Scan barcode
A review by hypops
The River at Night by Kevin Huizenga
4.0
Huizenga’s long-in-process work takes place during a single, extended, sleepless night (imagine Winsor McCay meets James Joyce). The visual inventiveness, playfulness, and sheer artistry on display are absolutely jaw-dropping. There are images and sequences that I will long remember and return to in the years to come.
But for all of its incredible visual craft (the “how”), I just can’t get into the characters and themes (the “what”). The two main characters, Glenn and Wendy, are youngish, childless, white professionals (aka “aging hipsters”) anxious about their respective careers and shared domestic life. One night, as Glenn attempts futilely to fall asleep, his wandering mind reaches back through his life and connects it to his reading of John McPhee’s Basin and Range, to his obsession with scheduling and productivity, and to a thousand other inconsequential thoughts and meditations.
It’s all too grandiose and filled with dull armchair philosophizing. But, damn, Huizenga can draw!
But for all of its incredible visual craft (the “how”), I just can’t get into the characters and themes (the “what”). The two main characters, Glenn and Wendy, are youngish, childless, white professionals (aka “aging hipsters”) anxious about their respective careers and shared domestic life. One night, as Glenn attempts futilely to fall asleep, his wandering mind reaches back through his life and connects it to his reading of John McPhee’s Basin and Range, to his obsession with scheduling and productivity, and to a thousand other inconsequential thoughts and meditations.
It’s all too grandiose and filled with dull armchair philosophizing. But, damn, Huizenga can draw!