#filmreview — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #filmreview, aggregated by home.social.
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Film Review: X-MEN: FIRST CLASS (2011): Matthew Vaughn, James McAvoy
Link: https://film-book.com/film-review-x-men-first-class-2011-matthew-vaughn-james-mcavoy/?fsp_sid=204696
#20thCenturyFox #AshleyEdwardMiller #BillBilner #CalebLandryJones #ComicBookMovie #EdiGathegi #filmreview #JamesMcAvoy #JaneGoldman #JanuaryJones #JasonFlemyn #JasonFlemyng #JenniferLawrence #KevinBacon #LucasTill #MarvelEntertainment #MatthewVaughn #MichaelFassbender #MorganLily #MovieReview #NicholasHoult #OliverPla...
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Film Review: X-MEN: FIRST CLASS (2011): Matthew Vaughn, James McAvoy
Link: https://film-book.com/film-review-x-men-first-class-2011-matthew-vaughn-james-mcavoy/?fsp_sid=204696
#20thCenturyFox #AshleyEdwardMiller #BillBilner #CalebLandryJones #ComicBookMovie #EdiGathegi #filmreview #JamesMcAvoy #JaneGoldman #JanuaryJones #JasonFlemyn #JasonFlemyng #JenniferLawrence #KevinBacon #LucasTill #MarvelEntertainment #MatthewVaughn #MichaelFassbender #MorganLily #MovieReview #NicholasHoult #OliverPla...
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Film Review: X-MEN: FIRST CLASS (2011): Matthew Vaughn, James McAvoy
Link: https://film-book.com/film-review-x-men-first-class-2011-matthew-vaughn-james-mcavoy/?fsp_sid=204696
#20thCenturyFox #AshleyEdwardMiller #BillBilner #CalebLandryJones #ComicBookMovie #EdiGathegi #filmreview #JamesMcAvoy #JaneGoldman #JanuaryJones #JasonFlemyn #JasonFlemyng #JenniferLawrence #KevinBacon #LucasTill #MarvelEntertainment #MatthewVaughn #MichaelFassbender #MorganLily #MovieReview #NicholasHoult #OliverPla...
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Film Review: X-MEN: FIRST CLASS (2011): Matthew Vaughn, James McAvoy
Link: https://film-book.com/film-review-x-men-first-class-2011-matthew-vaughn-james-mcavoy/?fsp_sid=204696
#20thCenturyFox #AshleyEdwardMiller #BillBilner #CalebLandryJones #ComicBookMovie #EdiGathegi #filmreview #JamesMcAvoy #JaneGoldman #JanuaryJones #JasonFlemyn #JasonFlemyng #JenniferLawrence #KevinBacon #LucasTill #MarvelEntertainment #MatthewVaughn #MichaelFassbender #MorganLily #MovieReview #NicholasHoult #OliverPla...
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Film Review: X-MEN: FIRST CLASS (2011): Matthew Vaughn, James McAvoy
Link: https://film-book.com/film-review-x-men-first-class-2011-matthew-vaughn-james-mcavoy/?fsp_sid=204696
#20thCenturyFox #AshleyEdwardMiller #BillBilner #CalebLandryJones #ComicBookMovie #EdiGathegi #filmreview #JamesMcAvoy #JaneGoldman #JanuaryJones #JasonFlemyn #JasonFlemyng #JenniferLawrence #KevinBacon #LucasTill #MarvelEntertainment #MatthewVaughn #MichaelFassbender #MorganLily #MovieReview #NicholasHoult #OliverPla...
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Media Highlights: The Best of the Best
Since starting my media highlights, I thought there are now so many of them per post I’d look back on the last six months of these round-up posts (Nov-April) and let you know what I think my main highlights have been in all categories. Let’s go for the top 5 in each, as there are way too many for me to pick otherwise!
I haven’t got 6 months of Musical Greetings yet I don’t think, as I started this a bit later.
Top 5 Books of the Last 6 Months (Nov-Apr)
This was hard to narrow down, and I think that there were lots of great reads. I didn’t include short stories in this top 5 selection, as there are WAY too many of those to set against the novels and novellas. They get their own section below.
- What The Fog Conceals by R.A. Marno (ARC, released by Salt Publishing 15th August 2026). An absolutely brilliant work of Northern Irish Gothic, based on a real incident.
~ - Linghun by Ai Jiang. A modern Chinese-Canadian gothic ghost story, described as ‘literary horror’. Serious, rich, multi-layered grief horror.
~ - The Devouring by A.M. Shilling (ARC read, now released). Fast-paced thriller with a Lovecraftian twist, and a married couple as the protagonists. He’s an assassin, she does autopsies… I was really intrigued by this one so I reached out to the author and Shilling will be featured in an Author Spotlight in the summer, so you can hear more about this book from the author directly!
~ - Loving Safoa by Liza Wemakor. A Black lesbian vampire novella! If you like Jewelle Gomez’s The Gilda Stories, you’ll definitely like this, I think. I loved this, especially the community-centred, hopeful ethos, and the sweet lesbian love story at its core. Read my full review here.
~ - Black Velvet by Fox N. Locke. This was a surprise highlight for me, as I don’t usually read YA coming-of-age stories, but this one really hit for me. It is a contemporary paranormal YA coming-of-age story that is so deeply small-English-town messy and grounded, despite being about ghosts and necromancy. Set the year of the London bombings (07/07/2005), it tackles queerness, transness, bigotry, fear, and suicide ideation, as well eating disorders and grief.
Top 5 Short Stories/Anthologies of the Last 6 Months (Nov-Apr)
I read some standout single author collections and some great short stories, so narrowing it down was pretty hard. My picks are fairly predictable, but I stand by them.
- We Are Here to Hurt Each Other by Paula D. Ashe. This is a re-read of some of the stories in this collection, like “Jacqueline Laughs Last in the Gaslight”. Some of these stories showcase some of the best prose I’ve ever read in any genre.
~ - Skin Thief by Suzan Palumbo. Another re-read, and another Neon Hemlock offering. This is one of my favourite short story collections by a single author; Paula D. Ashe’s visceral We Are Here To Hurt Each Other is the other. Palumbo’s collection is a wonderfully dark ride through Canadian and Trinidadian folklore, queer experiences, and immigrant experiences, filled with elements of intersectional identities, and a rich tapestry of perspectives.
~ - “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
~ - “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad”, by M.R. James
~ - Skin Folk by Nalo Hopkinson. I’ve had this one on my TBR for ages, ever since my Red Riding Hood post from Feb 2024. I finally dived in, two years later. This is a single-author collection of original short fiction, like We Are Here to Hurt Each Other and Skin Thief. I would recommend reading the review by Casey the Canadian Lesbrarian for some really well-thought-out considerations of this collection.
Top 5 Podcasts/Audiodramas of the Last 6 Months (Nov-Apr)
- Algernon Blackwood BBC Radio Drama Collection – I really enjoyed this one although the bouncy intro and credits felt very incongruous compared with the stories! But it has a lot of good ones in here. The Internet Archive has 4 of his John Silence stories for free, if interested!
~ - Just Chills: Short Scary Stories – I love Taesha Glasgow’s voice, and she has some great stories to listen to here, all classic ghost stories.
~ - HorrorBabble – a great resource for short horror fiction and classic Weird tales, all published in various magazines of the 1800s-1950s, so the author demographic is predominantly white and male.
