Endless Cookie Review: A Trippy, Affable Animation of First Nations Life
In the realm of cinema, the call for better self-representation among minorities has echoed loudly over the past decade. If this movement yields more left-field, innovative works like Endless Cookie, a loopy, brain-fried yet thoroughly affable animation about a Canadian Cree Indigenous family, then the industry should eagerly embrace it. Roughly describable as Cheech and Chong meeting Tristram Shandy, this film consistently interrupts itself and lampoons its own creative process, especially highlighting the nine-year journey taken by half-brothers Seth and Peter Scriver to complete it. At one point, Seth, amidst the post-apocalyptic ruins of Toronto, announces another deadline extension with a casual "Cool!"
A Journey to Shamattawa First Nation
Animator Seth Scriver, who voices himself, travels to the Shamattawa First Nation community in Manitoba to record his half-brother Peter, also voicing himself, along with other family members. Peter's mother is First Nations, unlike Seth's, adding a layer of cultural depth to their collaboration. Peter's tales are of the shaggy-dog variety, featuring the twelve pooches on their property, two of whom are actually named Cheech and Chong, as well as the seven children in residence. The stories are manifold and strange, ranging from teepee construction to a botched murder stakeout involving a caribou, Peter's angry-punk stint in 1980s Toronto, a friend accosted by a clingy snowy owl, and a drawn-out saga about the embarrassment of mangling his hand in his own animal trap.
Struggles with Storytelling and Animation
Seth struggles to contain the Scheherazade of Shamattawa, gazing at a story map that bulges like a distended colon and musing, "I'm not sure if it's following me, or I'm following it." Under an animation regime reminiscent of SpongeBob SquarePants after an afternoon smoking DMT, the film features one of its funders as a talking slide rule, though he gets off lightly compared to the extended family. A near-constant visual motif is a different wibbly proboscis for each family member, a depiction that only works if you're deeply fond of everyone involved, which Seth palpably is.
Serious Themes with Wry Obliqueness
Endless Cookie raises serious points with wry obliqueness, touching on issues like police racism, land theft, and, more positively, ancestral continuity. Perhaps to maintain an Indigenous focus, the film skirts the issue of Seth as a white chronicler, but it doesn't shy away from blending these themes with equal parts hallucinations in coffee froth of rutting caribous. The result is a palpably radiating love for community, making this often hilarious spawn of influences like Fritz the Cat a unique cinematic experience. Endless Cookie is available on Mubi from 17 April, offering viewers a trippy, heartfelt glimpse into First Nations life through the lens of animation.
