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Brevity may be the soul of wit, as Polonius says in Hamlet, but it is not the soul of psychoanalysis, which is famously generous in the time it allots to probing memories, fantasies, and associations. Brevity is also scarce in the movie world these days, when even Harry Potter pictures feel obliged to clock in at marathon lengths once reserved for major literary and historical productions.
The four movies in Presenting Problems: The Short Films of Garrick Duckler, Vol. 1 are therefore something of a surprise. They deal with psychoanalytic subjects, but they do so with a concision that could teach a trick or two to Hollywood, and maybe to clinicians as well. The total running time of Duckler's collected works to date is about half an hour, and that includes The Grudge, a veritable epic at eleven minutes long. All are exercises in vernacular psychology, using impressionistic imagery and elliptical, allegorical stories to pose questions about psychological conflict without laying claim to easy answers.
It isn't clear from watching the films whether their main audience is meant to be psychotherapists, patients and clients, interested outsiders, or all of the above. My first impression was that Duckler made them primarily for young people who need a gentle, nonjudgmental nudge toward exploring their emotions, and who quickly feel at home with films that don't quite fit traditional categories—these aren't Hollywood-style animations, but they're painted, drawn, or collaged rather than shot with movie cameras. The films are not simplistic morality lessons, though, and they move at a spirited pace requiring a reasonably healthy attention span. Adolescents should find them stimulating, and open-minded adults won't feel Duckler is speaking down to them.
In the spirit of Duckler's admirable pithiness, I'll give just a brief idea of the films' content. An unseen narrator (presumably Duckler himself) tells the stories, which are illustrated, punctuated, and enlivened by the on-scree