Seder-Masochism (2018)
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Seder-Masochism Movie Review
Seder-Masochism is a 2018 animated musical film directed and written by Nina Paley. It’s a solid, but somewhat disappointing flick.
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“I would have been happier
if you were more finally independent now“
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Let’s get that big negative out of the way first. ‘Sita Sings the Blues’, the director’s first feature film, is absolutely amazing. It blew my mind how well crafted and ultimately ingenious it was. It was so great that I expected great things from her again and she simply failed to deliver that level of greatness with her second effort unfortunately. It’s still a solid, at times admirable film, but never on that level of quality that its predecessor possessed.
Whereas the previous film was about Indian culture and religion, this one is about the Jewish one and Paley herself is Jewish so it’s weird that this wasn’t more up her valley. She literally makes fun of the various famous figures from this religion leading to a film that could have never been made before.
She also strongly criticizes the patriarchy system that arose around the beginning of agriculture and the highlight of the film, besides the music and I’ll touch upon that later, is easily its jokey nature which is best utilized in those mock interviews of sort. I really liked those and I wished that the movie incorporated more such conversations as they were very insightful.
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As for that last bit of dialogue that we get, it’s a mixed bag. On the one hand, Paley failed to incorporate her personal life into this film as smoothly as she did in ‘Sita’, but on the other hand, I still adored that conversation. It touched me personally, it was very deep and just listening to her father speak to her before her death was very sad, especially the part about her financial insecurities really hit home for me personally.
Seder-Masochism features the similar type of animation that Nina Paley did before and I have to say that I liked it. I am obviously aware how cheap this is, but the director did the best she could with such a small budget. While I do wonder what she could do with a much bigger budget and I hope that she gets it someday, I still for now really enjoy her cheap, but in its way very charming style with pleasing colors and good movements.
The highlight was obviously seeing the art models move, that was fantastic and very inspired. It was a great, original choice that paid off tremendously. And I absolutely do respect Paley for making her movies entirely on her own as she directs, writes and produces her features all by herself. That needs to be respected more, apart from Annecy International Animated Film Festival.
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I did find the movie very uneven and flawed, though. Yes, the pacing is very problematic and she simply did not edit this movie well at all as it felt disparate and a collection of shorts rather than a full feature. It also needed a more sophisticated thematic approach and less music.
But I still adored the score, even if we get too many songs here. The movie is hugely entertaining in the way it mixes these old arts with the newer music to make fun of religion or comment upon some historical events. That was beautifully imagined and very authentic. I just enjoyed how brisk the movie is and how fun its very energetic and well chosen songs are.
Seder-Masochism is a disappointing second feature from Nina Paley whose first film was so much better. This flick is weakly edited and seeming more like a collection of shorts than a full feature film. But still it’s very charming and a lot of fun in its mixture of religious and historical events with lively, well chosen songs plus some of the conversations are quite terrific.
