Consuming Spirits

Critic's Pick:

"Entirely original. . .an inquiry into the darkest zones of the human heart. . .Weaves a complicated, intoxicating spell…a wonder." - 
A.O. Scott, New York Times FULL REVIEW: http://movies.nytimes.com/2012/12/12/movies/consuming-spirits-an-animated-film-by-chris-sullivan.html

"A monstrous visual achievement… one of the most uniquely humanistic animated features of all time." -
Joseph Jon Lanthier, Slant  FULL REVIEW: http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/consuming-spirits/6737"

"Recommended! An emotionally raw, thoroughly original film, a labor of painstaking love 15 years in the making….a haunted reverie…constructed of ugliness shot through with moments of unexpected beauty" -
Ian Buckwalter, NPR  FULL REVIEW: http://www.npr.org/2012/12/11/166681140/a-consuming-portrait-of-appalachian-life 

"There's a billboard depicted in Chris Sullivan's animated wonder "Consuming Spirits" advertising beer that promises "the taste that haunts the lips."

The same goes for the film. You've likely never tasted anything quite like it. Dense like a detailed graphic novel in the Chris Ware or R. Crumb vein. Michael Phillips, The Chicago Tribune.

PLOT: Set in a dreary rustbelt town, the film follows late-night radio host Earl Gray; wilting violet Gentian Violet, who cares for her Alzheimer’s-stricken mother; and Genny’s sometime boyfriend Victor Blue, whose days teeter at the edge of sobriety. While driving home one evening, Genny hits a nun in full habit on the highway. The accident sets off a string of events that reveal a long and twisted history between Genny, Earl, and Victor, involving family dysfunction, foster care, and old wounds longing to heal. Characters’s complicated emotions show the minute tragedies and triumphs that make up a life.