Not exactly a film as much as a prolonged music video, which actually accompanies Sturgill Simpson’s homonymous album, “Sound and Fury” manages, nevertheless, to be quite impressive as a spectacle.
The anime consists of various, mostly dystopian stories, including one of a scavenger of mementos from the street and another where a number of colored people are hunted by forces of evil as they try to survive. However, the one that truly steals the show is the initial one, which actually appears a number of times through the film.
In this case, two quite stylish villains in suits, one who uses poison and one a gun, attack a Buddhist monastery where they kill a number of monks brutally. A bit later, another individual who wears a futuristic samurai suit attacks the two men who seem to have become lords of some sorts, in a rather impressive action sequence that ends up with a surrealistic dancing part, featuring much nudity. As we learn that the samurai is actually a girl, we see her in a number of adventures against the villains, each one more impressive than the other. Apart from the aforementioned, the film also features some short-length animated sequences, of which the one with the man inside the cogs is the most memorable.
The whole movie features great animation, but again, I will focus on the samurai segment, which features drawing and animation that seem like a combination of “Afro Samurai” and Masaaki Yuasa’s works, while the flow from frame to frame is truly wondrous to behold. The action and the dystopian aspect wink a bit towards “Mad Max”, but the way the first battle unfolds, and particularly the dancing sequence, are truly original as they are impressive.
Sturgil Simpson’s amalgam of stoner, blues rock and country (to name of few) accompanies (or is it the other way around?) the animation quite fittingly, with the images being almost completely synchronized to the sound, as is the case with the narrative’s resonance with the music. The combination benefits both aspects, but particularly the music, since the animation makes it quite easier to go through the whole album as one enjoys both.
In less than 42 minutes, the film does not extend its welcome, and I daresay, that “Sound and Fury” is one of the best anime productions Netflix has ever streamed. Fans of Simpson’s style of music will definitely have a blast with this.
