Loving Vincent (2017)

This is the first time I've known an animated movie's DVD to show trailers only for non-animations. They don't even look similar in theme or genre. Either the distributor doesn't offer any other animations, or LV is really in a class by itself. I suspect the latter. Not many animations are so geared toward grown-ups (it's PG-13), and absolutely no others have been 100% hand-painted.

It's 1891, about a year after the untimely passing of Vincent van Gogh. His mailman, Joseph, who was also a friend and posed for portraits, has tried and failed to deliver his last letter to his brother, Theo. The protagonist is Joseph's son, Armand, who sees little point in the belated delivery and would rather drink all the time, but he still honors his dad's request. Theo turns out to be dead too, but instead of going straight home, Armand begins a series of interviews to try to figure out why "your loving Vincent," whom he barely knew despite posing in his teens, would commit suicide mere weeks after an optimistic letter -- if it even was a suicide.

As different acquaintances of the artist relate their memories, we get flashbacks in black and white. For a time, I thought these frames were drawn rather than painted. They look slightly more realistic than the color paintings, whether from the old-fashioned photo aesthetic or from less of the distracting Post-Impressionist coloration.

Regardless, all the frames come from rotoscoping to capture the motion of real actors. The result with van Gogh styling added looks like nothing I've ever seen before. It kind of taxed my brain to process for 94 minutes, but for the most part, I highly approve.

Don't get the idea that this is another Chico y Rita, whose rich beauty makes up for an underwhelming story. Yes, I know that some reviewers think the plot lacks something, but I for one dig it. The narrative framing brings to mind Citizen Kane and, especially after contrary accounts come up, Rashomon. We get about as much of a feel for the other key characters as we get for Vincent, and despite their flaws and interpersonal conflicts, I ultimately respect them all. The resolution is technically incomplete but sufficiently satisfying, as befits a sort of realism.

If the Academy selected its Best Animated Features according to the same pattern that it selected its Best Pictures, LV would have stood a chance of winning. Where Coco is fanciful and The Breadwinner is slightly schizoid, LV excels at turning the oeuvre of a posthumously appreciated tragic genius into a whole new work of art.