Joy Street

Playing at Sundance, among other major film festivals, Suzan Pitt's latest (older AV librarians will remember her as the creator of the controversial 16mm short Asparagus--the cause of a few patron complaints) is characteristically dark in theme (at least initially), quirky, and well-animated. A lonely, depressed woman chain-smokes, drinks, and slowly spirals into a suicidal fugue. Slashing her wrists, she unconsciously dreams up an animated mouse who leaps off an ashtray, dances to some upbeat music, and then--discovering the woman--cries a veritable river of tears, transforms into something like Mighty Mouse, and carries her into a park (which grows into a jungle) where she's healed through nature. Although it's being billed as "psychological poetry," I found it, at times, a labored effort--and not nearly as joltingly imaginative as Asparagus was a decade ago. An optional purchase. Aud: C, P. (R. Pitman)