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Currently Playing: MOVING | Omeleto

A young boy makes a wish. Carl has just been told that he and his family are moving to a new house. He's upset with the upcoming change and having to leave many things he loves behind. On his tenth birthday, he makes a wish when blowing out the candles on his cake: he wishes he didn't have to move. The next morning, Carl discovers that his wish has come true. He doesn't have to move... because he's turned to stone. Directed and written by Nat Rovit, this whimsical short family drama captures the emotional dilemma of a boy who doesn't want to move. Told with humor, heart and a good dash of magical realism, it's emotionally grounded in a child's resistance to change and fear of the unknown, but it's played out with a premise full of grounded fantasy, as Carl works through his dilemma. The storytelling at first immerses us in the ordinariness of family life, with Carl as a regular kid whose home is being packed up for the move. The family pauses amid the transition to celebrate Carl's birthday, but he proves resistant to change. He doesn't want to leave his friends, and his team finally made the playoffs -- but now he has to leave it all behind and start over. The set-up and dialogue are direct and simple, and the visuals are understated, though the film has an ear for a lyrical, whimsical musical score and an eye for quirky, interesting detail that roots us in the fresh, quixotic perspective of childhood. But when Carl turns to stone, the film deepens its portrait of an ordinary kid in an ordinary family. It literalizes a child's fervent wish by turning Carl into stone, using visual effects that are both uncanny and yet touchable. The writing and direction find humor in the family's befuddled reactions, as they attempt to find solutions to Carl's new state and then go on with life when they find none, chucking him in the back of the moving van. They set him up in his new room, and time passes while Carl remains still. It can be difficult to make the main character of a film so immobile, but young performer Teddy Day does well in playing Carl's distress at moving, unable to see the advantages, no matter how reassuring his parents are. When he's turned to stone, his performance is reduced to only his eyes, but they're expressive, conveying his fear and then the slow realization that he's missing out on a lot by not accepting change and refusing to move on. This prompts a change of heart, as he realizes that there's still plenty to love, no matter where he is -- and that there are new things to explore and grow with. Imaginative, playful and yet emotionally perceptive, MOVING has something of a feel of a modern fairy tale or a Pixar film come to life, where strange and surreal events and personages are taken matter-of-factly by the world around someone, even as they struggle. But like fairy tales, the narrative uses its version of magic to explore the sometimes wild, gnarly terrain of difficult feelings and impulses within. We all feel resistance to change and it can take some time to come to terms with it, but it's also all too easy to remain stagnant and stuck. We have to come to terms with it, or find ourselves missing out on the ever-moving stream of life. MOVING. Courtesy of Nat Rovit at https://natrovit.com.