~ - Shadows at the Door – a great audiodrama podcast, with a mix of original stories and some classics. I like the format of this one, with the drama first and then a discussion afterwards.
~ - The Weird Library podcast – a good mix of classic and original stories, was on a hiatus and is now picking back up. Unlike the others, this one specialises in Weird Fiction specifically.
Top 5 TV Shows of the Last 6 Months (Nov-Apr)
If I included my comfort series, then it would be the same ones every time. I’m excluding the ones I continuously rewatch, like Delicious in Dungeon, The Apothecary Diaries, and Haunted Hotel.
- Yaratılan/Creature (2023) written & directed by Çağan Irmak, based on Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. – Turkish 8-part series, my November rewatch that spilled into December. One of my favourite series. I wrote a post on it when I watched Del Toro’s Frankenstein.
~ - The Other Bennet Sister (2026-) dirs. Asim Abbasi, Jennifer Sheridan; writers Janice Hadlow (novel), Sarah Quintrell (9 eps), Maddie Dai (1 ep). I succumbed to this, and really enjoyed it. The hype is deserved. I think I would like the novel, even though poor Mary at Netherfield Hall… I had to fast forward that song, poor love. She was definitely giving me aro-spec/demi & autistic vibes. I liked that rep.
~ - Fallout (2024-), created by Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner, which I loved. Absolutely amazing. One of my oldest friends has been a massive fan of the games for years, and when we were housemates he had a display cabinet of the figures for Fallout and Bioshock in our living room – those were my introduction to the games and the worlds!
~ - खौफ/Khauf [“Fear“] (2025-) created & written by Smita Singh, dirs. Pankaj Kumar and Surya Balakrishnan. Hard-hitting, woman-centred Hindi Horror series. This weaves issues of rape trauma and the prevalent issue of sexual violence against women in modern-day Delhi with a supernatural horror plotline. I really like that this was created, written, and co-directed by women – I also liked Kumar’s work on Tumbbad, so I thought this worked well.
~ - Hazbin Hotel definitely belongs up here, and it isn’t one that I rewatch for comfort, so it’s included. I played the S02 Hazbin Hotel soundtrack on loop for over a week. The theology is all over the place, so don’t go in expecting anything coherent, or for it to be doing anything interesting or new with it, they are just fun cartoons. I enjoy the story and the characters enough, and the fantasy worldbuilding, that this aspect (theology) doesn’t bother me. I really enjoy Helluva Boss as well, but I think Hazbin Hotel is slightly better.
Top 5 Films of the Last 6 Months (Nov-Apr)
This was super hard to narrow down, but I went for the ones that stood out for me in each month. I think that Ghost Stories for Christmas should be given a special mention, but I can’t include the entire series of short films!
- Izvod: The Witch’s Swamp (2025) dirs. Oleg Taravkov and Alexey Plakhotnikov. Something I just happened to find on YouTube. It was posted there by the filmmakers, who made this on a microbudget of US$28K, and it’s amazingly good for the money and the fact this is their first film. It’s a Slavic mythology-inspired folk horror, completely indie-funded. Highly recommend this – the English subs are really good, and it’s worth a look. I had to add it Letterboxd.
~ - Bring Her Back (2025) dirs. Michael Philippou, Danny Philippou. I really liked Talk To Me by the same directors, and this one was a real mind fuck as well. Deeply upsetting in places. I had to fast forward scenes, literally can’t watch some of that. Next level diabolical. New to me this year.
~ - Dark Waters (1993) dir. Mariano Baino. If you enjoyed Soavi’s The Church (1989), this is definitely one for the watchlist. It goes harder in a few places. One of the most disturbing family reunions I’ve seen. New to me this year, but I’ve rewatched it 3x already, once with the director’s commentary.
~ - Mother of Flies (2025) dirs. John Adams, Zelda Adams, and Toby Poser. An absolutely incredible achievement in indie filmmaking, honestly. A really touching folk horror/body horror film about cancer, grief, faith, and loss of children. The visuals are really striking and vivid. There is a LOT of graphic baby death (stillbirth and necromancy).
~ - Sauna (2008) dir. Antti-Jussi Annila. I didn’t know what to expect, but this is a dark historical drama with supernatural and psychological horror elements. It’s an interesting piece of Scandinavian Gothic, I think, very atmospheric and well paced. I have this on Blu Ray and I’m really glad I bought it. Not keen on the English language title, ‘Rising Evil’, though…
See all 6 Media Round-ups
Everything I’ve watched, read, and listened to in April! Skim the highlights, or expand the details to see the full lists.
by cmrosensMay 4, 2026May 1, 2026Everything I’ve read/watched/listened to in the month of March!
by cmrosensMarch 31, 2026March 31, 2026What I read, listened to, and watched in the month of February! Skim the highlights, or expand the details to see the full lists and my thoughts.
by cmrosensFebruary 28, 2026March 14, 2026My monthly media round-up for January 2026 – all the books, podcasts, tv shows, and films I’ve been enjoying this month!
by cmrosensFebruary 1, 2026February 1, 2026My monthly media round-up for December 2025 – all the books, podcasts, tv shows, and films I read/listened to/watched this month.
by cmrosensDecember 30, 2025March 14, 2026I’m starting a new monthly series where I post a round-up of all the media I’ve watched/read/listened to for the previous month. Here is November’s media round-up!
by cmrosensDecember 5, 2025January 26, 2026 Subscribe to my newsletter to stay updated! I send newsletters around once a month. You can also subscribe to my site so you don't miss a post, but I also do a post round-up in my monthly newsletters, along with what I've been working on, what I've been reading, and what I've been watching. I will often update newsletter subscribers first with news, so stay ahead of the game with my announcements and discount codes, etc! #BookReview #filmReview #mediaRoundUp #tvReview - What The Fog Conceals by R.A. Marno (ARC, released by Salt Publishing 15th August 2026). An absolutely brilliant work of Northern Irish Gothic, based on a real incident.
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Media Highlights: The Best of the Best
Since starting my media highlights, I thought there are now so many of them per post I’d look back on the last six months of these round-up posts (Nov-April) and let you know what I think my main highlights have been in all categories. Let’s go for the top 5 in each, as there are way too many for me to pick otherwise!
I haven’t got 6 months of Musical Greetings yet I don’t think, as I started this a bit later.
Top 5 Books of the Last 6 Months (Nov-Apr)
This was hard to narrow down, and I think that there were lots of great reads. I didn’t include short stories in this top 5 selection, as there are WAY too many of those to set against the novels and novellas. They get their own section below.
- What The Fog Conceals by R.A. Marno (ARC, released by Salt Publishing 15th August 2026). An absolutely brilliant work of Northern Irish Gothic, based on a real incident.
~ - Linghun by Ai Jiang. A modern Chinese-Canadian gothic ghost story, described as ‘literary horror’. Serious, rich, multi-layered grief horror.
~ - The Devouring by A.M. Shilling (ARC read, now released). Fast-paced thriller with a Lovecraftian twist, and a married couple as the protagonists. He’s an assassin, she does autopsies… I was really intrigued by this one so I reached out to the author and Shilling will be featured in an Author Spotlight in the summer, so you can hear more about this book from the author directly!
~ - Loving Safoa by Liza Wemakor. A Black lesbian vampire novella! If you like Jewelle Gomez’s The Gilda Stories, you’ll definitely like this, I think. I loved this, especially the community-centred, hopeful ethos, and the sweet lesbian love story at its core. Read my full review here.
