Review: ‘Rocks in My Pocket’ hard-hitting but flawed
Signe Baumane’s independent feature “Rocks in My Pockets” blends two disparate animation traditions: the brooding moodiness of the Soviet-era Eastern European films and the autobiographical themes of many American shorts.
Baumane combines drawn animation, three-dimensional sets and stop-motion puppets to recount how three generations of intelligent, educated women in her family struggled with depression, possible schizophrenia and suicide. Twice, neighbors found her paternal grandmother, Anna, floundering in the shallow river near her home in the Latvian forest. Despite her obvious vigor, Anna’s premature death at 50 was ascribed to a mysterious heart problem. Two of Baumane’s cousins were suicides, and Baumane herself was diagnosed as manic-depressive before she left Latvia for the United States.
The simple, metamorphic drawings allow Baumane to illustrate the disconnect between the outer world her characters inhabit and an inner world haunted by malign spirits. At times, the simple designs and first-person narrative recall Torill Kove’s Oscar-winning short “The Danish Poet” (2006). But audiences wanted Kove’s gleeful fantasies to be true; Baumane’s darkly irrational world feels all too real, and the viewer wishes her characters could find a release from their suffering other than death.
Unfortunately, Baumane’s narration greatly weakens “Rocks in My Pockets.” The thick Latvian accent is less a problem than her stolid delivery. Animator-historian John Canemaker said that a crucial moment in the making of his Oscar-winning autobiographical short “The Moon and the Son” (2005) came when he fired himself as a voice and hired John Turturro. Even with her obviously limited budget, Baumane should have followed his example.
“Rocks in My Pockets” is not an easy film to watch: It rips the bandages — and scabs — off what are clearly festering wounds. But it serves as a striking reminder of the individuals who suffer similar pains in silence, and of the special power of animation to make the unseen visible.
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“Rocks in My Pockets.”
MPAA rating: None; suitable for ages 16 and older.
Running time: 1 hour, 28 minutes.
Playing: At Laemmle’s Royal, West L.A.
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