The title of cartoonist and graphic novelist Dash Shaw’s animated feature is actually not metaphorical, although the film itself surely is. Dash (voiced by Jason Schwartzman) and Assaf (Reggie Watts) are geeky high school social outcasts and best friends who write for the school paper, but turbulence erupts in their relationship when the paper’s editor Verti (Maya Rudolph) breaks up their partnership. Dash unearths a major cover-up--the school is built on an unstable seaside cliff on a major fault line--right when an earthquake sends it plunging into the ocean. Survival becomes a mix of The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno reworked as a video game: our heroes have to ascend the floors of the school--each being another class with its own social hierarchy--to escape the rising waters. Susan Sarandon voices a crusty but maternal old lunch lady who adopts the group and fights like a figure from a 1990s Mortal Kombat video game. The film is animated in a purposely scribbly, thick-lined style that looks like cartoons sketched by kids. The story doesn’t always transcend the high school clichés it aims to spoof but the shaggy hand-drawn aesthetic and smart-aleck indie humor offers an interesting alternative to the polish of current computer animation. A strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)
My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea
Shout! Factory, 77 min., PG-13, DVD: $16.99, Blu-ray/DVD Combo: $26.99 Volume 33, Issue 3
My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea
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