Evan Jacobs has been making his own brand of very personal films since the late nineties. Movies like WALKING BETWEEN THE RAINDROPS, THE TOLL COLLECTOR and SCHUSTERMAN LEVINE: A BOXING FABLE are all very unique and distinct glimpses into the mind of this talented and eclectic artist who seems bent on never selling out or repeating himself. His latest, 1985-1986, which has the distinction of being his first animated film, is no different.
Buy 1985-1986
on DVD!
Buy 1985-1986
on DVD!Jacobs wrote, directed, edited and animated this
feature, using Wacom Tablet and Toon Boom Studios.
It is a very detailed chronicle of the two years he spent in Victor Middle School in Southern California. It is a fairly uncompromising and honest look back at his own formative years. And that honesty is the films greatest strength, and its largest failing.
The movie opens with Erol Jacobs (for some reason, Evan changes his first name for this only-slightly fictionalized autobiographical account, but not his last) leaving home for his first day at middle school. The voice over narration tells us that this story is true to the best of the author's recollection. Jacobs then goes on to admit that he may have altered some of these events so that they reflect more favorably on him than the reality, but never intentionally so. That is a disarmingly honest way to begin a movie. It is honest to itself, as all good art should be.