The Reel Review
Writer Pamela Ribon details her comic and sometimes disturbing attempts to lose her virginity as a 15-year-old and become a woman in this Oscar-nominated animated short based on her 2014 comedic memoir Notes to Boys: And Other Things I Shouldn’t Share in Public. My Year of Dicks is now streaming on Hulu.
Set in 1991 on the outskirts of Houston, director/animator Sara Gunnersdóttir blends cute, kaleidoscopic animation – with elements of animé – alongside excerpts of Ribon’s actual VHS home videos of her younger self from more than 30 years ago. It is a cute and very personal time capsule – a coming of age story not often seen through animation.
After a few chuckle-inducing and awkward, failed hookups, a humorously cringeworthy “birds and the bees” chat from her late father that Ribon says really happened, My Year of Dicks ends with a really sweet, predictable ending, making the double entendre-titled My Year of Dicks a funny and ultimately sweet ode to the awkwardness of adolescence.
REEL FACTS
• My Year of Dicks has been nominated for a 2023 Oscar for Best Animated Short.
• Pamela Ribon was a co-writer on 2018’s Ralph Breaks the Internet and 2016’s Moana.
• Icelandic My Year of Dicks director/animator Sara Gunnarsdóttir’s other work includes The Diary of a Teenage Girl and HBO’s Emmy-nominated The Case Against Adnan Sayed.
Video & Photo
