Alright, Almost-Nazi-Fucker
March 29, 2023 11:12 PM Subscribe
My Year of Dicks An Oscar-nominated autobiographical cartoon about a woman deciding she's old enough to lose her virginity; less about penises then about high school boys being dicks.
I loved this too and it should have won the Oscar. The stylistic changes are so playful for each dick - the anime parody at one point, the full-on splitscreen horror for the Nazi, it's all so well done. FWIW, there are no actual dicks shown, but there is tons of honesty about sex and some truly uncomfortable moments (her father omg).
The content, the style, the humor, the heart...so disappointing it lost to whatever that pablum was that won.
posted by mediareport at 3:58 AM on March 30, 2023 [8 favorites]
The content, the style, the humor, the heart...so disappointing it lost to whatever that pablum was that won.
posted by mediareport at 3:58 AM on March 30, 2023 [8 favorites]
We went and saw the entire set of Oscar nominated animated shorts this year and this was far-and-away the standout. The range of animation styles on display are so widely varied, but also very on point for the different vignettes throughout the whole story. It was funny and sad and enraging and smart. So good.
While watching it was also clear which one of the nominated animated shorts was going to win: the one backed by JJ Abrams and Apple, the one with big stars doing the voiceovers, the one where every. single. line. was a cliched platitude..."maybe you're not lost, maybe you've just not been found yet" AAAAAaaaagh it was so bad we were openly mocking it by the end and probably about to get shushed.
Skip the winner. Go watch My Year of Dicks.
posted by mcstayinskool at 5:43 AM on March 30, 2023 [12 favorites]
While watching it was also clear which one of the nominated animated shorts was going to win: the one backed by JJ Abrams and Apple, the one with big stars doing the voiceovers, the one where every. single. line. was a cliched platitude..."maybe you're not lost, maybe you've just not been found yet" AAAAAaaaagh it was so bad we were openly mocking it by the end and probably about to get shushed.
Skip the winner. Go watch My Year of Dicks.
posted by mcstayinskool at 5:43 AM on March 30, 2023 [12 favorites]
Created and written by Pamela Ribon, aka Pamie, who has been featured here previously. And also previously. And other times too.
posted by 41swans at 5:44 AM on March 30, 2023 [12 favorites]
posted by 41swans at 5:44 AM on March 30, 2023 [12 favorites]
Pamie worked hard for years for this particular moment in the sun. I'm so fucking proud of her, and hope we get to see more from her.
posted by jscalzi at 6:17 AM on March 30, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by jscalzi at 6:17 AM on March 30, 2023 [8 favorites]
We watched this a few weeks ago when we were wandering through Hulu and I was like "lol my year of dicks; sure let's watch that." It was really excellent, highly recommended!!
posted by obfuscation at 6:29 AM on March 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by obfuscation at 6:29 AM on March 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
Wow this is absolutely excellent. Teen flashbacks! Intense and beautiful. Thank you for sharing.
posted by Zumbador at 6:35 AM on March 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Zumbador at 6:35 AM on March 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
I've been a fan of Pamie since she was part of the Television without Pity ecosystem, so it was fun to see her pop into the Oscar spotlight like this. It's so, so good.
That said, I'm sad that the winning short has taken so much heat - I've followed the illustrator on Instagram for a while and his drawings really were a nice balm during the worst of the pandemic. He also spent a lot of the awards season hiding in bathrooms to get away from things, which I find very relatable.
posted by PussKillian at 7:17 AM on March 30, 2023 [5 favorites]
That said, I'm sad that the winning short has taken so much heat - I've followed the illustrator on Instagram for a while and his drawings really were a nice balm during the worst of the pandemic. He also spent a lot of the awards season hiding in bathrooms to get away from things, which I find very relatable.
posted by PussKillian at 7:17 AM on March 30, 2023 [5 favorites]
I always did like Pamie. I love the rotoscope and that she's got old video of herself in the 90's for this, everything. And the ending, awww.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:12 AM on March 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:12 AM on March 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
AAAAAaaaagh it was so bad we were openly mocking it by the end and probably about to get shushed.
At the screening we attended there was maybe a bit of murmuring in the theater as the platitudes piled up, until the "I have something to tell you" reveal, at which point what seemed to be the entire audience burst out in laughter. There was one woman whose catharsis lasted at least thirty seconds.
That said, I'm sad that the winning short has taken so much heat - I've followed the illustrator on Instagram for a while and his drawings really were a nice balm
The art was gorgeous. But it went on too long and gave you too much time to think about how long it was, and as soon as that process started every little shortcoming stood out. If it had been shorter, if the characters had been clearer or had arcs, if the dialog hadn't been platitudes on top of platitudes, and/or if it hadn't had such a money machine behind it, it could have been sort of a charming thing. Even at half the length with better dialog and sharper characters I still wouldn't have picked it as a winner, but I might not be as annoyed that it won.
Also too long for its own good: "The Ice Merchants," where if you think about the damn hats at all you realize they're saved at the end by a pile of their own trash, which undercuts the environmental message a bit.
Anyway. "My Year of Dicks" was great.
posted by fedward at 8:29 AM on March 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
At the screening we attended there was maybe a bit of murmuring in the theater as the platitudes piled up, until the "I have something to tell you" reveal, at which point what seemed to be the entire audience burst out in laughter. There was one woman whose catharsis lasted at least thirty seconds.
