The Congress

A very peculiar film. It's not completely unique to see live action and animation combined, but most films prefer to mix both styles. The Congress is one half animation, one half live action and keeps the two neatly separated. The less you know about this film up front though, the neater the effect.

Somewhat surprisingly, I liked the live action part best. Folman has the eye of an animator, which often makes for beautiful live action cinema. The cinematography is stylish, the sets are lush and even though I didn't quite care for the "film about the film business" motives, the dramatic weight was perfect.

The animation tries to be a bit more psychedelic, but in a very 60s/70s kind of way, mixed with character designs that looked like they drew inspiration for the 20s/30s. The effect is a bit underwhelming, at the same time the plot starts to spiral out of control with no real interesting places to go. Still, there's plenty to unpack here, so I never got bored. I'd just hoped for a little more.