"In the film, a shopping cart is given a mind of its own, navigating the perils of city streets as it searches for a boy who has left his blanket in the basket.... Jesse Rosten, the director, said the idea arose when he and a friend spotted an overturned cart in a parking lot. A sad song was on the radio as they drove past it, adding to the potential for cinematic melancholy. 'We laughed the whole way home, imagining back stories for this down-and-out cart who was struggling against the world,' he said. 'We’ve all seen abandoned shopping carts out in the world, and the film is one take on how carts end up where they do.'"
I put an ellipsis where the article reveals the ending of the movie, which we watched here at Meadhouse. It's 10 minutes and we were predicting different endings, all of which I like better than the actual ending, so don't get too fixated on the actual ending...
I predict that — if you watch this — you'll predict at least 2 endings that you'll like better than the actual ending.
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11 comments:
Mark writes:
This short film is much more pleasant than the 2010 movie “Rubber”, about a renegade killer tire that takes to the road to commit mayhem.
https://youtu.be/hVKgY1ilx0Y
I am sure I am not the only one who immediately thought of that movie, but hope I am one of the first to comment.
Joe writes:
There is a very windy (serpentine) road near us that we take to get to the freeway. Cyclists use it but I've never seen anyone walking on the shoulder as it would be suicide.
The other day, about halfway (a mile or so in) there was an empty shopping cart on the side of the road. No idea how it got there...there are no homeless folks within twenty miles...a mystery.
The screen grab is from Twitter this morning. I first read 'Whale tried to eat me' and then 'Wales vs Switzerland.'
I was envisioning whales gulping down Swiss players on the field : )
Chris writes:
I liked the ending. Very touching. I could only think of worse endings. I liked how the themes of love and self-sacrifice are used. The cart reminded me of the dog Lassie on one of her adventures. The man who rescues the cart from the ditch reminded me of the Good Samaritan.
“But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds...”
Luke 10:33-34 NRSV
I had the idea that time had passed at the man pulling the cart from the ditch was the boy, grown up and now homeless because of the turn his life took when he lost his blankie.
Joel writes:
Credits should’ve rolled over CPS taking away the kid while Mom was being arrested for child endangerment.
The ending of The Red Balloon would’ve worked better.
I thought of "The Red Balloon" but couldn't remember how that ended. ... ... ... Read the plot summary. Great ending!!
mikee writes: "Discussing shopping carts in film, but omitting mention Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" and the shopping cart used therein, leaves one without a daily dose of dystopian postapocalyptic fantasy that is so very much required under a woke progressive political administration."
Brian writes: "I’m not sure what form of child endangerment commenter Joel was referring to; perhaps allowing her child to ride his trike out in the street unsupervised. However, the ‘endangerment’ action that hit me early on in the clip was having the child, a toddler, in the front seat of the car (and apparently without a child seat, although it was hard to see into the interior when the door was opened – maybe there is one there, but not visible). As far as I could make out, the car license was from California, and I know that California law requires children to ride in the back seat until they are 8 years old."
Bill writes:
As the parent of a toddler, I couldn’t get over the mom letting the kid out of the shopping cart to run loose in an active parking lot while she loaded groceries in the trunk. And then she sat him in the front seat! I suppose it makes sense that she would be the kind of mom who would let her toddler ride a trike in the middle of an intersection.
The ending was so absurd and trite that it makes me hate the rest of the video.
policraticus writes:
Despite the stated conceit, my first thought was that the Blanket is the one who becomes sentient. It is Blanket who is "pushing" the Cart in pursuit of the Little Boy. As the love of a child made the Velveteen Rabbit "real," so the Little Boy's love and longing for his lost Blanket gives it the power to use the Cart to reunite with him. The tragedy of Cart and Blanket tumbling into a ditch, moments away from success, becomes even more poignant. Also, the altruism of the homeless man carefully cleaning the cart and setting it to rights before gently folding our hero and putting him safely in the booster seat, seems even more heroic. Finally, the last mad downhill dash of Blanket, urging the Cart to greater speed to save his Boy, becomes much more fraught when we know the actor is someone who has loved and protected the Boy, perhaps for his whole life and is in mortal terror of failing and watching the Boy be struck.
FADE TO BLACK:
title card reads:
policraticus
m writes:
I'd have liked to see the cart at the end come off in a better light. A hero lying in the road, future unknown, deserves a less ignoble ending.
Now if the mother and child return to the street scene, upright the cart, and wave as the cart returns to its store, I'm okay with that.
Rose writes:
One of the reasons I always liked Althouse is the inclusion of links to things like this. I would not have stumbled on a film short like this on my own.
I liked it including the ending. I am currently learning more about writing in general and micro fiction in particular. While this film uses images instead of words, each scene specifically moves the story along. Micro fiction focuses on telling the story in the least words possible and challenges the writer, once the story is complete, to write it again in half the number of words used the first time. While I watched the second time, I wondered what could be cut to still tell the story.
Omaha1 writes:
"I didn't predict any ending for this, but I thought it was very realistic that the little kid sniffed the blanket when he got it back. The smell of a favorite blanket, pillow, or stuffed animal is important for young children. I still have my "Boy Teddy" from 50+ years ago and his scent is still pretty comforting."
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