Life Movie
Animation, Short Films, 13-Aug-2025
An inept pig-man sets out to make the movie of a lifetime, but not without a few small setbacks. “Life Movie,” created by Nick Lane, follows a neurotic digital creator in an energetic tag-along through a highly surveilled New York. "Moe R. Paine" aka "Moe" is a mutant pig-man. With surveillance drones and robotic dragonflies zipping outside his window, he wakes up from a nightmare where he’s brutally murdered in a state-sanctioned execution for his artistic outcries. Spurred by the dream, he sets out to make a movie attesting to the possibility of that really happening. His doorbell rings and two NYPD officers are there to inquire what Mo is cooking up. Mo tells them about the movie he wants to make and one of the officers, with lingering suspicion, agrees to join. In a roller-coaster ride of reduced frames, 3D VFX, and POV shifts, Lane engages our stimuli with every twist and turn. The quick pace and textured look between real footage and animation distinguish Lane to a trademark style also observed in his previous film, “Recovery.” -JM. Director: Nick Lane. DP: Brendan Gilliam. Cast: Nino Mora, Anna Pederson, Will Duncan, Mike Jensen, Anetta Urmey, Linnea Kilpi, Jacob Campbell, Angel Delgado.