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 the lives 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, 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.

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


 * Elijah Zane, a mentally ill aspiring guitarist disregarded by society, whose history of abuse causes him to become a psychotic criminal with a werewolf persona, while developing romantic feelings for Penny Fitzgerald after his recent escape from a psychiatric hospital.
 * Penny Fitzgerald, a university psychology student who seems to live a normal life, but is widely known as pop singer Misty Lizzie, a pseudonym she chose to have a private life away from her traumatic past.
 * Bonzo Randall, a football player whose history of infidelity leads to his downfall, with the result of where he begins to quit playing, hoping his former lover will return.
 * Patrick Fitzgerald, the detective father of Penny Fitzgerald, who, worried about his daughter's relationship with Elijah, struggles to find the perpetrator behind his parents' murder which occured back in 1967, while also trying to contain his thoughts of fear.

Main characters

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

Elijah's story

 * Joaquin Phoenix as Josh Alvine
 * Jessica Biel as Anne Zane
 * Meryl Streep as Clara Zane

Penny's story

 * Sandra Bullock as Judith Fitzgerald
 * Bella Ramsey as Polly Fitzgerald
 * Jaden Smith as Darwin Watterson

Bonzo's story

 * Brie Larson as Tina Miller
 * Nicholas Holut as Niko Randall
 * Jamie Lee Curtis as Marianna Randall

Patrick's story

 * Michael Fassbender as Trevor Fitzgerald
 * Kirsten Dunst as Mary Fitzgerald
 * Mark Hamill as Blatov Nikitovich / "The Angelmaker"

Guest starring/Cameos

 * Ned Luke as Michael De Santa
 * Troy Baker as Ralph McCurry
 * Daniel Kaluuya as an unnamed street gang leader
 * Jesse Williams as an unnamed street gang member
 * Quentin Tarantino as an unnamed cab driver

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, gore and overall shock value in order to gain the attention from the audience in a realistic but unexpected 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-Severe)

 * One sex scene showing Penny's bare breasts & Elijah's buttocks. (with them already as adults)
 * The film also has heavy discussions about 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 bathroom. 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-Moderate)

 * 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".
 * Despite featuring characters from said media, this film has no connection/association with RaymanLover's previous film, RaymanLover's The Amazing World of Gumball Movie.