~ - Black Velvet by Fox N. Locke. This was a surprise highlight for me, as I don’t usually read YA coming-of-age stories, but this one really hit for me. It is a contemporary paranormal YA coming-of-age story that is so deeply small-English-town messy and grounded, despite being about ghosts and necromancy. Set the year of the London bombings (07/07/2005), it tackles queerness, transness, bigotry, fear, and suicide ideation, as well eating disorders and grief.
Top 5 Short Stories/Anthologies of the Last 6 Months (Nov-Apr)
I read some standout single author collections and some great short stories, so narrowing it down was pretty hard. My picks are fairly predictable, but I stand by them.
- We Are Here to Hurt Each Other by Paula D. Ashe. This is a re-read of some of the stories in this collection, like “Jacqueline Laughs Last in the Gaslight”. Some of these stories showcase some of the best prose I’ve ever read in any genre.
~ - Skin Thief by Suzan Palumbo. Another re-read, and another Neon Hemlock offering. This is one of my favourite short story collections by a single author; Paula D. Ashe’s visceral We Are Here To Hurt Each Other is the other. Palumbo’s collection is a wonderfully dark ride through Canadian and Trinidadian folklore, queer experiences, and immigrant experiences, filled with elements of intersectional identities, and a rich tapestry of perspectives.
~ - “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
~ - “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad”, by M.R. James
~ - Skin Folk by Nalo Hopkinson. I’ve had this one on my TBR for ages, ever since my Red Riding Hood post from Feb 2024. I finally dived in, two years later. This is a single-author collection of original short fiction, like We Are Here to Hurt Each Other and Skin Thief. I would recommend reading the review by Casey the Canadian Lesbrarian for some really well-thought-out considerations of this collection.
Top 5 Podcasts/Audiodramas of the Last 6 Months (Nov-Apr)
- Algernon Blackwood BBC Radio Drama Collection – I really enjoyed this one although the bouncy intro and credits felt very incongruous compared with the stories! But it has a lot of good ones in here. The Internet Archive has 4 of his John Silence stories for free, if interested!
~ - Just Chills: Short Scary Stories – I love Taesha Glasgow’s voice, and she has some great stories to listen to here, all classic ghost stories.
~ - HorrorBabble – a great resource for short horror fiction and classic Weird tales, all published in various magazines of the 1800s-1950s, so the author demographic is predominantly white and male.
~ - Shadows at the Door – a great audiodrama podcast, with a mix of original stories and some classics. I like the format of this one, with the drama first and then a discussion afterwards.
~ - The Weird Library podcast – a good mix of classic and original stories, was on a hiatus and is now picking back up. Unlike the others, this one specialises in Weird Fiction specifically.
Top 5 TV Shows of the Last 6 Months (Nov-Apr)
If I included my comfort series, then it would be the same ones every time. I’m excluding the ones I continuously rewatch, like Delicious in Dungeon, The Apothecary Diaries, and Haunted Hotel.
- Yaratılan/Creature (2023) written & directed by Çağan Irmak, based on Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. – Turkish 8-part series, my November rewatch that spilled into December. One of my favourite series. I wrote a post on it when I watched Del Toro’s Frankenstein.
~ - The Other Bennet Sister (2026-) dirs. Asim Abbasi, Jennifer Sheridan; writers Janice Hadlow (novel), Sarah Quintrell (9 eps), Maddie Dai (1 ep). I succumbed to this, and really enjoyed it. The hype is deserved. I think I would like the novel, even though poor Mary at Netherfield Hall… I had to fast forward that song, poor love. She was definitely giving me aro-spec/demi & autistic vibes. I liked that rep.
~ - Fallout (2024-), created by Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner, which I loved. Absolutely amazing. One of my oldest friends has been a massive fan of the games for years, and when we were housemates he had a display cabinet of the figures for Fallout and Bioshock in our living room – those were my introduction to the games and the worlds!
~ - खौफ/Khauf [“Fear“] (2025-) created & written by Smita Singh, dirs. Pankaj Kumar and Surya Balakrishnan. Hard-hitting, woman-centred Hindi Horror series. This weaves issues of rape trauma and the prevalent issue of sexual violence against women in modern-day Delhi with a supernatural horror plotline. I really like that this was created, written, and co-directed by women – I also liked Kumar’s work on Tumbbad, so I thought this worked well.
~ - Hazbin Hotel definitely belongs up here, and it isn’t one that I rewatch for comfort, so it’s included. I played the S02 Hazbin Hotel soundtrack on loop for over a week. The theology is all over the place, so don’t go in expecting anything coherent, or for it to be doing anything interesting or new with it, they are just fun cartoons. I enjoy the story and the characters enough, and the fantasy worldbuilding, that this aspect (theology) doesn’t bother me. I really enjoy Helluva Boss as well, but I think Hazbin Hotel is slightly better.
Top 5 Films of the Last 6 Months (Nov-Apr)
This was super hard to narrow down, but I went for the ones that stood out for me in each month. I think that Ghost Stories for Christmas should be given a special mention, but I can’t include the entire series of short films!
- Izvod: The Witch’s Swamp (2025) dirs. Oleg Taravkov and Alexey Plakhotnikov. Something I just happened to find on YouTube. It was posted there by the filmmakers, who made this on a microbudget of US$28K, and it’s amazingly good for the money and the fact this is their first film. It’s a Slavic mythology-inspired folk horror, completely indie-funded. Highly recommend this – the English subs are really good, and it’s worth a look. I had to add it Letterboxd.
~ - Bring Her Back (2025) dirs. Michael Philippou, Danny Philippou. I really liked Talk To Me by the same directors, and this one was a real mind fuck as well. Deeply upsetting in places. I had to fast forward scenes, literally can’t watch some of that. Next level diabolical. New to me this year.
~ - Dark Waters (1993) dir. Mariano Baino. If you enjoyed Soavi’s The Church (1989), this is definitely one for the watchlist. It goes harder in a few places. One of the most disturbing family reunions I’ve seen. New to me this year, but I’ve rewatched it 3x already, once with the director’s commentary.
~ - Mother of Flies (2025) dirs. John Adams, Zelda Adams, and Toby Poser. An absolutely incredible achievement in indie filmmaking, honestly. A really touching folk horror/body horror film about cancer, grief, faith, and loss of children. The visuals are really striking and vivid. There is a LOT of graphic baby death (stillbirth and necromancy).
