NYICFF 2016 Day 2: MOLLY MONSTER (2016) plus a note on the GIRLS POV COLLECTION

An early day at NYICFF and only one movie. (Not to worry I'm going heavy tomorrow whit two features and two shorts programs.

Nina Gurlick tries to toss t-shirts to a sleepy audience

I have to give a huge amount of apologies for saying that Nina Guralnick didn't quite whip up the crowd last night, I think the crowd was overly subdued. I say this because I watched her kick ass in her intro today for MOLLY MONSTER only to have the audience not really be into the t-shirt toss. If the crowd isn't leaping then the problem is with them since the line "who wants a t-shirt" kind of hung in the air exactly like bricks don't (apologies to Douglas Adams). It was watching the crowd today that I realized Gurlick has what it takes and is now the uber cool t-shirt mistress. (I just hope the next bunch of audiences wake up and have fun)

Before the feature they ran a short called OCTOPUS about an Octopus trying to bake a cake but one of it's tentacles wants a chocolate cake so it becomes a battle for what kind of cake it's going to be. Its an absolute joy and it had everyone in the audience roaring with laughter.

MOLLY MONSTER is based on a German TV series about Molly, her best friend Edison (a wind up toy), her parents, her uncles and the people where she lives.  As the film opens Molly is going to be a big sister. Her mother has aid an egg and her mom and dad have gone off to Egg Island to hatch the egg. Molly had hoped to go but she's deemed too young so her uncles come to stay with her. However things go sideways when Molly realizes that the hat she knitted for her sibling was left behind. Molly and Edison then head off to find Egg Island with the hat while everyone else tries to find Molly.

Great to look at film is going to play best for the under eight crowd. I say this begrudgingly because the pieces, the songs the jokes and the basic plot are all really good (come on there are fart jokes and a song tells the audience to pick their nose it doesn't get better than that) but somehow the bits don't hang together. It's as if they came up with all of these pieces that are Molly's trip, but they couldn't completely stitch them together to make a satisfying whole, I love every piece of the film but it doesn't connect up.

That said the kids absolutely loved it.

The film has two more play dates one on each of the next two weekends and it's worth seeing if you have little kids. Tickets can be had here.
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The GIRLS POV COLLECTION is a retrospective of  shorts from the last ten years. Until I saw the program book last night I didn't know what they are showing and now that I know I have to say it's a great collection. I've seen all but one of the films and this is as good a collection as you are likely to see. Never mind if you're not a girl, this is a just a great collection of short films across the board.

The collection plays on the March 5th and 20th and is absolutely worth your time. For tickets and more information go here.
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And with that I bid you good night. I have some rest to get since I'm doing heavy lifting tomorrow with a full day at the festival.