I just watched Spirited Away. I’ve seen it many times. My sister is a big anime fan so we always used to watch Studio Ghibli movies and they are my favorite anime movies.
Typist Artist Pirate King (2023) - biopic of Audrey Amiss with a very effective portrayal of her paranoid schizophrenia.
The Creator (2023) - looked great but totally predictable and unoriginal.
A Field in England (2013) - surreal, low-key folk horror with some memorable BW cinematography.
Oppenheimer (2023) - powerful and great performances, but it could have been just as effective with 20 minutes cut IMHO.
The Miracle Club (2023) - nothing outstanding here, but a solidly told tale of forgiveness.
Lair of the White Worm (1988) - as messily uneven as ever. Amanda Donahue seemed to know what Loach Russell was aiming for. Not sure about anyone else.
Watched Little Miss Sunshine and Grave of the Fireflies last night with my movie group.
LMS was pretty good, the pageant was creepy bit but I think that was the point. Nice little heartwarming family story and some corpse wrangling.
GotF was intensely sad as expected. The animation is absolutely top notch and the story is super relevant to our current events of war and civilian suffering.
Grave of the Fireflies is by far my favorite Ghibli film. It’s also my favorite movie I never want to watch again. When people say animation isn’t real cinema or it’s for kids, you know they’ve never experienced GotF.
Yeah the animation is top notch and the subject matter is definitely not “kids movie “. I’ve now been trying to get people to watch it, so poignant for the times we live in.
Watched From Beyond and Ready or Not, I liked both. Ready or Not is a lot of fun and gave me the feelings of a Cabin in the Woods side story. Bonus points for portraying the rich people as stupid and useless.
From Beyond was exactly what I wanted it to be, weird body horror top notch 80’s B movie. A classic everyone should see if you even have a passing interest in the horror genre. It’s so gross, the grossest part isn’t even a special effect, I love it. Happy Halloween Everyone.
Yes! I’m so glad you enjoyed them. From Beyond is such an 80s treasure. If you like those weird body horror films from that era, I’d recommend a couple lesser known films: Society as one in a similar vein of weirdness and Possession as a fantastic film that will sit with you for a while.
Oh, I just realized that Society was directed by Brian Yuzna, who wrote the screenplay for From Beyond, ha.
I will definitely put them on the long list, we come together every other week and watch 2 movies, one is picked by a different person and one by me. My buddy’s next turn I think he’s doing Get Out so maybe another horror night, that’s in a couple months though. We’re watching Little Miss Sunshine and Grave of the Fireflies next.
I’ve just watched Brazil, a dystopian scifi from the 80s. The visuals were great, and I love the genre, but I wasn’t really feeling it. I just couldn’t really care about the characters.
We watched the Murder on the Orient Express series, including the nee Haunting in Venice movie. I really liked them. They’re fun and keep me guessing until the end.
I watched My Neighbour Totoro (1988) yesterday for the first time. I’m not into animé in the slightest, I actively hate most of the pop culture that surrounds it, so I was bracing for impact before starting it. But man, it’s an incredible film. The background artwork was breathtaking, every frame was literally a painting, shown for a second or two then gone forever. The level of detail was overwhelming. There was something about the way it was animated and coloured and “lit” that made it feel like my soul was being nourished.
The youngest kid was so well-written and animated, reminded me so much of my nieces and nephews at that age. The way small everyday human things were included elevated the experience hugely. Like, the way the kid clumsily walks down the stairs, or the way someone puts their shoes on (they even animated the dad slipping his shoes off from the chest up, so you just see his shoulders move in a way that makes it clear what his unseen feet are doing, really masterful stuff).
My one criticism of it - and this may be a criticism of animated films in general - is the “frame rate” of the character animations. It was bordering on being a slideshow. Hand-drawn stuff that isn’t rotoscoped tends to have this issue, even in modern video games, and in Eastern animation in particular. For example, The Simpsons never had this problem, but Dragon Ball Z and Pokémon did (it’s probably one of the things that put me off the genre). It seems to be a stylistic choice, rather than just trying to save money by skipping the creation of every second frame. If so, it’s a choice I dislike and feel hurts the experience a little. Not hugely, just a little.
The story and acting were really pitch-perfect. Certainly a nice change from the grotesque shit I usually watch.
I’m going to be checking out the rest of Studio Ghibli’s oeuvre over the coming weeks. First on the list are: Grave of the Fireflies and Spirited Away. There are a few non-Ghibli animé films I plan to watch, too. Perfect Blue is one.
I just need to ensure I precede each film with 15 minutes of chanting “I am not now, nor have I ever been, nor will I ever be, a weeaboo”.
Batman Returns (1992): The scene of the cats congregating around Selina Kyle after Shreck threw her out of the office window (and before she’s reborn as Catwoman) is so iconic. I remember seeing that scene on television when I was a child. Danny DeVito’s performance as The Penguin is also mega.
Blade Runner (1982): My eyes got heavy while watching it because all of the scenes are visually dark, which is certainly intentional. The world-building is amazing.
12 Monkeys (1995): It was interesting to watch this movie after having seen the TV series when it originally aired. The TV series is my second favorite sci-fi show, but I thought the movie was fine.
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