Parallel Encounters

Parallel Encounters is an upcoming adult animated epic psychological drama film directed by RaymanLover, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Eric Zander. The film stars Timothée Chalamet, Elle Fanning, Evan Peters and Ben Affleck.

The film is told as an epic mosaic of four interrelated characters in search of happiness, forgiveness and meaning in life in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Distributed by Touchstone Pictures, Parallel Encounters is produced by A24 and Touchstone Pictures in association with Miramax, RaymanLover Studios and EZstudios. The film plays with shifting aspect ratios and alternates between color and black and white.

Parallel Encounters was released worldwide on May 31, 2024, receiving polarizing reviews from critics, with praise directed at the perfomances of the four, RaymanLover's direction, visual style, editing, score, and cinematography, while critism was largely aimed towards the melodramatic tone, portrayal of several mental illnesses (such as depression and PTSD) and depictions of brutal violence and sexual content.

It is expected to the second film in the RaymanLover Cinematic Multiverse.

Narrative structure
The narrative of Parallel Encounters follows four interrelated main stories, each with a different protagonist:


 * Elijah Zane, a young werewolf with bipolar disorder who has recently escaped from a psychiatric hospital and therefore begins to feel romantic feelings for Penny Fitzgerald.
 * Penny Fitzgerald, a young woman who has survived severe traumatic events and lives a double life as the famous pop singer Misty Lizzie.
 * Bonzo Randall, a football player whose history of infidelity leads to a downfall, begins to quit playing, hoping his former lover will return.
 * Patrick Fitzgerald, Penny Fitzgerald's father, who worries about his daughter's relationship with Elijah and struggles to contain uncontrollable doubts within him.

Voice cast

 * Timothée Chalamet as Elijah Zane
 * Elle Fanning as Penny Fitzgerald
 * Evan Peters as Bonzo Randall
 * Ben Affleck as Patrick Fitzgerald

Reddit users vs. Eric Zander
During their development on his other project named Minecraft Story Mode: The Rebuilt Trilogy, one of the co-writers for Parallel Encounters, Eric Zander, published a image made by another person without permission in order to announce his project on Reddit, however, that did not go right when someone called him out for "stealing".

While stealing is not the case, he still therefore suffered attacks by other Reddit users over accusations that he somewhat "stole" and failed attempts to defend himself misunderstood by the users for death threats.

Development
After Eric was cyberbullied on Reddit, he admitted to one of his friends (who is the director of the film, RaymanLover) that he was feeling immense hatred and anger "so big that he wanted to do something" and he wanted to express it not in a violent way, but in an "artistic" way.

As he said this, both RaymanLover and Eric planned a movie with the aim of making others understand not just Eric's way of being, but also others' way of being. Despite this, Eric recommended RaymanLover for putting in graphic violence and gore to shock the audience in a realistic way.

Eric told to RaymanLover: "We need to put out this type of content to show the world what can happen if a person not only attacks me, but also attacks another person who may have some other condition much worse than mine."

Eric and RaymanLover were primarily inspired by various character studies and psychological drama/thriller films, most notably Joker (2019), Taxi Driver (1976), Requiem for a Dream (2000) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975).

Release
Parallel Encounters was released theatrically worldwide on May 31, 2024. It was originally rated NC-17 by the MPAA for substantial disturbing violent content, explicit sexual content and pervasive language throughout; after being edited, it was re-rated R for brutal violent content, strong sexuality, graphic nudity, and language.

Critical response
The critics' response were polarizing, with praise being directed at both the perfomances of the four, RaymanLover's direction, visual style, editing, score, and cinematography, although the critism was largely aimed towards the melodrama, portrayal of mental illness and use of graphic violence and sexual content.

Audience response
However, despite the critical response being favorable, public response was overwhelmingly negative. The film was considered intensely graphic by audiences, who even thought that the film glorified psychopathy, gratuitous violence and sexual attraction towards criminals, therefore the audience also considered that the film deserved to be banned. The film was also criticized due to Eric's involvement for the script in the project.

Reporters also noted that the film was suffering from bombed online reviews, and that websites such as IMDb in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Brazil and Mexico, and AlloCiné in France added warnings to the film's rating pages about unusual activity.

Warning
Despite the film featuring characters from children's media, this film may still not be suitable for those under 17 years of age. So any parent who has a child who may consider letting their child to watch this film, please read this.

Classification

 * Argentina: +18
 * Australia: MA15+
 * Austria: 16
 * Belguim: CAT.2
 * Brazil: 16
 * Bulgaria: D
 * Canada: 18A
 * Chile: 18
 * Colombia: 15
 * Denmark: 15
 * Estonia: K-16
 * Finland: 16
 * France: -16
 * Germany: FSK 16
 * Greece: 17
 * Hong Kong: III
 * Hungary: 18
 * Iceland: 16
 * India: A
 * Indonesia: 17+
 * Ireland: 16
 * Italy: VM18
 * Jamacia: T-16
 * Japan: R15+
 * Kazakhstan: E16
 * Latvia: 16+
 * Malaysia: 18
 * Maldives: 15+
 * Malta: 15
 * Mexico: B-15
 * Netherlands: 18
 * New Zealand: R16
 * Nigeria: 15
 * Norway: 15
 * Philippines: R-16
 * Portugal: M/16
 * Romania: N-15
 * Russia: 16+
 * Singapore: M18
 * South Africa: 16
 * South Korea: 15
 * Spain: 16
 * Sweden: Not Approved/15
 * Taiwan: 15+
 * Thailand: 15
 * Turkey: 15A
 * United Arab Emirates: 15+
 * United Kingdom: 18
 * United States: R
 * Venezuela: D
 * Vietnam: C18

Sex and Nudity (Moderate)

 * One sex scene showing Penny's bare breasts & Elijah's buttocks. (with them already as adults)
 * The film also has heavy discussions about Elijah's best friend, Bonzo's sexual affairs & his cheating history.

Violence and Gore (Severe)

 * It is also explicitly shown how Elijah, in his wolf form, kills his victims by tearing their skin and eating their organs.
 * Graphic crime scene photos are repeatedly shown. The bloody, decayed corpses in the photos are clearly shown, many with large chunks of skin cut off.
 * A mugger's corpse is shown lying in a lake. The assailant's stomach is slit open with the intestines out, and the top of his head is slit open as well.

Profanity (Severe)

 * Frequent uses of curse words such as "f*ck", "sh*t", "damn", "hell", "b*tch", and "turd".

Alcohol, Drugs, and Smoking (Mild)

 * It is heavily implied that Elijah's father, Josh, is a drug addict. Although it is never shown throughout the film.

Frighting and Intense Scenes (Severe)

 * The film's constant glare and animated characters combined with plenty of the gory violence is an unusual combination, which may put some viewers off from watching.
 * The film deals with a variety of topics such as sexual relationships, trauma, mental illness, etc.

Trivia

 * The film plays with shifting aspect ratios and alternates between color and black and white.
 * Before counting the stories of more characters, the film was originally just gonna tell the story of the relationship of Elijah and Penny, with the title being "The Beast".