If Anything Happens I Love You is a Netflix short that’s quietly amassing prizes on the festival circuit, and seems destined for an Oscar nomination. Produced by Laura Dern, and written and directed by Will McCormack — who’s one of eight people with story credits on Toy Story 4 — and Michael Govier, this sparsely animated film addresses school shootings and grief, and packs in a lifetime of emotions in just 12 minutes, without a single word of dialogue.
The Gist: Their shadows are arguing, but they sit quietly. The world is colorless, black-and-white. A man and woman eat dinner at opposite ends of a table that seems very, very long. She pushes a meatball around on her plate. He finishes off a can of an unidentified beverage and leaves the table. The shadows shout and gesture angrily. They go about their day, separately.
From here, I’ll call them Mom and Dad, because it soon becomes prevalent that a significant piece of their family is missing. Dad goes outside and sees a blue splotch on the side of the house; he puts his face in his hands. Mom carries a basket of laundry up the steps; the cat runs by her feet, into a bedroom, bumps a turntable and music starts playing. A soccer ball rolls across the screen. Dad and Mom’s shadows are soon joined by a third shadow, a young girl, and the shadows become humans. There’s joy and togetherness. The girl walks away from them and Mom and Dad’s shadows try to stop her but there’s no stopping her. She walks into school and as the full-color American flag hangs quietly in the gym, shots ring out.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: If Anything Happens I Love You is as evocative and heart-wrenching as the famous wordless sequence in Pixar classic Up.
Performance Worth Watching: Funny how the cat is the catalyst to break open the narrative here — the thing that does not speak recognizably in our reality knows how to navigate this wordless environment.
Memorable Dialogue: Speechless. Because what more needs to be said that hasn’t already been said again and again (and again, and again)?
Sex and Skin: None.
Our Take: It’s worth reiterating: the full-color American flag hangs quietly in the gym, underscoring the film’s resolute, urgent message. Will any action be taken by the American government to help prevent this from happening again (and again, and again)? To prevent families from being torn apart by grief, rage and unquenchable longing? If Anything Happens I Love You is a stunner, a true heartbreaker. It’s lovingly rendered in scratchy ink drawings that flow artfully and poignantly through the treacherous corridors of memory, where a single simple thing — a soccer ball, a song — can trigger warmth tinged with melancholy, love fringed with terror. It’s a lovely, evocative short. It’s also a horror film.
Our Call: STREAM IT. If Anything Happens I Love You will hang with you all day and into tomorrow and it should still be there in weeks, months, years. Because that’s exactly its purpose.
John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.
Stream If Anything Happens I Love You on Netflix
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November 21, 2020 at 05:00AM
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Stream It Or Skip It: 'If Anything Happens I Love You' on Netflix, an Animated Short About School Shootings That'll Leave You Heartbroken - Decider
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