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The Toe TacticDirected by Emily Hubley, 2008 By Alyce Wilson Fledgling director Emily Hubley, who had previously directed short animated films and done animation for Hedwig and the Angry Inch, combines live action with animation in The Toe Tactic. The film stars Lily Rabe as Mona Peek, a young woman struggling with renewed feelings of loss stemming from her father's death, now that her mother is selling the family home. Unbenownst to her, several animated dogs are playing with her fate. They serve a dual purpose as Greek chorus and plot devices, as they play a strange card game that allows them to intervene in her life, such as by stealing her wallet. Because of their actions, she meets an interesting group of characters, including a young boy who wants to play the piano, the boy's mom, a piano teacher, an aging literary agent, and the elevator man who works in the agent's building. These characters can be intriguing, such as when the elevator man converts random conversations into songs, and yet they all seem more like a set of quirky characteristics than like fully realized characters. Like the random turning of cards, the movie consists of a series of vignettes which connect in an often tangential and obscure way. While nontraditional narratives can work, they still need to be shaped in a way that drives the film. This film felt, instead, like the abstract, free-form variation on Tic Tac Toe that a young Mona had played with her father; not so much a game as a collective art project. Similarly, the animation used to stitch the film together seems more like a cerebral exercise than like an integral part of the story-telling. Hubley uses animation most effectively when representing Mona's internal dialogue, through an animated woman spied in reflections. In her first feature film, Hubley seems to have been more interested in experimentation than in story-telling. Hopefully, in her future efforts she'll will find a way to focus her creative vision. Rating: ** (Fair) Philadelphia Film Festival 2008
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