Society, with people living together, relies on a code of conduct to ensure a certain harmony and prevent chaos. These rules, whether clearly laid out or implied through common courtesy, are generally respected by most. Even though we occasionally take pleasure in breaking them. S/W alum Jeanette Jeanenne (Trusts & Estates) is back on the website with Rules, a series of animated vignettes that humorously depict the infringement of these rules, simultaneously triggering anger and satisfaction. 

“I started thinking about all of the other generally agreed upon societal rules that are commonly not followed”

Jeanenne confessed that the idea behind Rules all started when she was out walking her dog. Confronted with “dog shit after dog shit”, she felt not only “viscerally angry”,  but what was clear in her mind was the common rule: “your dog shits, you pick it up”. She got “so angry that it became funny”, which thus prompted her to think “about all of the other generally agreed upon societal rules that are commonly not followed”.

The universality of the concept is what makes Rules so fun to watch – every single viewer will recognize themselves in at least one of the vignettes. After the “dog shit” incident, Jeanenne realized that she couldn’t be “the only person who enters into a state of internal rage upon seeing others break these casual societal rules” or “the only person who occasionally takes pleasure in breaking them”. The fact that these feelings are internal and we don’t share them is what makes it a perfectly absurd situation, which Jeanenne brilliantly uses for comedic effect. And hey, if it prompts you to pick up your dog shit, that’s a bonus!

The 2D hand-drawn animation style lends the film a sleek, visually appealing look that allows us to focus on the different narratives. The characters perfectly conveying the aforementioned dichotomy that these situations create without a single line of dialogue, using heightened facial expressions that expose our inner reactions to these rule breaking events. With Jeanenne expertly playing with the absurdity of the situation and of the anger it triggered in her, in all honesty, I find myself quite similar in this regard, which made the film all the more effective. 

Robert Allaire’s music deserves special mention for enhancing the dark humor of the film. The score, from the overly dramatic strings that announce the title cards to the piano that echoes the mundanity of the situations, and the repetition through each vignettes, is impressively used to heighten the entertaining aspect of the film. By the end of the film, Rules will leave you asking yourself which side you land on, in each of the stories of the film…

Produced by FX Networks for CAKE, Jeanenne has directed several shorts for them and others. She is also a producer (My Year of Dicks) and in 2020 received the June Foray Award at the 46th Annie Awards in recognition for her ‘significant and benevolent or charitable impact on the art and industry of animation’. She is currently in the early stages of producing No Glory in the West, a feature by Sean Buckelew, and is also co-producing another feature about a hermit, while having just finished writing her first feature Doses.