"My Depression" is a pretty short title for a relatively short film as this animated movie here runs for approximately half an hour and still there are two directors credited. Marianetti and Wachtenheim are mostly in it for the animation and they have worked on pretty popular big-screen releases already in the past as animators, even if none of their positions there were minor compared to the credit they received here. If we get away from the looks of it and focus more on the content, then the defining figure is the late, multitalented Elizabeth Swados. Most of her credits are in the music department, but she also did a great job of story-writing during her lifetime. There is definitely also an autobiographic component to it as the main character here is called Liz. By the way, this film is from 2014, so it has its tenth anniversary now. This was an HBO production, which should also not surprise anybody because among American broadcasters those are definitely more on the left and this side is also the one that gives depression most focus and talks about it more than any other. Completely free of judgment I am writing this, but let's say that the title here reeks of self-importance already and is not too creative and the humoristic approach the film gives the subject here and there cannot distract from that.
Given the topic and the money HBO got, it is also no surprise they got some big names on board here for the voice cast: Oscar-nominated actress Sigourney Weaver can pretty much be heard from beginning to end. Steve Buscemi who I quite like may sound like the male protagonist as he is credited second, but truth is that everybody except Weaver has almost no material to work with sadly. Fred Armisen with all his Emmy nominations some may be familiar with too and I was a bit surprised to see Stephanie Hsu listed in the credits briefly as a voice actress too. She is not listed on imdb for this film, so I am not sure if it is the one who scored an Oscar nomination last year or somebody with the same name. Anyway, if we go back to the film I would say it is overall a very mediocre outcome and nothing about it stays in the mind. Kinda telling that it scored only one single nomination (according to imdb) and this happened with Tribeca although it deals with a subject where people would have loved to give it awards to I'm sure. This is often the case though that people who have nothing to say make films about socially-relevant subjects and forget to really deliver creativity in the process and their work is still praised as meaningful by the confused because of said subject. But yeah, this film did not even manage to make waves at all. The animation is tolerable, but nothing more, not particularly good and for a film of half an hour I think that honestly they should already come up with better quality. We've seen a similar style on Red Bull commercials that run for 30 seconds. I also think this film could have been 10 minutes shorter overall as it did drag quite a bit here and there. The approach sometimes feels like a Peanuts episode with the melancholy and depressing undertone (no pun intended).
I do not want to elaborate on depression in general here or discuss some of the aspects shown. Instead, I just wanna stay with the film as a creative achievement or rather why I think it is no such thing. Admittedly, it is also not on failure territory, but I am animation lover and not even for me it did a lot, so people without a soft spot for animation will probably have an even harder time trying to appreciate it. Another aspect that left me really underwhelmed here was the music. There three songs or so, but not one of them made a mark really. One little tongue-in-cheek inclusion was perhaps Weaver's narration on one occasion when she talks about the protagonist feeling like a human and some evil creature is making its way out of said human. If you know the franchise Weaver is still most known for, you get the reference. I wonder if this was exactly like that in the base material or got altered for the film. Sounds almost like too much of a coincidence. Other than that, there is the usual talk about dark clouds as metaphors for sentiments and of course people not taking the protagonist and her illness seriously when the reality is (and also was in 2014 I assume) that depression was widely recognized and accepted and people diagnosed with it got treated very much different, with far more patience already compared to healthy people and sadly there is more than just a few black sheep seeking personal profit from it and eventually maybe even believing their own made-up story because everybody else does.
Overall, I would say that I cannot really come up with a single reason why people should watch this film instead of simply reading Swados' story. The poodle was fine I guess. The production lacks goodness, let alone excellence and also content-wise I would say there was nothing included in here that you do not know already if you have very basic knowledge about depression. Last but not least, I can say that I would have liked this film more if it had been funnier. Of course, you can say that it is a serious subject, so no need for that, but they were trying to make an impact comedy-wise too, so I gotta say that it was not successful. The approach felt extremely random. There is nothing hilarious about a group of people playing golf and suddenly the protagonist randomly sticks out her head from one of the holes. Many more examples there. I mean I do not expect huge punchlines that would make a room go crazy with laughter, but it seems almost as if they were trying to make the people laugh and not making them laugh at the same time. That is it then I suppose. It's a thumbs-down from my side surely and I am rating and reviewing this as somebody not too far away from the state of depression, but without a diagnosis. I am a bit curious though what actually depressed people think about this film and how they like it. Or dislike it. Probably they have not even seen it though and in the case of this film, it is not a bad thing overall. Just like it is not a bad thing here that it is fairly difficult to find this movie nowadays. Better go watch something else instead.
