Clowning Around
2022 · 2m
Directed by Tabs Wekerle
Genres: action, animation, comedy
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, whimsical
Two competing clowns at a carnival go head-to-head for customers' support through an all-out balloon animal brawl.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A two-minute balloon-animal cage match is exactly the kind of absurdist premise that shouldn't work but does—it's aggressively weird in the best way, treating clown violence like a legitimate sport while everyone else is still doing talking-head indie dramas.
The film's whimsical tone sits uneasily with its darkly comic violence, and while the animation shows technical competence, it doesn't quite justify its own tonal contradictions the way a more formally rigorous piece would.
The decision to render the balloon animals as weapons with genuine weight and consequences—you feel the impact of each twist and snap—is what sells the absurdity; that single craft choice transforms a silly premise into something that actually lands.