WHAT ON EARTH
2023 · 10m
Directed by Jimmy Marble
Genres: comedy, dark comedy, surrealism
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, surreal
A surreal yet relatable tale from photographer and filmmaker Jimmy Marble — a half-ironic tragicomedy drawn from real life, exaggerated and briskly cut.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Marble does something genuinely weird here—mines real life for its absurdist core, then speeds it up until the tragicomedy snaps. It's half-ironic in the way most films pretend to be but aren't; this one actually commits to the bit while gutting you.
The editing velocity is precise enough to feel considered rather than manic, and there's a lineage of photographer-turned-filmmakers (Eggleston, Shore) who understand how to compress emotional truth into velocity. Marble joins that conversation, not parasitically.
The brisk cutting is the entire architecture here—each trim is a choice that collapses sentimentality into something you can actually feel. Watch how little breathing room Marble gives the frame; it's the constraint that makes the surrealism land.
Reviews
Mit „WHAT ON EARTH“ gibt es eine weitere Erzählung des Fotografen und Filmemachers Jimmy Marble, die gleichermaßen surreal wie nahbar ist. Denn irgendwie sind viele Elemente der Geschichte direkt aus dem Leben gegriffen und doch wirkt die überzeichnete und kurzweilig geschnittene Darstellung fiktiv