Renowned pets? Puppets? Taxidermy? Serial killers and a deadly obsession?
Don’t blame yourself for being just a tad weirded out by director Lucy Barnes and screenwriter Nick Thomson’s short, Ms. Green and the Other Lovely Beasts, yet in the same breath, don’t forget to appreciate its signature whimsy.
Elnora Green (Lauren Koster) and Parker Flynn (Rohan Singh) operate a memorialist business, preserving the life and physical form of famous or otherwise important pets. As cute and respectable as this artisanal practice might seem, Elnora harbors far more complex emotions that drive her to do what she does. She sees the world through a variety of different lenses, gradually roping an unassuming Parker into her own little corner of madness.
Between its dreamy atmosphere and impressive array of practical effects, it becomes easy to forget how macabre Ms. Green and Other Lovely Beasts really is. Elnora is evidently not sane in the traditional sense, relying on an adorable pug puppet companion named Dziga (brilliantly voiced by Clark Alexander and puppeted by Alfie Walton) for entrepreneurship advice. When she isn’t in her own head, she pokes, prods, and pushes boundaries with Parker, who seems too keen on taking things at face value. The short is eccentric with darkness bubbling beneath the surface; the kind you have to pay attention to if you hope to catch it. In many regards, the filmmakers could have done a touch more to outline and frame Elnora’s specific condition and motivations, as it does take a second viewing to really piece together which zone of her reality we are experiencing—something first-time viewers might struggle with.
Contextual quibbles aside, Barnes and Thomson clearly have confidence in their taxidermist’s contrasting charm. Rohan Singh is an eager rookie of the industry, numb to almost all the cogs that make his compatriot tick. Koster is quite memorable and plays a huge part in giving both Elnora and the short overall its own brand of zany. There’s a hint of Tim Burton-esque characterization at play, and that’s a very positive element indeed.
Taking the grim compulsions of its titular taxidermist to entertaining heights, Ms. Green and Other Lovely Beasts is a potent one-two punch of wacky and lurid storytelling.
