Lucky and Charlie in the Hole With Lots of Money
2023 · 10m · USA
Directed by Hamilton O'Toole
Genres: animation, comedy, fantasy
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, surreal
An elf and a deadbeat scrape together ten million dollars to make rent, scavenging surreal dimensions for amulets and singles before squaring up against their landlord in a boss battle. Capitalism rendered as a lo-fi 8-bit RPG.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Rent week as a boss battle, the landlord as the final form. I'll take this over another sober indie about money any day of the week.
Y2K console graphics as metaphor for rent-week despair — O'Toole turns capitalism into an 8-bit boss battle. Adventure Time fever dream filtered through an eviction notice is the kind of formal pun I cosign.
Early Y2K console graphics deployed as a metaphor for rent-week despair, with a boss-battle-the-landlord climax — the premise carries the whole concept and the lo-fi 8-bit dimension is the right delivery vehicle. Bold animation choices for a NoBudge entry.
Reviews
O'Toole's charmingly lo-fi animations in the 8-bit RPG dimension give fresh life to an evergreen struggle of making rent and battling greed.