Hot Docs 2025 - Endless Cookie Review

Endless Cookie begins with an anamorphic L-square awkwardly presenting a filmmaking grant to our subjects and filmmakers, Seth and Peter Scriver - both in cartoonish and colourful animated form. It is only much later in the film when we know what these men look like in real life. The same goes for all the members of their extended family and dogs, who are initially presented to us in a sitcom like intro. An exorbitant amount of uniquely surrealist looking characters are shown to us, with their names over their heads. They are all riding  comically large series of sleds that can’t even fit into the frame. 

In essence, the idea for this is simple. Seth and Peter are brothers, one a skilled animator and one beloved for his storytelling skills. They’ve made this to tell stories about their childhood and life, from being raised in Kensington Market to their current life in Northern Manitoba, all through surrealist imagery in a vignette fashion. The film, fresh from Sundance competition, is immediately unafraid to showcase its chaos at face value. It’s hard to expect just how palpable this chaos is from reading a lifeline - but it is intensely present. At least tens of viewings are likely required to decipher the goings-on of each frame of the film. The vividly bright animations that are used to tell the story of this family are packed to the brim with Easter eggs, in-jokes and more direct-pointers at the most passionately realized messages of the film. Although it can often be sensory overload, it is such in a limitlessly charming way - and this charm is the glue that holds the film together. 

There are definitely parts where the visual storytelling is so overt that it does detract from the storytelling. It also feels like sometimes, it detracts from the stories - that aren’t always deserving of the bizarre, gross-out imagery that accompanies it. Maybe that grossness comes off as immature, and a distraction from the good nature that the larger film carries. But the vision here is undeniable - and one certainly worth taking a look at.

Rating: 6/10

Hot Docs 2025 runs until May 3rd. Tickets can be purchased at hotdocs.ca. Endless Cookie will be released in Canada by Mongrel Media at a yet-determined date.