The Toe Tactic (2008)

Mona is nearly overwhelmed by grief and depression. After her father's death, she's cut herself off: leaving teaching - she now temps as an office assistant, ignoring her mother's calls, ... See full summary »

Director:

Emily Hubley

Writer:

Emily Hubley

Stars:

Lily Rabe, H. Jon Benjamin, Xander Berkeley

Cast

Credited cast:
Lily Rabe	...	Mona Peek
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
H. Jon Benjamin	...	Police Officer
Xander Berkeley	...	Dad
Don Byron	...	Ralph (voice)
Kevin Corrigan	...	Hector Freegood
Richard Cox	...	Stalker Timmy
David Cross	...	Timmy (voice)
Ann Dowd	...	Honey Woman
Jon Glaser	...	Tooot
Hillary Hubley	...	Young Mona
Sakina Jaffrey	...	Lacticia Utt
Daniel London	...	Elevator Man
Jane Lynch	...	Honey Strumpet
Andrea Martin	...	Honey (voice)
Eugene Mirman	...	Night Elevator Man

Storyline

Mona is nearly overwhelmed by grief and depression. After her father's death, she's cut herself off: leaving teaching - she now temps as an office assistant, ignoring her mother's calls, talking to herself in mirrors, and rejecting any offered intimacy. She's watched over by comic extraterrestrial beings whom we see as cartoon squiggles. They ensure that random acts bring her connections - with a neighbor boy, his mother, and his surreptitious piano teacher (the lad wants to surprise his mom). She also meets an elevator operator in the building where she temps for Ms. Hadaway, a widow with perfect diction. Can Mona take a few steps on the road to expressing emotion?

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Plot Keywords:

piano | extraterrestrial | extraterrestrial being | teacher | elevator | 

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Genres:

Animation | Drama

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 January 2009 (USA)

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Orchard Pictures, Hubbub, Hermetic Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

83 min

Color:

Color

User Reviews

Hubley's doodles brought to life?

One recalls reviewers and critics proclaiming what a breakthrough "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" was in 1988 when it convincingly combined cartoons and live (a.k.a. human) interaction in the same frames throughout a feature length film. The technique wasn't new, of course -- one also recalls live hands drawing real-time animations in cartoons of the 1930s -- but the method was.

How it was done here, one hardly knows, but it seems that here, the cartoons have taken over. Not in their predominance in the film, mind you, but in that they seem to be controlling every aspect of the actors', especially the lead actor's, lives. The larger context of the film, you see, is that the cartoon characters are playing a game, a board game, a table game, a card game, call it what you will, but a game that at least creates situations in which the live actors' interactions are led to behave in some particular manner or other, or to achieve some predestined result.

But what was the genesis of such a film? One gets the impression that creator-animator-director Emily Hubley had been doodling in class throughout her schooling, and that this film represents some collection of those doodles animated and set into a story, whether real from her life experiences or dreamed as she drew.

This may or may not be the case, of course, but it's the impression that this viewer, at least, was left with throughout the film.

Aside from the cartoons, perhaps the most interesting aspect of this film is the offbeat mixture of A-, B-, and C-list actors in the cast. As others have observed, it certainly ain't the story.