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Ghost in the Shell (1995)
In post-war Japan, rebuilding quickly meant embracing new technologies. Every decade brought more advancements and a deeper integration of burgeoning computer power. The high-tech future, always a part of Japanese popular imagination, became a source for hope, international competition, and national pride for a people still under the thumb of Western powers. In the 1980s Japan experience a…
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Arrival
There’s been some debate about how the studio cut the trailers for Arrival: more Independence Day than The Fountain. For such a minimalist, quiet film it seems the editors managed to find every scene of people running and military formations in order to portray a more mainstream actioner. Yes, there are creepy aliens and even…
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Kubo and the Two Strings
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The Boy and the Beast
American animated films tend to be formulaic slapstick. Of course this is Disney’s fault, but it’s also because we consider cartoons to be “for children,” therefore they must be easy to grasp and funny and sentimental. I would argue American animation labors under the same existential curse most adolescent entertainment does: sarcasm and narcissism disguised as a…
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The Jungle Book
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Batman v Superman
I swear there was a period in the middle of the movie where no one talked for like 30 minutes. There was just a series of barely-cohesive shots of people looking intensely at things. And maybe that’s a good wrap-up of how you’ll feel watching 2-1/2 hours of Batman and Superman versing various things. Let…
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10 Cloverfield Lane
Is Cloverfield 2: The Clovering a true sequel? Is it part of a broader, under-the-radar, Twilight Zone-style anthology from the mind of J.J. Abrams? Is it a character-driven thriller with a monster movie tacked on? The answer to all three questions is a strong “maybe.” But it’s safe to say if you like thrillers you…
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When Marnie Was There
In 2014 the world got a little less interesting with the retirement of one of the greatest directors of the moving picture. Animation’s greatest auteur, Hayao Miyazaki, announced he was stepping down from his visionary and meticulous work at Studio Ghibli. With its final production, 2016 Oscar-nominated When Marnie Was There, Ghibli hit the pause…
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Creed
There’s a Simpsons gag* where Bart has to solve a puzzle using Roman numerals and he uses the only modern-day frame of reference he has: Rocky movie titles. The punchline, “Rocky VII: Adrian’s Revenge!” was funny because at the time there were only four Rocky movies and no one could imagine that stretching to seven…
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Crimson Peak
There’s a point in every scary movie where things fall apart and they cease to be scary. Depending on what you’re actually afraid of, that could come very quickly. In Crimson Peak, the new ghost story from Mexican fantasist Guillermo del Toro, more than half the film is spent sans ghosts. By the time they…
