Ernie
2016 · 17m · USA
Directed by Hadley Hillel
Genres: dark comedy, drama
Tones: melancholic, tender, whimsical
A lonely 70-year-old man's failed suicide attempt accidentally rips a hole in his ceiling, leading to an unexpected, wordless friendship with the young boy who lives in the apartment above.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
The cardboard-box world is a cute visual gimmick, but it softens what could've been genuinely weird—a suicide attempt played for whimsy with a mute friendship feels like it's apologizing for its own darkness instead of leaning into it.
Hillel's commitment to wordless narrative and the constructed materiality of cardboard sets positions this thoughtfully within the lineage of visual storytelling from Koreeda to early Pixar, though the tonal balance between melancholy and tenderness occasionally blurs the film's formal intentions.
That choice to build every single set from cardboard—not as ironic commentary but as the visual language of Ernie's interior world—transforms what could be a sentimental premise into something tactile and specific; it's the decision that makes the whole thing work.
Reviews
Dark, yet so lighthearted — simply beautiful.
Loved it. Simple and visually engaging. Made the small feel big!