Being a teenager isn’t exactly the easiest time in anyone’s life, because during those formative years even the smallest setbacks can make it feel like the entire world is falling apart around you. But at least (we hope) the ground beneath your feet didn’t literally start to break apart back then, like it does in the new, awesome-looking animated film My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea, which feels like Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine, and the ghost of John Hughes got together and dropped acid.
The surreal trailer for animator Dash Shaw’s debut movie (which we loved) makes high school look like a despondent hellscape full of twisted and vile monstrosities that prey on the weak. So it’s true to life. In the film high school sophomore Dash, voiced by Jason Schwartzman, struggles as his best friend and fellow school newspaper reporter Assaf, played by Reggie Watts, begins a relationship with their other friend and editor, Maya Rudolph‘s Verti.
However, that’s the least of Dash’s concerns when he learns about a cover up by school administrators that endangers everyone. As the three try to reach safety through the roof of the school, they are joined by a “popular know-it-all (Lena Dunham) and a lunch lady (Susan Sarandon) who is much more than meets the eye.”
The movie, which gets it’s look from using drawings, paintings, and collages, feels like the “Garden of Earthly Delights” came to life and enrolled as a high school sophomore. Which makes perfect sense, since that’s how high school felt for us most of the time too.
My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea splashes into theaters April 14th.
Images: GKIDS