~ - Sauna (2008) dir. Antti-Jussi Annila. I didn’t know what to expect, but this is a dark historical drama with supernatural and psychological horror elements. It’s an interesting piece of Scandinavian Gothic, I think, very atmospheric and well paced. I have this on Blu Ray and I’m really glad I bought it. Not keen on the English language title, ‘Rising Evil’, though…
See all 6 Media Round-ups
Everything I’ve watched, read, and listened to in April! Skim the highlights, or expand the details to see the full lists.
by cmrosensMay 4, 2026May 1, 2026Everything I’ve read/watched/listened to in the month of March!
by cmrosensMarch 31, 2026March 31, 2026What I read, listened to, and watched in the month of February! Skim the highlights, or expand the details to see the full lists and my thoughts.
by cmrosensFebruary 28, 2026March 14, 2026My monthly media round-up for January 2026 – all the books, podcasts, tv shows, and films I’ve been enjoying this month!
by cmrosensFebruary 1, 2026February 1, 2026My monthly media round-up for December 2025 – all the books, podcasts, tv shows, and films I read/listened to/watched this month.
by cmrosensDecember 30, 2025March 14, 2026I’m starting a new monthly series where I post a round-up of all the media I’ve watched/read/listened to for the previous month. Here is November’s media round-up!
by cmrosensDecember 5, 2025January 26, 2026 Subscribe to my newsletter to stay updated! I send newsletters around once a month. You can also subscribe to my site so you don't miss a post, but I also do a post round-up in my monthly newsletters, along with what I've been working on, what I've been reading, and what I've been watching. I will often update newsletter subscribers first with news, so stay ahead of the game with my announcements and discount codes, etc! #BookReview #filmReview #mediaRoundUp #tvReview - What The Fog Conceals by R.A. Marno (ARC, released by Salt Publishing 15th August 2026). An absolutely brilliant work of Northern Irish Gothic, based on a real incident.
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Only Yesterday (1991) – Review
Just because your motion picture is made up of thousands upon thousands of individually hand-drawn pictures, it doesn’t mean you can’t be subtle with the medium you’re working in. While various purveyors of animation – from Walt Disney to Ralph Bakshi to Don Bluth to Katsuhiro Otomo – all utilised the artform to realise everything from lush, impossible fantasy kingdoms to dystopian futures, leave it to Studio Ghibli’s Isao Takahata to do something entirely different.
There’s not many people who would think to use animation to tell a straight drama without a single flying dragon or talking animal in sight, but anyone who saw Takahata’s emotion searing Grave Of The Fireflies (aka. one of the saddest films in the world) already knew that the director didn’t approach the medium in a way quite unlike anybody else. Harnessing numerous animators and countless drawings, Only Yesterday is a relatively simple story about a twenty seven year-old woman thinking back to her childhood as she embarks on a farming holiday, but the emotions it manages to evoke proves just how magical animation can be – even when it isn’t overtly featuring magic.The year is 1982 and we meet umarried office worker Taeko Okajima as she’s about to go on a two week vacation to the rural countryside in order to help her sister’s in-laws with their safflower harvest. As she leaves Tokyo to Yamagata on a sleeper train she starts experiencing vivid memories from when she was a ten year-old girl back in 1966 that bring back powerful emotions from that time. The youngest of three, Taeko was brought up by somewhat flinty mother and a near-monosylabic father who often struggled with some of their daughter’s various shortcomings. However, as Taeko’s memories come thick and fast, we’re treated to a bunch of experiences that not only stuck with her with absolutely clarity, but seemingly helped make her the woman she would grow up to be. But who is that, exactly?
As she recalls such moments as the first time her family tried pineapple, her baseball playing first crush and the dreaded onset of her first period, Taeko discovers a sort of peace while working on a farm that she rarely seems to find in the city. She’s also starts to form something of a bond with her brother-in-law’s second cousin, Toshio, who passionately believes in people being more in tune with nature as it mutually benefits both. However as the memories keep on coming, we also see the more painful memories come to the fore such as the first time she was slapped by her father as punishment, her inability to grasp maths and a budding love of acting getting quashed by life constantly intervening.
But what does all this mean? Is there a reason her mind keeps her awash with wave after wave of nostalgia both good and bad? Could it be that her holiday has unlocked some yearning within her that city life just can’t sate?If anyone could (or should) be brought forward as a shining example why animation should be regarded as an art form thar deserves respect, it’s Isao Takahata. By this point in the history of Studio Ghibli, both he and Hayao Miyazaki had fallen into something of a perfect rhythm with Miyazaki delivering achingly poignant flights of fancy that often felt like balm for the soul. However, while his colleague was effortlessly delivering groundbreaking fantasy, Takahata’s wheelhouse seemed to be delving into much more personal affairs, choosing not to hide behind fantastical creatures and mythical world but rather rubbing our face in extraordinarily human stories. After witnessing his previous movie – the unrelentingly moving story of two children slowly dying of malnutrition after the war – I was a little hesitant to approach Only Yesterday, if only because I was understandably gunshy about ugly crying my way through another film. However, after making it through, I found myself once again stunned at how these Ghibli guys know how to write girls so well.
When stripped down to the bare bones, Takahata is expertly detailing the growing divide that occurs as we gradually creep into adulthood that often results in some sort of spiritual upheaval as the added pressures of life make us long for the people we use to be. As Taeko experiences the simple but rewarding pleasures of tending the land, she lists all the growing pains and little traumas that occur that present a billion questions of what might have been. Be it the numerous blush-inducing issues that plague her that stretch from her inability to speak to a crush that rumour suggests actually likes her, to the horror stricken panic of having any of the boys think she’s skipping P.E. because she may be her period (thirty years before Pixar’s Turning Red, by the way), you feel them as if you’ve experienced them yourself – which is quite the feat considering I’m a white male.Also creating little, but devestating wounds are the various cuts inflicted by a heavy hand or a careless word of a relative. The only time she’s slapped by her father is because of the shame she inadvertently causes by walking outside without shoes (a sign of poverty in post-war Japan) and her inability to grasp fractions leads her to hearing her mother describe her as “not normal” to her sisters.
But as ripe for drama as this all is, you may be wondering why Isao Takahata bothered to render any of this with countless painstakingly drawn drawings at all and simply just make a normal damn film – well if the director has a deft touch with the story, wait until you see the subtle, yet completely beguiling, tricks he does with the animation. While the sections of the film that take place in the 80s have a more brightly coloured and realistic look about them (it’s initially odd to see Anime characters with nasolabial folds), all the memories of the 60s look less realistic, with the edges of the frame kitted out withba white haze as if we really are viewing these events through the gauze of memory. Some may still wonder while you’d employ a small army of animators to simply draw endless frames of people talking, but the subtly of the “acting” is as superb as the voice work. And then, just as I let my guard down, Studio Ghibli nails me square in the feels once again with a sequence that see Taeko galvanised into making a momentous decision thanks to the memories of herself and her childhood friends urging her to make the leap of faith.While Takahata’s insistence of only deviating from reality when the story truly calls for it may leave seekers of more fantastical Ghibli fare yearning for a big fuzzy animal or a flying sequence, Only Yesterday remains an impressively controlled piece of work that still manages to yank on our heart strings while mercifully leaving its youthful cast alive this time – seriously guys, Grave Of The Fireflies really did a number on me. Still, watching someone try to find their place in a modern world that proves to be an ill fit for them is still plenty emotional enough – for I too find pineapples a letdown and am randomly haunted by memories of my childhood…
#1990s #1991 #Animation #Anime #Drama #FilmReview #IsaoTakahata #Japan #MikiImai #OnlyYesterday #StudioGhibli #ToshiroYanagiba #YokoHonna
🌟🌟🌟🌟 -
Only Yesterday (1991) – Review
Just because your motion picture is made up of thousands upon thousands of individually hand-drawn pictures, it doesn’t mean you can’t be subtle with the medium you’re working in. While various purveyors of animation – from Walt Disney to Ralph Bakshi to Don Bluth to Katsuhiro Otomo – all utilised the artform to realise everything from lush, impossible fantasy kingdoms to dystopian futures, leave it to Studio Ghibli’s Isao Takahata to do something entirely different.
