caveat: i watched this with a headband on, beer in hand, stomping my feet and dancing the whole time. you should, too. "what's it all about, alfie?": the letterboxd synopsis is pretty good, and covers about the first 1/3 of the film actually. you should note that this is fully a musical, and even more than that, such little dialogue is spoken (via song) that it's more like a 68 minute music video. so if you're not down for that, this isn't going to be a good time. you can catch this on youtube as a series of music videos for the daft punk album "discovery", though honestly probably only a couple of them work as independent videos. really, the story as a whole is a tale as old as time, the discovery and corruption of a group of artists, who then seek to get back in touch with their roots once they're on top of the corporate sellout world... only it's all done through a post-disco 1981 aesthetic. "you had me at ‘hello.": so, two things will largely determine your enjoyment of this film (besides your level of beer and joy in dancing). 1. how much do you like daft punk's retro-pop-funk? 2. how into the galaxy express 999/macross artistic style are you? if you answered "10/10" for both of these, then you're in for a ride. we follow our zentradi look-alikes as they rock so hard that they get abducted by aliens, the true fantasy of every musical group. there are actually some surprising (because i didn't expect any) twists and turns to the story, which i won't spoil for you. the ending is uncharacteristically optimistic about the record industry and humanity as a whole. but really the fun is in the journey and in seeing how this does the usual music-success-biopic thing but more creatively. "what we've got here is a failure to communicate.": what's that you say? you don't really like daft punk? well, you've come to the wrong place, my son! this film is wall-to-wall daft punk, even featuring a cheeky cameo by the duo at an awards show. so if you're not into them, i have a hard time seeing you enjoying this thing. also, not really much character development here in the short run time. the animation is delightfully old-school, but that also means: quite simple. nobody is going to be impressed by frame-rate or fluidity. it's also apparent that the album was made first and the anime made after... there are songs that only just fit the scene and dialogue that doesn't have much to do with the characters. it's fine as long as you don't think too hard or expect too much. "my tastes are very singular.": nothing in this that people of any age can't enjoy. "forget it, jake, it's chinatown.": the film packs in a lot of fun nods to the music industry, with surprises that keep coming right up to the end. it's fluffy and fun, and quite enjoyable on that level. i do wish more bands took creative risks like this and came up with companion-piece art. in the meantime, where's my 5555 video game? where's my live-action adaptation? this could be a whole thing! bring it! my feet ain't tired yet!