Given the topic and the money HBO got, it is also no surprise they got some big names on board here for the voice cast: Oscar-nominated actress Sigourney Weaver can pretty much be heard from beginning to end. Steve Buscemi who I quite like may sound like the male protagonist as he is credited second, but truth is that everybody except Weaver has almost no material to work with sadly. Fred Armisen with all his Emmy nominations some may be familiar with too and I was a bit surprised to see Stephanie Hsu listed in the credits briefly as a voice actress too. She is not listed on imdb for this film, so I am not sure if it is the one who scored an Oscar nomination last year or somebody with the same name. Anyway, if we go back to the film I would say it is overall a very mediocre outcome and nothing about it stays in the mind. Kinda telling that it scored only one single nomination (according to imdb) and this happened with Tribeca although it deals with a subject where people would have loved to give it awards to I'm sure. This is often the case though that people who have nothing to say make films about socially-relevant subjects and forget to really deliver creativity in the process and their work is still praised as meaningful by the confused because of said subject. But yeah, this film did not even manage to make waves at all. The animation is tolerable, but nothing more, not particularly good and for a film of half an hour I think that honestly they should already come up with better quality. We've seen a similar style on Red Bull commercials that run for 30 seconds. I also think this film could have been 10 minutes shorter overall as it did drag quite a bit here and there. The approach sometimes feels like a Peanuts episode with the melancholy and depressing undertone (no pun intended).
I do not want to elaborate on depression in general here or discuss some of the aspects shown. Instead, I just wanna stay with the film as a creative achievement or rather why I think it is no such thing. Admittedly, it is also not on failure territory, but I am animation lover and not even for me it did a lot, so people without a soft spot for animation will probably have an even harder time trying to appreciate it. Another aspect that left me really underwhelmed here was the music. There three songs or so, but not one of them made a mark really. One little tongue-in-cheek inclusion was perhaps Weaver's narration on one occasion when she talks about the protagonist feeling like a human and some evil creature is making its way out of said human. If you know the franchise Weaver is still most known for, you get the reference. I wonder if this was exactly like that in the base material or got altered for the film. Sounds almost like too much of a coincidence. Other than that, there is the usual talk about dark clouds as metaphors for sentiments and of course people not taking the protagonist and her illness seriously when the reality is (and also was in 2014 I assume) that depression was widely recognized and accepted and people diagnosed with it got treated very much different, with far more patience already compared to healthy people and sadly there is more than just a few black sheep seeking personal profit from it and eventually maybe even believing their own made-up story because everybody else does.
Overall, I would say that I cannot really come up with a single reason why people should watch this film instead of simply reading Swados' story. The poodle was fine I guess. The production lacks goodness, let alone excellence and also content-wise I would say there was nothing included in here that you do not know already if you have very basic knowledge about depression. Last but not least, I can say that I would have liked this film more if it had been funnier. Of course, you can say that it is a serious subject, so no need for that, but they were trying to make an impact comedy-wise too, so I gotta say that it was not successful. The approach felt extremely random. There is nothing hilarious about a group of people playing golf and suddenly the protagonist randomly sticks out her head from one of the holes. Many more examples there. I mean I do not expect huge punchlines that would make a room go crazy with laughter, but it seems almost as if they were trying to make the people laugh and not making them laugh at the same time. That is it then I suppose. It's a thumbs-down from my side surely and I am rating and reviewing this as somebody not too far away from the state of depression, but without a diagnosis. I am a bit curious though what actually depressed people think about this film and how they like it. Or dislike it. Probably they have not even seen it though and in the case of this film, it is not a bad thing overall. Just like it is not a bad thing here that it is fairly difficult to find this movie nowadays. Better go watch something else instead.