There’s not many people who would think to use animation to tell a straight drama without a single flying dragon or talking animal in sight, but anyone who saw Takahata’s emotion searing Grave Of The Fireflies (aka. one of the saddest films in the world) already knew that the director didn’t approach the medium in a way quite unlike anybody else. Harnessing numerous animators and countless drawings, Only Yesterday is a relatively simple story about a twenty seven year-old woman thinking back to her childhood as she embarks on a farming holiday, but the emotions it manages to evoke proves just how magical animation can be – even when it isn’t overtly featuring magic.The year is 1982 and we meet umarried office worker Taeko Okajima as she’s about to go on a two week vacation to the rural countryside in order to help her sister’s in-laws with their safflower harvest. As she leaves Tokyo to Yamagata on a sleeper train she starts experiencing vivid memories from when she was a ten year-old girl back in 1966 that bring back powerful emotions from that time. The youngest of three, Taeko was brought up by somewhat flinty mother and a near-monosylabic father who often struggled with some of their daughter’s various shortcomings. However, as Taeko’s memories come thick and fast, we’re treated to a bunch of experiences that not only stuck with her with absolutely clarity, but seemingly helped make her the woman she would grow up to be. But who is that, exactly?
As she recalls such moments as the first time her family tried pineapple, her baseball playing first crush and the dreaded onset of her first period, Taeko discovers a sort of peace while working on a farm that she rarely seems to find in the city. She’s also starts to form something of a bond with her brother-in-law’s second cousin, Toshio, who passionately believes in people being more in tune with nature as it mutually benefits both. However as the memories keep on coming, we also see the more painful memories come to the fore such as the first time she was slapped by her father as punishment, her inability to grasp maths and a budding love of acting getting quashed by life constantly intervening.
But what does all this mean? Is there a reason her mind keeps her awash with wave after wave of nostalgia both good and bad? Could it be that her holiday has unlocked some yearning within her that city life just can’t sate?If anyone could (or should) be brought forward as a shining example why animation should be regarded as an art form thar deserves respect, it’s Isao Takahata. By this point in the history of Studio Ghibli, both he and Hayao Miyazaki had fallen into something of a perfect rhythm with Miyazaki delivering achingly poignant flights of fancy that often felt like balm for the soul. However, while his colleague was effortlessly delivering groundbreaking fantasy, Takahata’s wheelhouse seemed to be delving into much more personal affairs, choosing not to hide behind fantastical creatures and mythical world but rather rubbing our face in extraordinarily human stories. After witnessing his previous movie – the unrelentingly moving story of two children slowly dying of malnutrition after the war – I was a little hesitant to approach Only Yesterday, if only because I was understandably gunshy about ugly crying my way through another film. However, after making it through, I found myself once again stunned at how these Ghibli guys know how to write girls so well.
When stripped down to the bare bones, Takahata is expertly detailing the growing divide that occurs as we gradually creep into adulthood that often results in some sort of spiritual upheaval as the added pressures of life make us long for the people we use to be. As Taeko experiences the simple but rewarding pleasures of tending the land, she lists all the growing pains and little traumas that occur that present a billion questions of what might have been. Be it the numerous blush-inducing issues that plague her that stretch from her inability to speak to a crush that rumour suggests actually likes her, to the horror stricken panic of having any of the boys think she’s skipping P.E. because she may be her period (thirty years before Pixar’s Turning Red, by the way), you feel them as if you’ve experienced them yourself – which is quite the feat considering I’m a white male.Also creating little, but devestating wounds are the various cuts inflicted by a heavy hand or a careless word of a relative. The only time she’s slapped by her father is because of the shame she inadvertently causes by walking outside without shoes (a sign of poverty in post-war Japan) and her inability to grasp fractions leads her to hearing her mother describe her as “not normal” to her sisters.
But as ripe for drama as this all is, you may be wondering why Isao Takahata bothered to render any of this with countless painstakingly drawn drawings at all and simply just make a normal damn film – well if the director has a deft touch with the story, wait until you see the subtle, yet completely beguiling, tricks he does with the animation. While the sections of the film that take place in the 80s have a more brightly coloured and realistic look about them (it’s initially odd to see Anime characters with nasolabial folds), all the memories of the 60s look less realistic, with the edges of the frame kitted out withba white haze as if we really are viewing these events through the gauze of memory. Some may still wonder while you’d employ a small army of animators to simply draw endless frames of people talking, but the subtly of the “acting” is as superb as the voice work. And then, just as I let my guard down, Studio Ghibli nails me square in the feels once again with a sequence that see Taeko galvanised into making a momentous decision thanks to the memories of herself and her childhood friends urging her to make the leap of faith.While Takahata’s insistence of only deviating from reality when the story truly calls for it may leave seekers of more fantastical Ghibli fare yearning for a big fuzzy animal or a flying sequence, Only Yesterday remains an impressively controlled piece of work that still manages to yank on our heart strings while mercifully leaving its youthful cast alive this time – seriously guys, Grave Of The Fireflies really did a number on me. Still, watching someone try to find their place in a modern world that proves to be an ill fit for them is still plenty emotional enough – for I too find pineapples a letdown and am randomly haunted by memories of my childhood…
#1990s #1991 #Animation #Anime #Drama #FilmReview #IsaoTakahata #Japan #MikiImai #OnlyYesterday #StudioGhibli #ToshiroYanagiba #YokoHonna
🌟🌟🌟🌟 -
Only Yesterday (1991) – Review
Just because your motion picture is made up of thousands upon thousands of individually hand-drawn pictures, it doesn’t mean you can’t be subtle with the medium you’re working in. While various purveyors of animation – from Walt Disney to Ralph Bakshi to Don Bluth to Katsuhiro Otomo – all utilised the artform to realise everything from lush, impossible fantasy kingdoms to dystopian futures, leave it to Studio Ghibli’s Isao Takahata to do something entirely different.
There’s not many people who would think to use animation to tell a straight drama without a single flying dragon or talking animal in sight, but anyone who saw Takahata’s emotion searing Grave Of The Fireflies (aka. one of the saddest films in the world) already knew that the director didn’t approach the medium in a way quite unlike anybody else. Harnessing numerous animators and countless drawings, Only Yesterday is a relatively simple story about a twenty seven year-old woman thinking back to her childhood as she embarks on a farming holiday, but the emotions it manages to evoke proves just how magical animation can be – even when it isn’t overtly featuring magic.The year is 1982 and we meet umarried office worker Taeko Okajima as she’s about to go on a two week vacation to the rural countryside in order to help her sister’s in-laws with their safflower harvest. As she leaves Tokyo to Yamagata on a sleeper train she starts experiencing vivid memories from when she was a ten year-old girl back in 1966 that bring back powerful emotions from that time. The youngest of three, Taeko was brought up by somewhat flinty mother and a near-monosylabic father who often struggled with some of their daughter’s various shortcomings. However, as Taeko’s memories come thick and fast, we’re treated to a bunch of experiences that not only stuck with her with absolutely clarity, but seemingly helped make her the woman she would grow up to be. But who is that, exactly?
As she recalls such moments as the first time her family tried pineapple, her baseball playing first crush and the dreaded onset of her first period, Taeko discovers a sort of peace while working on a farm that she rarely seems to find in the city. She’s also starts to form something of a bond with her brother-in-law’s second cousin, Toshio, who passionately believes in people being more in tune with nature as it mutually benefits both. However as the memories keep on coming, we also see the more painful memories come to the fore such as the first time she was slapped by her father as punishment, her inability to grasp maths and a budding love of acting getting quashed by life constantly intervening.
