IDIOTS AND ANGELS

(USA, 2008, 78 mins)

35mm

Producer: Bill Plympton
Executive Producer: Biljana Labovic
Editor: Kevin Palmer
Music: Greg Sextro, Nicole Renaud, Corey Allen Jackson, Rachel Garniez, Hank Bones, Didier Carmier, 3 Leg Torso, Tom Waits, Pink Martini

Following a career spanning decades, animation icon Bill Plympton thrusts his most sublimely provocative vision to date upon the world. His latest feature-length endeavor, a darkly comic fantasia without words, focuses on a vicious and dastardly fellow who haunts seedy locales. Perhaps due to his amoral intentions, he slowly is wasting away. One morning, he awakes to discover angel wings growing on his back—wings he's unable to remove. And our savage protagonist, against his will, finds himself compelled to perform acts of kindness. Can he be weaned off of his animalistic, self-satisfying and parasitic human traits? And as our cretin is separated from his base desires, how will others respond to the wings? Will they feel a gnawing jealousy? Will they try to destroy this enlightened one and reap the Holy benefits for their own selfish gains? Utilizing the character designs and pencil drawings that have become his signature, Plympton conjures a setting of twisted magic for this visually dazzling, wonderfully irreverent and imaginatively violent cautionary tale, in which morality clashes with opportunity. Offering the viewer a mishmash of philosophical pretense and inventive imagery, Plympton unfurls a distinctive, engaging fairytale that is joyous to behold.

–Landon Zakheim

---

---

For ticketing information please phone 1.866.AFI FEST or email boxoffice@afi.com