The Day that Sherrie Stopped
2022 · 10m · USA
Directed by Harleigh Shaw
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, surreal
Heartbroken in Florida, a character named Sacha posts a memorial photo to social media and ends up in correspondence with an older woman called Sherrie. The exchange blurs into a surreal animated meditation on what we share with strangers and why.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Animation, grief, social-media intimacy with an older stranger — these are usually three ingredients for insufferable cliche, and yet I'm curious whether Shaw's color palette earns it. Worth the gamble.
Heartbreak processed through algorithmic strangers and rendered in saturated surreal 3D animation — late Hertzfeldt territory with parasocial intimacy — Shaw makes the medium match the parasocial weirdness of online grief.
Heartbreak processed through algorithmic strangers in 3D animation — saturated, surreal landscapes for grief filtered through infinite scroll is the right medium for the message. Sacha-meets-Sherrie-via-memorial-post is a real 2022 grief mechanism.
Reviews
Shaw's film builds rich characters with complex psychological issues