RUNAWAY
2009 · 9m · Canada
Directed by Cordell Barker
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic
A train accelerates out of control while passengers gorge themselves — consumerist excess as runaway locomotive.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Cordell Barker's runaway-train consumerism allegory with Ben Charest's Belleville-adjacent score — anarchic, gorgeously animated, doesn't pull punches. NFB at full tilt.
Barker's Cat-Came-Back-anarchy applied to consumerist excess as runaway locomotive, scored by Ben Charest of Triplets of Belleville, is NFB craft at its most exuberantly political. 6.4M views and Oscar-shortlisted; a contemporary classic of the form.
Cordell Barker (The Cat Came Back) at the NFB with Ben Charest (Triplets of Belleville) on score — that's a craft pairing where the music and the wild caricature line-work are doing equal dramatic work for the consumerist allegory. 9:13, 6.4M views.
Festivals
- Academy Awards 2010, Nominee