Voices Of A Distant Star (2003)

( I've wanted to review this from the start of Unseen, but I couldn't find new words to do it justice...so this is the piece I wrote for IMDB about it, with a few slight modifications. I think you'll understand what I want to say about the film if you read this.)

Voices Of A Distant Star- it's not anime, it's something else...it's one of the best films I've ever seen.

The plot is basically the story of two friends, (one on earth, the other in space), sending cellphone text messages to each other across widening distances during a war.

I've told you everything and nothing.

This is...

WOW.

It's a flawed masterpiece of short science fiction literature. I have never run across a piece of sci-fi that does what this does. It's a melding of image, word, and music into a 25 minute tone poem or short story of what our future holds.

WOW.

This is far from perfect technically, but considering this was done basically by one guy on his home PC, the odd visuals are understandable.

This isn't anime.

This isn't anything that I've ever seen before.

It is, but it's not. You've seen this before but something about it is different.

It's a self-contained tale that makes you want to know more, but at the same time more isn't needed. It's a short story.

Yes it's flawed, but there are bits that...I can't describe this delicate piece of art. Forgive me, I could tell you everything about it and you wouldn't discover it for yourself...well you would, but it wouldn't have the same experience as just seeing it.

It's not perfect, but its flawed beauty is simply one of the best things I've seen or experienced in the realms of film and science fiction. My initial reaction was OH MY GOD.

This is a feeling; how do you quantify a feeling? And it's a feeling of quiet lyrical beauty. This is an ephemeral object, a melting snowflake, a day of perfect sunshine...or of cold rain. It is something that exists in the moment and is about distance and absence and the passage of time and...

This is something that just is.

It's a flawed work of art.

(Warning, there is a novel that extends the story...I've read the ending and it should be avoided since it changes things)

Currently out on DVD

(FYI: The director did 5 Centimeters A Second which I reviewed back in March)