves a rating of perhaps 7 out of 10. However, CNN reported this week some cat in Italy just inherited $13 million--making it the THIRD richest pet around today. Well, that amount of money could buy at least 4 million Happy Meals for the starving kids of the world--at the retail price. C'mon, pets are NOT people, let alone balloons or plastic bags, no matter how much film or bytes sophisticated movie makers waste upon anthropomorphizing them. As I type this, I have a dozen plastic bags stuffed into my pants pockets, since I need to use a few every day as spur-of-the-moment containers. I am NOT willing to think any of the bags squished below my posterior are musing in their droll Bavarian accents about revenge against me, or about "escaping" into the atmosphere to frolic in the breeze till they can choke Flipper in the seas. After glimpsing the mind behind Werner Herzog's MY SON, MY SON, WHAT HAVE YE DONE? (to which DVD the PLASTIC BAG short he narrates--as the bag!--is attached), I can just picture this dottie old Bavarian mesmerized by the view of an airborne bag beyond the windshield of his Jetta as he plows through a group of school kids waiting at a bus stop. It's time to get real, folks!
Review of Plastic Bag
