Saving Sally

Avid Liongoren's 2016 Filipino film follows Marty, who wants to make comics. He is in love with his closest friend Sally and cannot say so, and instead builds a world full of monsters in his imagination. The film joins live action to animation. The performers are real while the surroundings are entirely drawn; the people around Marty turn into creatures at times and the narrative does not explain it. The production took more than a decade to finish, and that period became part of how the film is known. The tone is light and the story simple; the weight lies in the visual design. Who it's for: those who like experimental mixtures of animation and teen romance. Who it's not for: viewers expecting dense plotting; the story is familiar and predictable.