Ramin Bahrani‘s lovely 18-minute whirlwind, Plastic Bag documents the existential and eye-opening afterlife of a poster-child for pollution. It is voiced by Werner Herzog. The Bavarian auteur — who has been in the blogosphere of late with a new, $1450-priced seminar called the Rogue Film School — lends his familiar brogue to the plain-brown plastic as it goes from the checkout line into its “Maker’s” life.

The “Maker,” as Herzog refers to her throughout, appears to never have heard of other sorts of bags (zip-lock, canvas, so on) and she re-uses our protagonist to hold lunch, tennis balls, ice, and even dog food. Read More »