THIS THING CALLED LIFE

A cast of lumpish imaginary figures demonstrate life’s ins, outs, and necessities.

Though he ends in a good place, in getting there Borstlap takes a rather jaundiced view of what life is all about. “Long, long ago, before little white wires started growing out of our ears…” he begins, text placed over an earbud-wearing blob intent on a small handheld screen. He goes on to recount how life arose from components “we don’t understand” before going on to reproduce, perceive, breathe, move, and, mainly, survive by either fighting or running. Occasionally he adopts a puckish tone—showing “giving” and “taking” in action with a flower growing from the poop of one animal and then being eaten by another (or perhaps the same one)—on the way to observing that life is unpredictable except for the part about how it all ends and, finally, the cogent insight that we can’t go it alone: “All of life is connected and dependent on the rest of life.” Cynthia Rylant’s lyrical, affirmative take on the topic, Life, illustrated by Brendan Wenzel (2017), will leave readers more emotionally invested, but the point here is well enough taken. The art in this wry French import has the cinematic air of an animated short, with a mix of clip art–style images and generic claylike organisms with tiny, comically wide eyes and stippled modeling suspended against monochrome backdrops.

Glib—but not entirely off the mark.