The Voice of Things: Watch Ramin Bahrani's "Plastic Bag"

There's no reason you can't be playful and serious at the same time. Made last year as part of Futurestates series of short videos, Ramin Bahrani's Plastic Bag can now be watched for free online. This little movie is the pathetic fallacy taken to its extreme: shouldn't a planet where consumer goods outnumber consumers be seen as populated by objects first, and people second? Siding, very firmly, with things, the short stars human Werner Herzog as the voice a plastic bag, writing a love poem to the anonymous owner he develops a crush on only to be tossed away. Like a low-key A.I., the movie follows him into a world where humans are absent and only their trash remains. Without the hope of a Blue Fairy to turn him to real man, he can do nothing more than join his bretheren in the North Pacific Gyre. Its sweetness only strengthens the creepiness of its premise.