Oct 11, 2024

Yu Murata and Christopher Rutledge's “Larry” Takes the Dogs Out (to Play Basketball)

Don't miss “Larry,” a trippy, metaphysical piece about a basketball-playing dog by Yu Murata and Christopher Rutledge.

Backed by a lively soundtrack by Black Dice and DJ Taco Fiesta, “Larry” combines five mini shorts in which a basketball-obsessed dog melts, morphs, dances, stumbles, and splits, dances, stumbles, splits, and transforms into various creatures.

Technical confusion aside (the film was made with SideFX's Houdini), “Larry” also aptly captures the ephemeral nature of the present, while reminding us that identity is not stagnant, but ever evolving and fluid. Larry” is everything we want and rarely get from animation. It is an absurd, hilarious, philosophical work that defies all reality and physics.

Rutledge is a Los Angeles-based CG artist and filmmaker. His previous works include Caution (co-directed with Cole Kush, 2022), The Loaf Zone (2018), and Cosmophones (co-directed with Dan Streit, 2022).

A graduate of Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Murata is a frequently exhibiting contemporary artist whose previous short films include I, Popeye (2010), OM Rider (2013), and Monster Movie (2015). His work is included in the permanent collections of SFMOMA, DESTE Contemporary Art Foundation, Miami Museum of Contemporary Art, Hirshhorn Museum, and Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Larry was commissioned by Tokyu Kabukicho Tower and supported by SuperTopSecret, Rudy Adler, and Sashaku.