Hey, remember those skyrocketing fuel prices earlier this year? Boy, was that a silly time — and so long ago, too. Now that fuel is back at bargain-basement prices that will never rise ever again and we clearly have endless supplies of the stuff, this little animated film Fuel should serve as a whimsical and quaint reminder of those bygone times. Though filmmaker Dale Goodson’s short made us laugh out loud several times, what really impressed us was just how damn embittered it seems (the self-vocalized sound effects certainly helped, too). Using the simplest animation possible — frankly, we’re not even sure we can call it animation — he nails the energy crisis down into a hilariously nasty four minutes.
Fuel will be screening tomorrow as part of the Iron Mule Film Series at 92YTribeca at 8 p.m., which will feature all sorts of awesome shorts (including work by Signe Baumane, another Picture Palace alumnus). The Iron Mule, which screens the best in short films on the first Saturday of every month, was formerly known as First Sundays and screened at the now-defunct Pioneer Theater. They’ve been bringing great shorts to New York audiences for quite some time now — come out and show your support. Oh, and there’s a party afterward.