TIFF 2008 Day 1

Waltz with Bashir
An animated autobiographical documentary? This works surprisingly well and high points for originality. It gives the viewer a sympathetic viewpoint to writer/director Ari Folman, who tries to reconstruct blocked memories of a traumatic wartime event. The animation style simulates the fog of memory which can highlight, de-emphasize, or idealize elements of a scene, and also dissociates the viewer from the reality of disturbing images. Overall an excellent film, but loses points because of lack of cohesion. Each story told by the soldiers were very engaging on their own, but did not build into a single tale. 8/10

Ari Folman