Ice Merchants (2022)

Ice Merchants Review

Ice Merchants is a 2022 Portuguese animated short film directed by Joao Gonzales. It is a flawed Oscar nominee.

Every day, a father and his son jump with a parachute from their steep cold house attached to a cliff, to go to the village on the ground, far away where they sell the ice they produce daily. The animation here is definitely the highlight. It is very old-fashioned and artistic in its style while benefitting from an excellent sense of movement. The dizzying effect of extreme eights was wonderfully achieved here.

My issue lies with the plot, which is only serviceable. I get that the director sought to recreate what it must feel like doing a job as dangerous and as monotonous as this one, but in recreating that repetition, the movie itself became repetitive. The lack of dialogue wasn’t an issue in terms of storytelling, but it did hurt the characterization unfortunately. The movie benefits from a great sense of place as its imagery is frequently outstanding and highly unique, but it needed more of a heart to impact viewers emotionally.

Ice Merchants is a visually dazzling short with a memorable premise, but the repetitive execution lacking in emotion left a lot to be desired.

My Rating – 3.8