Currently screening amongst the American Spectrum shorts at the 2016 Indy Film Fest, writer/director Danny Madden's 5-minute animated/live-action All Your Favorite Shows! weaves together both the humorous and rather harrowing sides of a culture of rabid consumption into a short film that is dizzying, impressive, completely captivating and one of those little gems that you simply love to discover at a film festival.

The film somewhat brings to mind the 2010 Academy Award winning Logorama, a French film that may have as its greatest pop culture reference having inspired a vignette from a 2012 episode of The Simpsons. To his credit, one is never quite sure exactly where Madden is going with All Your Favorite Shows!, which seems to simultaneously appreciate the advantages of a connected universe and be rather repulsed by them.

The film features 2D animation along with a wide variety of cinematic references to films such as Persepolis, Video Drome, The Matrix and others with hi-speed, precise editing and a sound design that is creative, fun and spirited.

What's it all mean?

I have a feeling that I took All Your Favorite Shows! a tad more seriously than the average viewer, myself being drawn to the facial expressions of a central character, animated in presence, whose entire being is enveloped by the surrounding images. It feels like a warning of sorts, but pone with an appreciation of the world in which it is set even as it is occasionally overwhelmed by it.

The best films leave you reflecting on their meaning long after the closing credits and, indeed, this was my experience with All Your Favorite Shows! The film was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize for film at SXSW and has also screened at Los Angeles Film Festival, Nantucket Film Festival and Maryland Film Festival among others.

Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic