Redundant and unnecessary.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Am i the only person who has noticed that in the scene which appears to be TV static if you focus on one part you see bats and butterflies flying around and if you look at it another way you see Where's Waldo characters walking around. I've read countless reviews on Oddsac and none of them have yet to comment on this. This was without a doubt one of the most genius scenes i have ever seen!! I feel compelled to let people know about this as it was a complete mind-f*ck to me - in an awesome way. Before i noticed this i thought it was the most pointless scene ever - minutes of noisy, distorted static. Give it another watch, you will not be disappointed.

Let me first off lead by saying I am (or perhaps was) a rabid animal collective fan. I've seen them perform live before, and am familiar with their entire discography. This movie does little to provide an extra dimension to the animal collective 'experience' (and no, sadly, drugs don't seem to help much either) The visual experience of this movie is headache inducing, and it just keeps coming. Watching this, you quickly wonder how it became a full length movie project. Lots of quick cuts between disjointed scenes come together over heavy layers of visual effects and editing create a narrative that is impossible to follow. There are long stretches of this movie which play out similar to a winamp visualizer. There's never any attempt to explain the purpose of the visuals, and therein lies the conundrum of oddsac. The narrative isn't compelling enough to add up to anything, and the visuals simply aren't interesting enough to occupy a viewer for the running time.As for the music, I'm lukewarm about it. It's a continuation of the musical direction taken with merriweather, which wasn't my favorite but there seem to be many who disagree with me. There's a whole lot of geologist tweaking knobs in this soundtrack, creating music that would sound more at home on warp than anything else animal collective has ever released. It's less pop-infused than merriweather however, more suited for a background situation than being blasted at a party. If you like that artistic direction, you won't be disappointed with the music of Oddsac.My advice would be to simply close your eyes when this starts playing, or find a soundtrack later on if you're an animal collective fan. The visuals distract from any value that the soundtrack creates.

ODDSAC is truly a one of a kind. It helps the viewer a whole lot with the experience if one is familiar, and actually really likes, the music of Animal Collective pre-'Feels'. If you don't 'get' their music before that then chances are your not going to 'get' ODDSAC. Animal Collective have always been progressive visceral artists. They made music that would strike you emotionally in a very unfamiliar and new way, and they were redefining what a musical experience was for the history books, in my opinion. Not to say that they were the only ones doing this in the early-mid 2000's, but they definitely had something special, almost universal, about them. So go and give 'Here Comes The Indian' and 'Hollinndagain' a shot for an interesting experience.Critiquing this film as an outsider will, more likely than not, end with a misunderstanding of what Danny Perez & Animal Collective were shooting for. Thus one might criticize the fact that there is no narrative, that it's made up of sections that have nothing to do with each other, and that there are sections that are just unbearably unsettling visually and audibly. Thus one comes out of the film thinking this movie sucked and that those guys had no idea what they were doing, and most importantly that they are bad filmmakers. Well, in the eyes of a film critic, maybe those things are somewhat true.However, through the eyes of collective artists and art admirers, especially those of the generation to which Animal Collective adheres to, this visceral experience is one that is UNBELIEVABLY SWEET. The music is ridiculously innovative and new...enough said. The production of the music makes for an incredibly interesting sonic experience alone, and the visuals work tremendously with the audio to make for a unique and fruitful experience.Many will get hung up on the fact that this film is getting so much appreciation, and they just can't understand why. Well, it's all a matter of understanding where these guys are coming from artistically. If one doesn't get ODDSAC, then you probably don't like a lot of things that are tagged 'experimental' or 'weird' or 'visceral' or 'ambient' or whatever. And many will also get hung up on the fact that they feel excluded for not being able to 'get' these sort of things, so they'll talk badly about it. ODDSAC definitely serves its purpose for those that do 'get' it, and for those that do, the experience can be magnificent....and no you don't have to do drugs to get it.

Rarely does a new filmmaker have a built-in audience. An audience so rabid yet loyal, they would venture to a venue teeming with puffy coats, Uggs, and D-list celebrity to see a project connected to one of, as the purple-velvet-sport-coated announcer put it last night, "the hottest" bands today. Yes, I'm talking about the Sundance Film Festival.Director Danny Perez lucked out. As a roadie for the Black Dice, an oft favorite opener for the aforementioned "hot" Animal Collective, he became friends with the Collective and together embarked on a four-year long process of collaboration to create ODDSAC. Luck seems to cut both ways: Perez pairing with Animal Collective clearly got his first film a world premiere at Sundance, but when not backed by the sometimes brilliant soundtrack created by the band, the movie comes off as a disjointed film school project.The movie opened with a young woman pacing a room with fire dancers visibly outside the window, she is then occupied by black tar oozing out of a crack in the wall of the room. Perez should have saved this montage for the end, since it was the strongest and most beautiful of the film and it proved to be a tough act to follow.Unfortunately, it was all down hill from there. Heavily influenced by Matthew Barney of the Cremaster Cycle, the audience was forced into a disjointed journey that included a sad vampire, marshmallows eating a family, a food fight with a glittered man (straight from the Barney play book), and a midnight canoe ride, to mention a few. The bright points in the film were strictly auditory. The first line from Panda Bear's honeyed voice had audience members unclenching their armrests and settling back in their seats to listen to why he wishes he "wouldn't feel so drained, if he could only keep his hands away." Beautiful and pared down, this song was an oasis of calm after what seemed like an eternity of stylized TV snow and feedback.It was clear who had filled the seats of Prospector Square Theatre. The Q and A was directed mostly at Deacon, the Geologist, and Avey Tare (Panda Bear was sadly absent), while Danny Perez nervously swayed side-to-side. Questions about the collaborative process, where the band would be playing after the screening, and favorite films dominated over technical questions regarding ODDSAC. When one audience member directed a question at Perez in regards to the editing process and what tools he used, he answered candidly that you need, "...black curtains to block out the light and your girlfriend...leaves for the day and you spend five hours on YouTube..." Bless this lucky schmuck's heart.A part of me realizes that Danny Perez didn't expect his film to be graced by a world premiere at Sundance. This film would have fit better at Tromadance or Slamdance. Had the film been cut into shorts and peddled as music videos, it would have been easier to handle. Understanding that when this process began, Animal Collective had yet to create their more accessible albums Strawberry Jam and Merriweather Post Pavilion. This seems a better explanation for the "tweaked," less "songy" soundtrack, as explained by Avey Tare.When questioned about the meaning or plot of the film, Perez wanted to "leave it to you" to figure out what it means. I think he may not have known, either.-Wren Wangrud http://goldteef.blogspot.com/2010/01/oddsacat-sundance.html