Lily and Jim was Hertzfeldt's third student film and probably the most coherent of his work. It tells the tale of two self- conscious strangers on a blind date and their spiralling paranoia and mess. It's partly narrated through talking heads throughout the short which allows for some self-reflection and deeper insight into both our main characters. The animation is simple but effective enough to get the message across and like much of Hertzfeldt's work, flickers with life and in this case, nervousness. What really brings Lily and Jim closer to reality is the voice- acting which is very natural and full of little characteristics like pauses, stutters and contemplation which brings a richness to the creeping awkwardness of the date. You can practically hear the dead air and the whirring of their brains as they struggles to impress each other. And speech bubbles also assist in showing their growing nervousness. The dialogue serves this well; the questions seem grabbed from a snapshot of a lonely dating life, awkwardly fumbling around for some sort of connection and, when failing to do so, the tension lingers and sometimes results in humour: "That new Holocaust film. Yeah, it was pretty neat."Lily and Jim is a nice little case study in how our self consciousness worms into our everyday lives and there is no better scenario than a blind date to fully expose those fears. Both Lily and Jim are so intensely focused on their own presentation that they hardly ever consider the shambolic person opposite of them. At times, you don't know whether to cringe or laugh. In an Annie Hall like final sequence, they both narrate how their insecurities prevented either of them from reaching out for a second date. Jim, having seemingly accepted that dating is a muddled and confusing game not for him, says: "I just don't understand condiments." And haven't we all resigned ourselves to that sort of thinking when things don't work out.

This is really an outstanding short film. It runs for 12 minutes and was made by Academy Award nominee Don Hertzfeldt when he was only 20 years old. He also wrote the script together with the two voice actors from the film. I am not sure why I found this so amazing. I guess part of it is the fact that you are here watching them and you are also glad that you are not in an equally awkward situation like the protagonists. The first part they tell about their date and how it went in their opinion. The middle part is the actual date and we see what happens and the ending includes some more comments by Lily and Jim about what is going to happen next. Sadly, nothing it seems, although they liked each other. I guess that's life. I do not want to go into detail about any particular quotes or scenes in here. I could not even pick my favorite moment or scene really, because there were so so many of them. But the script shows me that Hertzfeldt really had deep knowledge about the human soul and about relationships and the ways in which men and women work (differently). It's absolutely great and every single award that this won was more than deserved. Hertzfeldt is possibly my favorite animation director right not and I just absolutely love his style. I would actually be curious to see him direct a live action feature film, maybe a short film first. But no matter if he does or not, I hope he is going to have a long and healthy career in the industry as I am so curious about all his future projects. "Lily and Jim" is maybe his least offensive movie and definitely a must-see for everybody in my opinion.

This short was in part four of the "Short Cinema Journal"--a film I rented from Netflix but which appears to have originally been a monthly film series for people who like mediocre modern short films AND love to have the DVD chock full of commercials. I have so far tried two of the Journal's DVDs and felt enraged at the horrible way that a viewer needs to navigate the disk in order to see the films. Talk about an over-produced and overly complicated way of doing this! While I have and will continue to see as many shorts as I can, I really doubt if I'll bother with the Journals because of these factors.LILY AND JIM was probably my favorite film in the set, though it was rather slow going at first. It begins with two terribly animated and nerdy characters talking about going on a blind date. The artwork reminded me of Don Hertzfeldt's but I didn't know for sure until later that it was indeed his work. I knew for sure when the couple turned on the television--the art and especially the very sick (and funny) minute or so the set was on was the highlight of the film. Apart from this, the film is quite cute and it was very insightful into the hazards of dating--especially for folks who aren't as charming or clever as folks on TV (in other words, most of us!).

'Lily and Jim' is an animated short about the blind date Lily and Jim had. Both are being interviewed, doing their story while we see the images that belong to their story. They start in a restaurant where they do not know what they should talk about. Then they go to Lily's (voice by Karin Anger) apartment where they drink some coffee. Jim (voice by Robert May) is actually allergic to caffeine, but he does not say anything about it since he wants to keep their evening nice. He just drinks the strong coffee.Although it is not as good as 'Genre' from a year earlier, or both 'Billy's Balloon' and 'Rejected' after this one, 'Lily and Jim' is another fine example of the brilliant mind of animator Don Hertzfeldt. This one is the most accessible since it lacks some of the more violent images from his other films. It has some great laughs, when they are watching television is the best example, but not as much as any of his other films. Still terrific entertainment, highly recommended.