Review: It’s Such a Beautiful Day (2012)

It’s Such a Beautiful Day might just be one of the best pieces of animated movies I have ever seen. This movie is the first feature film by Don Hertzfeldt that incorporates psychological aspects as well as dark comedy. The main premise of the movie is that we see the world as Bill, someone that is suffering from an unknown neurological illness that causes him to forget and see surreal visions around him. The depiction of what is clearly a severe symptom of psychosis, is shown in such a way that it truly feels like we are experiencing these symptoms as well.

The movie feels like an attack of the senses, from intensive flashing lights to distorted audio, Hertzfeldt’s intentions were clear that he wants us to go through what Bill is going through. We see Bill’s memories get distorted throughout the movie as he descends further and further down the rabbit hole. How his childhood memories become sort of dreamlike and are filled with people that never existed, how he forgets the name of his ex and yet still remembers her face. The viewers can sort of expect that Bill would die in the end with no recollection of who he is, no memory of who he once was and who he once loved.

But this expectation is turned upside down at the end of the movie, with the narrator denying Bill’s death and stating that he will continue to live on forever. A beautiful rejection and an acceptance of immortality in a way that is not existentially torturing but instead, eternally alluring. This depiction of immortality that is not inherently melancholic, as I have known it, is something quite new that I rarely see due to our innate impermanence in the world. Being immortal feels like something no human can grasp and yet this animated movie about a stick figure is able to capture an essence of it that I have never seen before.

The movie does not try to hold your hand throughout the convoluted plot, the seizures, and the absurd family history of Bill. Instead, it asks you to chase it, try to picture yourself in his shoes, be Bill. There is still so much to explore in this movie that I could spend a couple of hours talking about how fluid the movement of the characters are and how all of this were hand-drawn. Therefore, if you have an hour to spare, please give this piece of art a watch because I doubt we will see anything similar in a long time.