Last Days of Coney Island (Short 2015)

Last Days of Coney Island (Short 2015). 22m | TV-MA

“Finally, on his 77th birthday, the first film from Ralph Bakshi in many years has hit the web. One wonders after so many years if it will still have the same punch and kick that those films from the 1970u0026#39;s that knocked people off their feet did (Heavy Traffic, Coonskin, Wizards, Hey Good Lookin, American Pop). Oh boy does it ever! Itu0026#39;s 22 minutes of unfiltered Bakshi, almost (no, definitely) to the point of over-load. I couldnu0026#39;t get enough of it and watched it twice back to back.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDoes it have a story? Yeah, it kind of does. It follows two guys, one is Max, a shlubby sort of man who loves Molly, and the other guy is Terry, a guy who runs the u0026#39;freak-showu0026#39; on Coney Island, and we see their fates rise and fall over time. Itu0026#39;s set in the 1960u0026#39;s, but itu0026#39;s not at all set in any kind of realistic world. Or, I should say, it IS realistic to what Bakshi was feeling and thinking back then and for all the years since: he has backgrounds and buildings in jagged shapes and smears, with watercolors that look like theyu0026#39;re bleeding profusely all around the characters. Itu0026#39;s like Max, Terry and Molly are in the middle of a gigantic cluter-f*** of a collage.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn other words, this is Bakshi working without a net, and itu0026#39;s thrilling and brutal to watch. Brutal in not just the violence – thereu0026#39;s some parts where you see these cartoon characters get cut up and (no s***) butchered, and itu0026#39;s shocking and at the same time very funny because of how manic it comes out as – but also in its general presentation. Bakshiu0026#39;s characters are drawn and we can see that, even as this was likely animated in a computer; they all seem to have the pencil lines going about, and thatu0026#39;s rare to see today (maybe just unheard of in a time where animation is cute and hip like on TV or with what Pixar is doing). This isnu0026#39;t really u0026#39;cuteu0026#39;. Last Days of Coney Island feels like a howl of pain and misery, but done up in such an artistic way that itu0026#39;s invigorating in a strange way.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHere, itu0026#39;s like you get an entire world poured out of some guyu0026#39;s head with animation: sometimes thereu0026#39;s clips from old movies or newsreels (i.e. Lee Harvey Oswald and Kennedy loom large here, like the ghosts that never can really leave, certainly not in 1960u0026#39;s working class places). Itu0026#39;s only 22 minutes long, again, not a feature like in the past (only so much money from online donations), but it feels like you get more than you couldu0026#39;ve expected. Just in the story Terry tells about u0026quot;My True Storyu0026quot; from when he was a kid, I felt like I got a rich experience that felt more like poetry than traditional storytelling.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI should note as the one criticism: itu0026#39;s crude. Oh God, itu0026#39;s so crude. But in a sense thatu0026#39;s what I love about it; it definitely will not appeal to all tastes, and its maker Iu0026#39;m sure intended it that way. Itu0026#39;s a jazzy riff on an era and mind-set, of big dumb guys and big broads who sometimes, once in a while, slept with circus clowns. If this is Bakshiu0026#39;s last work, he went out with a cannon shot to a skull.”