But what does all this mean? Is there a reason her mind keeps her awash with wave after wave of nostalgia both good and bad? Could it be that her holiday has unlocked some yearning within her that city life just can’t sate?If anyone could (or should) be brought forward as a shining example why animation should be regarded as an art form thar deserves respect, it’s Isao Takahata. By this point in the history of Studio Ghibli, both he and Hayao Miyazaki had fallen into something of a perfect rhythm with Miyazaki delivering achingly poignant flights of fancy that often felt like balm for the soul. However, while his colleague was effortlessly delivering groundbreaking fantasy, Takahata’s wheelhouse seemed to be delving into much more personal affairs, choosing not to hide behind fantastical creatures and mythical world but rather rubbing our face in extraordinarily human stories. After witnessing his previous movie – the unrelentingly moving story of two children slowly dying of malnutrition after the war – I was a little hesitant to approach Only Yesterday, if only because I was understandably gunshy about ugly crying my way through another film. However, after making it through, I found myself once again stunned at how these Ghibli guys know how to write girls so well.
When stripped down to the bare bones, Takahata is expertly detailing the growing divide that occurs as we gradually creep into adulthood that often results in some sort of spiritual upheaval as the added pressures of life make us long for the people we use to be. As Taeko experiences the simple but rewarding pleasures of tending the land, she lists all the growing pains and little traumas that occur that present a billion questions of what might have been. Be it the numerous blush-inducing issues that plague her that stretch from her inability to speak to a crush that rumour suggests actually likes her, to the horror stricken panic of having any of the boys think she’s skipping P.E. because she may be her period (thirty years before Pixar’s Turning Red, by the way), you feel them as if you’ve experienced them yourself – which is quite the feat considering I’m a white male.Also creating little, but devestating wounds are the various cuts inflicted by a heavy hand or a careless word of a relative. The only time she’s slapped by her father is because of the shame she inadvertently causes by walking outside without shoes (a sign of poverty in post-war Japan) and her inability to grasp fractions leads her to hearing her mother describe her as “not normal” to her sisters.
But as ripe for drama as this all is, you may be wondering why Isao Takahata bothered to render any of this with countless painstakingly drawn drawings at all and simply just make a normal damn film – well if the director has a deft touch with the story, wait until you see the subtle, yet completely beguiling, tricks he does with the animation. While the sections of the film that take place in the 80s have a more brightly coloured and realistic look about them (it’s initially odd to see Anime characters with nasolabial folds), all the memories of the 60s look less realistic, with the edges of the frame kitted out withba white haze as if we really are viewing these events through the gauze of memory. Some may still wonder while you’d employ a small army of animators to simply draw endless frames of people talking, but the subtly of the “acting” is as superb as the voice work. And then, just as I let my guard down, Studio Ghibli nails me square in the feels once again with a sequence that see Taeko galvanised into making a momentous decision thanks to the memories of herself and her childhood friends urging her to make the leap of faith.While Takahata’s insistence of only deviating from reality when the story truly calls for it may leave seekers of more fantastical Ghibli fare yearning for a big fuzzy animal or a flying sequence, Only Yesterday remains an impressively controlled piece of work that still manages to yank on our heart strings while mercifully leaving its youthful cast alive this time – seriously guys, Grave Of The Fireflies really did a number on me. Still, watching someone try to find their place in a modern world that proves to be an ill fit for them is still plenty emotional enough – for I too find pineapples a letdown and am randomly haunted by memories of my childhood…
#1990s #1991 #Animation #Anime #Drama #FilmReview #IsaoTakahata #Japan #MikiImai #OnlyYesterday #StudioGhibli #ToshiroYanagiba #YokoHonna
🌟🌟🌟🌟 -
Only Yesterday (1991) – Review
Just because your motion picture is made up of thousands upon thousands of individually hand-drawn pictures, it doesn’t mean you can’t be subtle with the medium you’re working in. While various purveyors of animation – from Walt Disney to Ralph Bakshi to Don Bluth to Katsuhiro Otomo – all utilised the artform to realise everything from lush, impossible fantasy kingdoms to dystopian futures, leave it to Studio Ghibli’s Isao Takahata to do something entirely different.
There’s not many people who would think to use animation to tell a straight drama without a single flying dragon or talking animal in sight, but anyone who saw Takahata’s emotion searing Grave Of The Fireflies (aka. one of the saddest films in the world) already knew that the director didn’t approach the medium in a way quite unlike anybody else. Harnessing numerous animators and countless drawings, Only Yesterday is a relatively simple story about a twenty seven year-old woman thinking back to her childhood as she embarks on a farming holiday, but the emotions it manages to evoke proves just how magical animation can be – even when it isn’t overtly featuring magic.The year is 1982 and we meet umarried office worker Taeko Okajima as she’s about to go on a two week vacation to the rural countryside in order to help her sister’s in-laws with their safflower harvest. As she leaves Tokyo to Yamagata on a sleeper train she starts experiencing vivid memories from when she was a ten year-old girl back in 1966 that bring back powerful emotions from that time. The youngest of three, Taeko was brought up by somewhat flinty mother and a near-monosylabic father who often struggled with some of their daughter’s various shortcomings. However, as Taeko’s memories come thick and fast, we’re treated to a bunch of experiences that not only stuck with her with absolutely clarity, but seemingly helped make her the woman she would grow up to be. But who is that, exactly?
As she recalls such moments as the first time her family tried pineapple, her baseball playing first crush and the dreaded onset of her first period, Taeko discovers a sort of peace while working on a farm that she rarely seems to find in the city. She’s also starts to form something of a bond with her brother-in-law’s second cousin, Toshio, who passionately believes in people being more in tune with nature as it mutually benefits both. However as the memories keep on coming, we also see the more painful memories come to the fore such as the first time she was slapped by her father as punishment, her inability to grasp maths and a budding love of acting getting quashed by life constantly intervening.
But what does all this mean? Is there a reason her mind keeps her awash with wave after wave of nostalgia both good and bad? Could it be that her holiday has unlocked some yearning within her that city life just can’t sate?If anyone could (or should) be brought forward as a shining example why animation should be regarded as an art form thar deserves respect, it’s Isao Takahata. By this point in the history of Studio Ghibli, both he and Hayao Miyazaki had fallen into something of a perfect rhythm with Miyazaki delivering achingly poignant flights of fancy that often felt like balm for the soul. However, while his colleague was effortlessly delivering groundbreaking fantasy, Takahata’s wheelhouse seemed to be delving into much more personal affairs, choosing not to hide behind fantastical creatures and mythical world but rather rubbing our face in extraordinarily human stories. After witnessing his previous movie – the unrelentingly moving story of two children slowly dying of malnutrition after the war – I was a little hesitant to approach Only Yesterday, if only because I was understandably gunshy about ugly crying my way through another film. However, after making it through, I found myself once again stunned at how these Ghibli guys know how to write girls so well.
