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What Goes Up....

Name: What Goes Up....
Director: Robert Breer
Released: 2003
Duration: 5 min

Representation Score

5.7/10

Fair

2003

Director

Robert Breer

Runtime

5 minutes

Average Rating

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New Showbiz Analysis

Robert Breer’s *What Goes Up....* is an experimental collage that emphasizes kinetic energy and rhythmic montage over character-driven narratives. Using abstract shapes and textures, it avoids traditional representations of demographic groups. The film’s strength lies in its deconstruction of triumphant narrative arcs, offering a sophisticated look at the imperfect nature of existence. Ultimately, it serves as a philosophical exploration of movement and perception.

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Category Breakdown

Does What Goes Up.... have LGBTQ+ representation?

Fair

The film touches on bodily vulnerability through abstract animation but lacks explicit depictions of queer identity or non-straight relationships.

How does What Goes Up.... portray gender?

Fair

The work challenges traditional masculine clichés by focusing on physical limitations and failed movements, presenting masculinity through the lens of biological decline.

How racially and ethnically diverse is What Goes Up....?

Minimal

Due to the use of abstract shapes and textures, it is impossible to determine racial or ethnic representation in this experimental film.

How does What Goes Up.... represent religion and culture?

Good

The film focuses on a secular, existential worldview, prioritizing individual sensory experience and skepticism of institutional structures.

Does What Goes Up.... include disability representation?

Fair

The film explores physical limitation through its focus on failed movements, treating the inability to sustain motion as a fundamental part of the human condition.

Present on Screen

Highlights physical vulnerability and biological limitations to challenge traditional masculine clichés.
Explores the human condition through rhythmic failures, offering a sophisticated perspective.
Emphasizes the fragmented nature of movement to challenge mainstream cinematic illusions.

Limited or Absent

Needs more explicit representation of queer identities and non-straight relationships.
Abstract format makes it difficult to evaluate racial or ethnic diversity.
Does not provide clear depictions of specific social or cultural groups.

Official Synopsis

Robert Breer’s What Goes Up... continues his “kitchen sink” approach of including as many different kinds of things as possible. Central to his art are a series of tensions. Rather than using animation to produce seamless illusions, his films reveal cinema’s dual nature as both an illusion of movement and a succession of stills. The ultimate effect of his work is ecstatic: by combining various rhythmic patterns, abstract and photographed shapes, and flatness mixed with depth illusions, Breer energizes ordinary eyesight. The whole world can seem more alive, alive with rhythms and colors and shapes and textures as well, after seeing one of his films. But Breer’s films also often have a theme of failure, of failed movements and failed aspirations, and the title What Goes Up..., in referencing the idiom “What goes up must come down”, refers to his childhood dreams of flying (illustrated here as in many of his films with airplanes) as well as to the limpness that follows orgasm for males.

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