Your Daily Short: ‘Everything Will Be Okay’

Welcome to Your Daily Short, a new feature on Film.com that will highlight and stream a short film at high noon. Every weekday. Every week.

TODAY’S SHORT: “Everything Will Be Okay” (Don Hertzfeldt) 2006

RUNNING TIME: 17:00

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: Welcome to the world of rogue animator Don Hertzfeldt, whose mentally anguished stick figures distill the human condition into a series of blunt observations about the world around us and the thoughts it inspires. Each of the three short films that he cut together into his first feature, 2012's “It’s Such a Beautiful Day,” follows the adventures of a seemingly ordinary man named Bill, who is among the modern cinema’s most wistfully relatable characters (despite the fact that he’s a series of wiggly lines who might be suffering from a fatal mental disorder).

“Everything Will Be Okay” is the first installment of the trilogy, and a beautiful introduction into the headspace of one of the few animators who is actively pushing the medium forward.

Watch the previous Daily Short: “Bambi Meets Godzilla”

Do you have a favorite short film that you would like us to feature as Your Daily Short? Whether it’s something you love, something you made, or both, send it along to Filmdotcomshorts@Gmail.com and you might see it on the site!

Categories: Columns

Tags: Animation, Don Hertzfeldt, Short Film, Your Daily Short

Box Office Fiasco: Everything Bombs

Hollywood spent last weekend patting itself on the back at the Academy Awards, but it’s a very different story this weekend, as every single new release completely bombed. You know what they say: Pride goeth before the fall.

Leading the charge straight down the drain was, of course, Bryan Singer’s ill-advised CGI fantasia “Jack the Giant Slayer,” which opened with $28 million to take the title of first loser. That doesn’t sound too bad until you consider the fact that the movie cost north of $200 million. To put things in perspective, “John Carter,” which opened almost exactly one year ago and is considered one of the biggest flops in film history, earned $30 million in its first weekend. So that’s not good.

And the news wasn’t any better for the weekend’s other two new wide releases. “21 and Over,” a blatant ripoff of “The Hangover” written by, well, the guys who wrote “The Hangover,” crashed and burned to the tune of just $9 million, good for third place. And the horror sequel “The Last Exorcism Part II” brought in only $8 million to land in fourth place, though at least it didn’t cost much to make either.

Pretty much the only good news at the box office this weekend came from the Melissa McCarthy comedy “Identity Thief,” which exploited its weak competition to drag in another $9.7 million. That brings it’s total to $107.5 million to date, making it the first film of 2013 to break the $100 million mark.

Of course, box office salvation is on the horizon, as the presumed blockbuster “Oz the Great and Powerful” is set to open in theaters next weekend. Will it be enough to turn around Hollywood’s fortunes? One thing’s for sure: It certainly couldn’t do any worse.

Here’s a look at this weekend’s full box office top ten, courtesy of Hollywood.com:

1. “Jack the Giant Slayer” – $28m (our review)
2. “Identity Thief” – $9.7m (our review)
3. “21 and Over” – $9m (our review)
4. “The Last Exorcism Part II” – $8m (our review)
5. “Snitch” – $7.7m (our review)
6. “Escape From Planet Earth” – $6.7m (our review)
7. “Safe Haven” – $6.3m (our review)
8. “Silver Linings Playbook” – $5.9m (our review)
9. “A Good Day to Die Hard” – $4.5m (our review)
10. “Dark Skies” – $3.6m (our review)

Categories: News

Tags: 21 and Over, Box office, Jack the Giant Slayer