See cinema differently
Director: Denis Villeneuve Stars: Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Rebecca Ferguson, Jason Momoa Frank Herbet's politically charged sci-fi tome Dune has brought a couple of auteurs low already. Alejandro Jodorowsky's attempt at filming it infamously never even made it to fruition, while David Lynch's admirable swing led to the director vowing never to work within the studio system again. …
Director: Paul W. S. Anderson Stars: Milla Jovovich, Tony Jaa, Hirona Yamazaki I've never played a Monster Hunter game and couldn't tell you a thing about them. Thing is, when it comes to Paul W. S. Anderson adapting a video game to the big screen (something he has a habit of doing), it rarely really …
Director: J.J. Abrams Stars: Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega You could feel it coming; a disturbance in the force. Gradually, as the press junkets for The Rise of Skywalker began, different members of the cast started speaking fondly of how Abrams' return felt so welcome. Abrams himself joined the fray. You could sense the urge …
Directors: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck Stars: Brie Larson, Samuel L Jackson, Clark Gregg That the Marvel machine has taken 11 years and 20-ish films to get to a female-centric superhero movie is such a glaring and conspicuous oversight that Captain Marvel arrives with a hideously unenviable burden. It has to mean something. It has to be …
Director: Nicolas Pesce Stars: Mia Wasikowska, Christopher Abbott, Laia Costa I remember reading Ryu Murakami's Audition in the hopes of decoding some of the more surreal occurences in Takashi Miike's masterful adaptation and being struck by the direct voice apparent in the translation. Favouring this, I also read Piercing; a novella that similarly popped off the page, and …
Director: Ron Howard Stars: Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke "Everybody stick to the plan. Do not improvise." So says Woody Harrelson's smuggler Tobias Beckett (the least Star Wars-y named character to appear in Star Wars yet), and its a line that rings with considerable pathos for what might've been. It's no secret that Solo originally fell into …
Director: Hiromasa Yonebayashi It was a few years into Studio Ghibli's existence before Hayao Miyazaki brought My Neightbour Totoro to the world and finally settled on the iconic logo which become synonymous with the company ever since. Ghibli now rests in a state of semi-hibernation. In its wake, rising star Hiromasa Yonebayashi (Arrietty, When Marnie Was There) opens …
Director: Roar Uthaug Stars: Alicia Vikander, Dominic West, Walton Goggins Films adapted from video games suck. We all know this. We've all been down this road and been burned too many times before. Even the occasional arguments to the contrary - the first Silent Hill movie, for instance - are, if we're honest, only ever kinda …
Directors: Lee Unkrich, Adrian Molina Stars: Anthony Gonzalez, Gael García Bernal, Benjamin Bratt Pixar have delved into the metaphysical before with their high water mark Inside Out, a family adventure film that somehow also managed to encompass a bold and complex message about self-awareness and early onset depression (quite how it did this so nimbly remains …
Director: Taika Waititi Stars: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett Depending on how you land on Thor: Ragnarok, this is either where the lumbering Marvel Cinematic Universe really starts to unshackle itself from so much box-ticking, or the installment at which the franchise tips and, if not exactly jumps the shark, at least gets ready for …
Year: 1976 Director: Jacques Rivette Stars: Juliet Bero (Leni), Bulle Ogier (Viva), Hermine Karagheuz (Lucie), Jean Babilée (Pierrot), Nicole Garcia (Elsa / Jeanne), Claire Nadieu (Sylvia Stern) Genre: Mystery / Fantasy If there is one thing I love, it's dream cinema. By which I do not mean dream sequences within otherwise conventionally made films (which …
Continue reading "Why I Love… #87: Duelle (une quarantaine)"
Plot holes in films are irksome things, evidence of imperfection. Depending on your attachment to the surrounding material, they can often be forgiven, however. A weakness, sure, but usually not a fatal one, so long as the scale isn't tipped by their presence too harshly. I can usually overlook plot holes in favour of finding enjoyment …
Year: 1984 Director: Hayao Miyazaki Genre: Animation / Science Fiction / Fantasy Nausicaä Of The Valley Of The Wind was a landmark film for Hayao Miyazaki. Having directed his first feature film (1979's The Castle of Cagliostro) as a director-for-hire, Miyazaki had earned just praise within Japan's fervent animation industry, but the film had not been …
Continue reading "Why I Love… #79: Nausicaä Of The Valley Of The Wind"
I nearly fell asleep watching Song Of The Sea. But wait, before you go taking that the wrong way, let me explain a couple of things. 1) I had a late night and an early start (for no good reason either), 2) I settled down in the too-sparsely-populated cinema very shortly after a satisfying brunch that …
With Hayao Miyazaki now in retirement (though with a few rumours to the contrary also banding around) the future for Studio Ghibli seems a little uncertain. Adding fuel to this is the arrival of the supposed swan song from Isao Takahata, Miyazaki's co-founder of the esteemed Japanese animation studio. An adaptation of the Japanese folk …
