Review: Coriander and a Penny’s Worth of Lonesome

 

 

Overview:

A struggling pair of stage dancers hope to find their break when the biggest star in the world, Rudolph Valentino, comes to watch them dance. Though they quickly learn the event was staged to make it appear like Valentino had found a new romance in the female dancer, Coriander. But, when Valentino passes away the next day, Coriander quickly becomes the next big thing as a grieving widower.

Taking advantage of the fake situation, Coriander agrees to play the part in hopes of making her and her partner famous. However, the golden elevator to stardom is not all it is cracked up to be. And more often than not, it ends in tragedy.

 

Our Take:

Well, if your thing is obscure animated movies that look entirely out of their time, then you are in luck. Because I do not know who else this movie is made for.

Coriander and a Penny’s Worth of Lonesome is a period piece exploring the dark edges of the rising effects of stardom and Hollywood. The dialect, the sensibilities, and the themes all take us back to the golden age of Hollywoodland. A time when celebrities dominated the headlines but were also eaten up and spat back out with no regard for well-being. And this film tells the story of just that, only it is a century too late for anyone to really care, and in a style that is unfitting, almost unsettling.

Taking place in 1926, the animation is more reminiscent of pre-1995 Pixar. Enough so that it would shock anyone who did not know any better, that this film was released in May of 2021. The computer-generated animation is clunky and slow-moving in ways that should be extinct. But worse is the half-hearted attempt at style.  

The black-and-white imagery sets a tone for a dark world of wonder. However, there is a serious attempt at making scenes look as natural as possible. Throw in the period relevant art deco settings, and it becomes a mess on the screen, almost unbearable to watch. The film would have been much better off doubling down on a creepy Tim Burton-esque visual. Instead, we get characters with completely unintentional deformed faces.

Though, as sloppily as this feature is thrown together, there is an interesting plot that unfolds. 

Bearing with the slow-moving scenes, misogyny, and unrelenting outdated terminologies, there is a timeless tragedy tale to discover.

The story is about a young girl’s fifteen minutes of fame and everything that she must give up getting there. And the way that the plot concludes is unexpected and well-delivered. Though there are plenty of unnecessary bits to get there. But at the bare bones, this is an impressive tale of tragedy and heartbreak.

Unfortunately, the satisfying tale is not worth the price of admission. There is just too much wrong with the structure of this film to recommend watching. The shame is that, conceptually, there is a lot to work with; it is just executed so poorly that it is difficult to sit through the 88-minute run time. If the feature had been created using the puppetry that the CG is an homage to, it would have made the difference. But, unfortunately, the half-rendered animation is not the vessel to bring us back to the films of yesteryear.