Half-Life making the festival rounds
Apr 2nd, 2008 by Chris Cooney
Last year I was given the wonderful opportunity to contribute (about 2 seconds of rotoscoped animation) to the wildly creative and unique independent film Half-Life. No…not THAT Half Life. This is director Jennifer Phang’s feature film Half-Life,
…a supernormal tale about self-absorbed and disillusioned suburbanites who live in a futuristic time of natural disasters, suffocating air quality, and accelerating global cataclysms.
Single mom Saura Wu and her two kids, Pam and Timothy, struggle to rebuild their family in the presence of a sinister, but charming, interloper. Pam seeks refuge in her object of desire, a young hipster named Scott who, in turn, attempts to jar his fundamentalist parents out of their denial of his gay identity. Timothy, meanwhile, stumbles upon a way to develop and hone paranormal powers that he summons to alter everyone’s reality.
Modern and philosophical, Half-Life masterfully blends menacing rage with the tenderness and vulnerability of youth to create a tale that injects an empowering and persevering hopefulness into the family’s fatalistic fears of a disintegrating world. A visually ambitious accomplishment filled with gorgeous cinematography, handcrafted animation, and expertly concocted faux news reports, this auspicious directorial debut is without precedent and firmly establishes Jennifer Phang as an exciting talent to watch.
Half-Life made it into both Sundance and SXSW this year; very, very impressive for Jen’s first feature film!!
My brother Jon Cooney did the artwork for the opening titles of the film.