When stripped down to the bare bones, Takahata is expertly detailing the growing divide that occurs as we gradually creep into adulthood that often results in some sort of spiritual upheaval as the added pressures of life make us long for the people we use to be. As Taeko experiences the simple but rewarding pleasures of tending the land, she lists all the growing pains and little traumas that occur that present a billion questions of what might have been. Be it the numerous blush-inducing issues that plague her that stretch from her inability to speak to a crush that rumour suggests actually likes her, to the horror stricken panic of having any of the boys think she’s skipping P.E. because she may be her period (thirty years before Pixar’s Turning Red, by the way), you feel them as if you’ve experienced them yourself – which is quite the feat considering I’m a white male.Also creating little, but devestating wounds are the various cuts inflicted by a heavy hand or a careless word of a relative. The only time she’s slapped by her father is because of the shame she inadvertently causes by walking outside without shoes (a sign of poverty in post-war Japan) and her inability to grasp fractions leads her to hearing her mother describe her as “not normal” to her sisters.
But as ripe for drama as this all is, you may be wondering why Isao Takahata bothered to render any of this with countless painstakingly drawn drawings at all and simply just make a normal damn film – well if the director has a deft touch with the story, wait until you see the subtle, yet completely beguiling, tricks he does with the animation. While the sections of the film that take place in the 80s have a more brightly coloured and realistic look about them (it’s initially odd to see Anime characters with nasolabial folds), all the memories of the 60s look less realistic, with the edges of the frame kitted out withba white haze as if we really are viewing these events through the gauze of memory. Some may still wonder while you’d employ a small army of animators to simply draw endless frames of people talking, but the subtly of the “acting” is as superb as the voice work. And then, just as I let my guard down, Studio Ghibli nails me square in the feels once again with a sequence that see Taeko galvanised into making a momentous decision thanks to the memories of herself and her childhood friends urging her to make the leap of faith.While Takahata’s insistence of only deviating from reality when the story truly calls for it may leave seekers of more fantastical Ghibli fare yearning for a big fuzzy animal or a flying sequence, Only Yesterday remains an impressively controlled piece of work that still manages to yank on our heart strings while mercifully leaving its youthful cast alive this time – seriously guys, Grave Of The Fireflies really did a number on me. Still, watching someone try to find their place in a modern world that proves to be an ill fit for them is still plenty emotional enough – for I too find pineapples a letdown and am randomly haunted by memories of my childhood…
#1990s #1991 #Animation #Anime #Drama #FilmReview #IsaoTakahata #Japan #MikiImai #OnlyYesterday #StudioGhibli #ToshiroYanagiba #YokoHonna
🌟🌟🌟🌟 -
Only Yesterday (1991) – Review
Just because your motion picture is made up of thousands upon thousands of individually hand-drawn pictures, it doesn’t mean you can’t be subtle with the medium you’re working in. While various purveyors of animation – from Walt Disney to Ralph Bakshi to Don Bluth to Katsuhiro Otomo – all utilised the artform to realise everything from lush, impossible fantasy kingdoms to dystopian futures, leave it to Studio Ghibli’s Isao Takahata to do something entirely different.
There’s not many people who would think to use animation to tell a straight drama without a single flying dragon or talking animal in sight, but anyone who saw Takahata’s emotion searing Grave Of The Fireflies (aka. one of the saddest films in the world) already knew that the director didn’t approach the medium in a way quite unlike anybody else. Harnessing numerous animators and countless drawings, Only Yesterday is a relatively simple story about a twenty seven year-old woman thinking back to her childhood as she embarks on a farming holiday, but the emotions it manages to evoke proves just how magical animation can be – even when it isn’t overtly featuring magic.The year is 1982 and we meet umarried office worker Taeko Okajima as she’s about to go on a two week vacation to the rural countryside in order to help her sister’s in-laws with their safflower harvest. As she leaves Tokyo to Yamagata on a sleeper train she starts experiencing vivid memories from when she was a ten year-old girl back in 1966 that bring back powerful emotions from that time. The youngest of three, Taeko was brought up by somewhat flinty mother and a near-monosylabic father who often struggled with some of their daughter’s various shortcomings. However, as Taeko’s memories come thick and fast, we’re treated to a bunch of experiences that not only stuck with her with absolutely clarity, but seemingly helped make her the woman she would grow up to be. But who is that, exactly?
As she recalls such moments as the first time her family tried pineapple, her baseball playing first crush and the dreaded onset of her first period, Taeko discovers a sort of peace while working on a farm that she rarely seems to find in the city. She’s also starts to form something of a bond with her brother-in-law’s second cousin, Toshio, who passionately believes in people being more in tune with nature as it mutually benefits both. However as the memories keep on coming, we also see the more painful memories come to the fore such as the first time she was slapped by her father as punishment, her inability to grasp maths and a budding love of acting getting quashed by life constantly intervening.
But what does all this mean? Is there a reason her mind keeps her awash with wave after wave of nostalgia both good and bad? Could it be that her holiday has unlocked some yearning within her that city life just can’t sate?If anyone could (or should) be brought forward as a shining example why animation should be regarded as an art form thar deserves respect, it’s Isao Takahata. By this point in the history of Studio Ghibli, both he and Hayao Miyazaki had fallen into something of a perfect rhythm with Miyazaki delivering achingly poignant flights of fancy that often felt like balm for the soul. However, while his colleague was effortlessly delivering groundbreaking fantasy, Takahata’s wheelhouse seemed to be delving into much more personal affairs, choosing not to hide behind fantastical creatures and mythical world but rather rubbing our face in extraordinarily human stories. After witnessing his previous movie – the unrelentingly moving story of two children slowly dying of malnutrition after the war – I was a little hesitant to approach Only Yesterday, if only because I was understandably gunshy about ugly crying my way through another film. However, after making it through, I found myself once again stunned at how these Ghibli guys know how to write girls so well.
When stripped down to the bare bones, Takahata is expertly detailing the growing divide that occurs as we gradually creep into adulthood that often results in some sort of spiritual upheaval as the added pressures of life make us long for the people we use to be. As Taeko experiences the simple but rewarding pleasures of tending the land, she lists all the growing pains and little traumas that occur that present a billion questions of what might have been. Be it the numerous blush-inducing issues that plague her that stretch from her inability to speak to a crush that rumour suggests actually likes her, to the horror stricken panic of having any of the boys think she’s skipping P.E. because she may be her period (thirty years before Pixar’s Turning Red, by the way), you feel them as if you’ve experienced them yourself – which is quite the feat considering I’m a white male.Also creating little, but devestating wounds are the various cuts inflicted by a heavy hand or a careless word of a relative. The only time she’s slapped by her father is because of the shame she inadvertently causes by walking outside without shoes (a sign of poverty in post-war Japan) and her inability to grasp fractions leads her to hearing her mother describe her as “not normal” to her sisters.
