Matt Bissett-Johnson strikes back with a new mediocre cult extravaganza, surrendering our logical faculty prey to his riveting arbitrary aesthetic. 

“Pyramid of Despair”’s artistic qualities are both obvious and at the same time difficult to be found. An oxymoron interplay of restrained ambiguity, result of an in depth comprehension of the medium giving its place to an intentional superficial creativity. That’s Matt.

Not threatened by hastiness, driven by an existential-implicated chase between two cute, weirdly absurd creatures taking place on a space station,  Matt Bissett-Johnson sacrifices the “acceptable and complete” in the name of a subjective, transcendental, superficial self-expressiveness.  

“Pyramid of Despair” follows a form similar to the creator’s previous work “Magic Mountain” both in story development and theme as well as visualization. 

A set of rules have been introduced by the awarded animator and cartoonist establishing a system founded primarily on the confidence that a one-dimensional approach is able to fathom the complexities of any given aesthetic expression, consequently, as with his previous work, we can not agree that “PoD” affords an aesthetic stance. But this is the bet Matt decides to take. Future will tell.

The “Chase” constitutes a building block in Matt’s conceptual structure. We are presented with a duality expressed through an evasive co-existence the cornerstone of which is this inevitable chase with its origin remaining unknown. An instinctive existential necessity with devastating results for both parts.

In the end we are again left asking ourselves why we should have watched this super-short film, but we are oh so glad we did. 

Looking forward to Matt’s upcoming short.

Kiriakos Kotsinis

BSc, MA