At parts, in the first half, I saw some gems. Not enough to watch the hour. Nothing ties together. The little boy with aluminum hooks for hands, who swims out to sea after the seagulls? Pointless, unless I missed some realization before turning it off in disgust. Better use of simultaneous imagery and speech than in most projects that use these techniques.

From his beginnings as the animator of absurdist comedic shorts like "Rejected" and "Billy's Balloon", Don Hertzfeldt's career has always been promising and he has now become one of the finest filmmakers working today, a mature mastermind with a sense of humor that somehow manages to create stunning works of art using stick figures."It's Such a Beautiful Day" is a tragicomic combination of fantasy and reality, portraying the life and death of a seemingly normal man named Bill, a relatable extension of ourselves who lives a confusing yet mundane life that seems to have been wasted by year after year of nothing. Featuring a deadpan and often hilarious narration by Hertzfeldt himself, Bill's psychological and physical collapse is portrayed through the unique usage of flashbacks, dream sequences, absurdist gags, surrealist science fiction imagery, etc. All of these fragments of memories and crises and sad moments and happy moments and funny moments and stream of consciousness style musings on existentialist concepts of death and love and life all culminate to form something inexplicably beautiful. This is the story of a fragile man taking place over the course of his most fragile days as life seems to vanish in his socially awkward grasp. Of course, this is not a conventionally sad work, although it IS extremely tragic and heartbreaking throughout, for Hertzfeldt's often dark and occasionally even slightly juvenile and slyly bawdy sense of humor shines through even the most melancholic of moments. The result of this brilliant philosophical tale is a work of both intellectual and emotional mastery crafted by an underrated and unbelievably talented artist whose works can combine elements of comedy and tragedy and poetry using bland, almost poorly drawn stick figures. This filmmaker and this films are both movie miracles and prove that even in this modern age of repetitive corporate media cinema is not dead and can still be excellent and original!

This is the story of Bill, an unassuming and lonely stick figure. His mundane life takes a turn for the worst when Don Hertzfeldt's signature craziness takes over and Bill's world spirals out of control. If you know Hertzfeldt's work, you know this film will have some episodes of freaky comedy that comes from way out in left field, with occasional grotesque monstrosities and dark wit. Some of these scenes make the film humorous and intriguing. It does a lot more though -- the film gradually becomes nuttier and nuttier, until it becomes a sobering reflection on human frailty and mortality.But that's not the end of it. The second chapter kicks in, digging up more of Bill's past and future. Then there's the third chapter, which gives a remarkable upswing and tells a story of Bill having a reawakening. At this stage, the film becomes an inspiring and artistic narrative, suggesting that the human spirit transcends space and time.The entirety of It's Such a Beautiful Day is a complete narrative that chronicles one man's life and drags the audience through all the ups and downs of his suffering. It leads to a wonderful payoff that illustrates the beauty of life and gives hope in the face of death.You might think a movie with stick figure people wouldn't be elegant, but this film is a complex piece of art that incorporates minimalist drawings with raw photography and other real-life elements to paint a composite picture. It is especially notable when the film draws certain lines between the reality Bill sees and the reality he discovers, made apparent when more real-life footage is used at the end. In short, a lot of work went into bringing these stick figures to life, but the world around them is truly vivid. Voice acting and sounds are wonderful and highly effective. The music is quite uplifting as well.It's funny at times, bleak in others, and there are crazy parts. But it delivers a cathartic experience with emotional themes that can resonate with everybody. It's a movie that tells you no matter what you're going through, everything will be okay in the end. People are wonderful. It is such a beautiful universe.5/5

Existential spewing that has a lot of great ideas, but it's trying so hard to make you have a revelation that it doesn't realize how unoriginal some of its ideas are. We're just brains floating around. We don't live because we're afraid to die. There's hidden beauty in the world. All of these things are nice ideas but none of them are things I haven't thought of before. The movie wants to tackle everything in huge, broad strokes, and doesn't dig into any of these ideas enough to wow me. It's a little like a older teen who is telling a group of little kids some profound existential whatever he read on the internet about how people are specks and nothing matters and the 8 year olds are eating it up because it's profound. There's not really a ton of wisdom here. Other films like The Tree of Life and American Beauty tackle similar ideas, but they do them with much more detail and I can relate to them on not just vast levels, but personal ones. Sure this movie can be a personal experience for people, but is this movie ACTUALLY changing your life? It's kind of like a politician who rallies up crowds because they know exactly the problems in the country and what needs to be done, but doesn't actually say how they're going to do it. I don't believe life works with the broad strokes the movie paints it with. It approaches life with a birds eye view. Psychological problems or true love, for example, are hardly on this film's mind, yet they are more relevant to actual life, not this fantasized version of life where people are directionless pawns on a chessboard, slaves to mundanity. I liked this movie a lot because it's a good motivator for living life to its fullest and trying to appreciate beauty, but I don't think that it's actually THAT wise or enlightening, and it's not going to make me go outside and cry at a flower. I enjoyed it's animation style a lot and experimental nature and it blends many of its ideas together very well. Problem is, it talks big and lacks detail.