Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy?

Overview

Is the Man Who is Too Tall Happy? is an animation-documentary hybrid film which follows a conversation between Noam Chomsky and Michel Gondry, with the French filmmaker mostly just keeping up with the world-renowned linguist.

Gondry admits that keeping up with the father of modern linguistics made him feel "pretty stupid", so used his child-like drawings to try express the 'complexity of his spirit' and his 'scientific mind's process' he tells Collider. However, the film extends further than just pure objective and highly intellectual philosophy, with many of Chomsky's tangents covering not just existence, language and the art of knowing, but also more personal matters such as his relationship with his wife, his children and how he feels about conventional schooling.

Michel Gondry is an Academy Award-winning French filmmaker known for his feature films Eternal Sunshine of Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep and Be Kind Rewind. He began his filmmaking career making music videos for French band Oui Oui - a band he was also drumming for at the time.

Noam Chomsky is a philosopher, linguist and political activist known for his work in studying creative speech in monkeys, as well as writing over a 100 books.