That said, I'm sad that the winning short has taken so much heat - I've followed the illustrator on Instagram for a while and his drawings really were a nice balm
The art was gorgeous. But it went on too long and gave you too much time to think about how long it was, and as soon as that process started every little shortcoming stood out. If it had been shorter, if the characters had been clearer or had arcs, if the dialog hadn't been platitudes on top of platitudes, and/or if it hadn't had such a money machine behind it, it could have been sort of a charming thing. Even at half the length with better dialog and sharper characters I still wouldn't have picked it as a winner, but I might not be as annoyed that it won.
Also too long for its own good: "The Ice Merchants," where if you think about the damn hats at all you realize they're saved at the end by a pile of their own trash, which undercuts the environmental message a bit.
Anyway. "My Year of Dicks" was great.
posted by fedward at 8:29 AM on March 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
Should have won for best short! Impossibly better than the actual winner. (Would have also gladly accepted the Flying Sailor but this was more fun.)
posted by Going To Maine at 8:36 AM on March 30, 2023
posted by Going To Maine at 8:36 AM on March 30, 2023
That said, I'm sad that the winning short has taken so much heat - I've followed the illustrator on Instagram for a while and his drawings really were a nice balm during the worst of the pandemic. He also spent a lot of the awards season hiding in bathrooms to get away from things, which I find very relatable.
Neither the art nor the source material were the problem with the winner.
posted by Going To Maine at 9:07 AM on March 30, 2023
Neither the art nor the source material were the problem with the winner.
posted by Going To Maine at 9:07 AM on March 30, 2023
The winning short, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, was pretty to look at but yeah, the dialog was just a bucket of empowerment cliches.
My Year of Dicks so much better than any of the others but I knew in the theater that it would never win.
posted by octothorpe at 9:50 AM on March 30, 2023
My Year of Dicks so much better than any of the others but I knew in the theater that it would never win.
posted by octothorpe at 9:50 AM on March 30, 2023
My wife took our 13 year old son to watch the shorts and (aside from the sheer joy she got out of his utter embarrassment being next to her during Dicks) he liked them all. His personal pick was the ostrich short, he felt that one was a winner in his book.
I found Dicks on Hulu after he refused to tell me anything about it (out of sheer embarrassment, again) and yeah, it was very good.
posted by caution live frogs at 11:09 AM on March 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
I found Dicks on Hulu after he refused to tell me anything about it (out of sheer embarrassment, again) and yeah, it was very good.
posted by caution live frogs at 11:09 AM on March 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
I will watch the whole thing eventually, but I was so overjoyed at "I'm worth double. Bitch." that I need to just sit it with it for a moment.
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 11:12 AM on March 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 11:12 AM on March 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
I loved this. "Isn't that kind?"
It's really remarkable.
posted by os tuberoes at 2:16 PM on March 30, 2023
It's really remarkable.
posted by os tuberoes at 2:16 PM on March 30, 2023
This was great, thanks for posting! I especially loved her reactions to the fathers' "good talk", I felt them all too.
posted by winesong at 4:32 PM on March 30, 2023
posted by winesong at 4:32 PM on March 30, 2023
That said, I'm sad that the winning short has taken so much heat - I've followed the illustrator on Instagram for a while and his drawings really were a nice balm during the worst of the pandemic.
Ok, I see what you mean. I'd flipped through the book in a used bookshop after the awards and it didn't do much for me - but might have in a Jonathan Livingston Seagull way when I was younger, and being honest I could probably always use a nice dose of balm, so I'll just chalk it up to being in the wrong mood when I watched the short. It just seemed so obviously designed to be goshdarn appealing, and to me didn't come close to the stylistic playfulness, emotional depth and just plain *adventurousness* of My Year of Dicks.
Your comment did get me nosing around to find out more about The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, which led me to this WaPo article from just after the book was published in Oct 2019 and gave me a much better sense of the very sweet "Nice Things happen to Nice Guy" story behind the book and its surprising online grassroots popularity. Good for him, and for everyone who liked it. Thanks for sticking up for it and clueing me in, PussKillian. (In the spirit of balminess, that's a WaPo gift link :)
posted by mediareport at 6:44 PM on March 30, 2023 [4 favorites]
Ok, I see what you mean. I'd flipped through the book in a used bookshop after the awards and it didn't do much for me - but might have in a Jonathan Livingston Seagull way when I was younger, and being honest I could probably always use a nice dose of balm, so I'll just chalk it up to being in the wrong mood when I watched the short. It just seemed so obviously designed to be goshdarn appealing, and to me didn't come close to the stylistic playfulness, emotional depth and just plain *adventurousness* of My Year of Dicks.
Your comment did get me nosing around to find out more about The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, which led me to this WaPo article from just after the book was published in Oct 2019 and gave me a much better sense of the very sweet "Nice Things happen to Nice Guy" story behind the book and its surprising online grassroots popularity. Good for him, and for everyone who liked it. Thanks for sticking up for it and clueing me in, PussKillian. (In the spirit of balminess, that's a WaPo gift link :)
posted by mediareport at 6:44 PM on March 30, 2023 [4 favorites]
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I loved this but I do think there should be some content notes, just so people who are curious know what they’re getting into: There are depictions of attempted sexual assault, animated gore and body horror, and subtext about abusive parents. All beautifully handled, but in a visceral straightforward way.
posted by Mizu at 12:07 AM on March 30, 2023 [7 favorites]