But as ripe for drama as this all is, you may be wondering why Isao Takahata bothered to render any of this with countless painstakingly drawn drawings at all and simply just make a normal damn film – well if the director has a deft touch with the story, wait until you see the subtle, yet completely beguiling, tricks he does with the animation. While the sections of the film that take place in the 80s have a more brightly coloured and realistic look about them (it’s initially odd to see Anime characters with nasolabial folds), all the memories of the 60s look less realistic, with the edges of the frame kitted out withba white haze as if we really are viewing these events through the gauze of memory. Some may still wonder while you’d employ a small army of animators to simply draw endless frames of people talking, but the subtly of the “acting” is as superb as the voice work. And then, just as I let my guard down, Studio Ghibli nails me square in the feels once again with a sequence that see Taeko galvanised into making a momentous decision thanks to the memories of herself and her childhood friends urging her to make the leap of faith.While Takahata’s insistence of only deviating from reality when the story truly calls for it may leave seekers of more fantastical Ghibli fare yearning for a big fuzzy animal or a flying sequence, Only Yesterday remains an impressively controlled piece of work that still manages to yank on our heart strings while mercifully leaving its youthful cast alive this time – seriously guys, Grave Of The Fireflies really did a number on me. Still, watching someone try to find their place in a modern world that proves to be an ill fit for them is still plenty emotional enough – for I too find pineapples a letdown and am randomly haunted by memories of my childhood…
#1990s #1991 #Animation #Anime #Drama #FilmReview #IsaoTakahata #Japan #MikiImai #OnlyYesterday #StudioGhibli #ToshiroYanagiba #YokoHonna
🌟🌟🌟🌟 -
Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan: Ghost War Review
#TomClancysJackRyanGhostWar #JackRyan #JackRyanGhostWar #GhostWar #spythriller #thriller #film #filmreview
https://popculturemaniacs.com/tom-clancys-jack-ryan-ghost-war-review/
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Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan: Ghost War Review
#TomClancysJackRyanGhostWar #JackRyan #JackRyanGhostWar #GhostWar #spythriller #thriller #film #filmreview
https://popculturemaniacs.com/tom-clancys-jack-ryan-ghost-war-review/
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Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan: Ghost War Review
#TomClancysJackRyanGhostWar #JackRyan #JackRyanGhostWar #GhostWar #spythriller #thriller #film #filmreview
https://popculturemaniacs.com/tom-clancys-jack-ryan-ghost-war-review/
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Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan: Ghost War Review
#TomClancysJackRyanGhostWar #JackRyan #JackRyanGhostWar #GhostWar #spythriller #thriller #film #filmreview
https://popculturemaniacs.com/tom-clancys-jack-ryan-ghost-war-review/
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Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan: Ghost War Review
#TomClancysJackRyanGhostWar #JackRyan #JackRyanGhostWar #GhostWar #spythriller #thriller #film #filmreview
https://popculturemaniacs.com/tom-clancys-jack-ryan-ghost-war-review/
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Hey all,
Please check out the ‘audio version’ of the chat my mate Ant and I had on our review of the thriller The Housemaidhttps://youtu.be/AAOVOs-TCcY?si=FZol8JpZyHV6knnp
#thriller #youtube #filmreview #moviereview #thehousemaide #housemaid #sydneysweeney
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Hey all,
Please check out the ‘audio version’ of the chat my mate Ant and I had on our review of the thriller The Housemaidhttps://youtu.be/AAOVOs-TCcY?si=FZol8JpZyHV6knnp
#thriller #youtube #filmreview #moviereview #thehousemaide #housemaid #sydneysweeney
-
Hey all,
Please check out the ‘audio version’ of the chat my mate Ant and I had on our review of the thriller The Housemaidhttps://youtu.be/AAOVOs-TCcY?si=FZol8JpZyHV6knnp
#thriller #youtube #filmreview #moviereview #thehousemaide #housemaid #sydneysweeney
-
Hey all,
Please check out the ‘audio version’ of the chat my mate Ant and I had on our review of the thriller The Housemaidhttps://youtu.be/AAOVOs-TCcY?si=FZol8JpZyHV6knnp
#thriller #youtube #filmreview #moviereview #thehousemaide #housemaid #sydneysweeney
-
Hey all,
Please check out the ‘audio version’ of the chat my mate Ant and I had on our review of the thriller The Housemaidhttps://youtu.be/AAOVOs-TCcY?si=FZol8JpZyHV6knnp
#thriller #youtube #filmreview #moviereview #thehousemaide #housemaid #sydneysweeney
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Film Review: RED WHITE & BLUE (2010): Simon Rumley
Link: https://film-book.com/film-review-red-white-blue-2010-simon-rumley/?fsp_sid=203719
#AmandaFuller #dramamovie #filmreview #horrorfilm #horrormovie #IFCMidnight #JonMichaelDavis #LaurenSchneider #MarcSenter #MovieReview #NoahTaylor #RedWhiteBlue #RedWhiteBlue2010 #SimonRumley
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Film Review: RED WHITE & BLUE (2010): Simon Rumley
Link: https://film-book.com/film-review-red-white-blue-2010-simon-rumley/?fsp_sid=203719
#AmandaFuller #dramamovie #filmreview #horrorfilm #horrormovie #IFCMidnight #JonMichaelDavis #LaurenSchneider #MarcSenter #MovieReview #NoahTaylor #RedWhiteBlue #RedWhiteBlue2010 #SimonRumley
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Film Review: RED WHITE & BLUE (2010): Simon Rumley
Link: https://film-book.com/film-review-red-white-blue-2010-simon-rumley/?fsp_sid=203719
#AmandaFuller #dramamovie #filmreview #horrorfilm #horrormovie #IFCMidnight #JonMichaelDavis #LaurenSchneider #MarcSenter #MovieReview #NoahTaylor #RedWhiteBlue #RedWhiteBlue2010 #SimonRumley
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Film Review: RED WHITE & BLUE (2010): Simon Rumley
Link: https://film-book.com/film-review-red-white-blue-2010-simon-rumley/?fsp_sid=203719
#AmandaFuller #dramamovie #filmreview #horrorfilm #horrormovie #IFCMidnight #JonMichaelDavis #LaurenSchneider #MarcSenter #MovieReview #NoahTaylor #RedWhiteBlue #RedWhiteBlue2010 #SimonRumley
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Film Review: RED WHITE & BLUE (2010): Simon Rumley
Link: https://film-book.com/film-review-red-white-blue-2010-simon-rumley/?fsp_sid=203719
#AmandaFuller #dramamovie #filmreview #horrorfilm #horrormovie #IFCMidnight #JonMichaelDavis #LaurenSchneider #MarcSenter #MovieReview #NoahTaylor #RedWhiteBlue #RedWhiteBlue2010 #SimonRumley
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Star Wars: The Mandalorian And Grogu (2026) – Review
Never mind the far, far away part, it’s certainly been a long time since the galaxy spanning adventures of Star Wars appeared on the big screen. In fact, it’s been around seven years since The Rise Of Skywalker made its bow and subsequently put the cinematic arm of the franchise in carbon freeze due to its divisive reception. Of course since then the franchise has made the small screen it’s new home, regaling us with more, varied, Star Wars content than you can wave a lightsaber at – but for every Andor, Book Of Boba Fett and Ahsoka series we got, there still was this pang that the franchise wasn’t operating from its natural home: a cinema screen the size of a Star Destroyer.
Well, aiming to change all that is the double team of The Mandalorian & Grogu who are bypassing a fourth season to make the jump to lightspeed to cinemas in a measured and rather safe attempt to bring Star Wars back home. But can even the cute offensive that comes with the world-conquering “Baby Yoda” manage to make the franchise’s big screen come back feel anything more than just an extended episode?When last we left Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin and his errant adopted son, Grogu, he’d vowed to work for the still-fragile New Republic in a will-hunt-Imperials-for-cash capacity. It seems that the business of fragging remnants of the Empire is pretty good and after racking up another win, Commander Ward sets him up for his next mission. But while the previous search and eliminate jobs have been fairly straightforward (AT-ATs notwithstanding), this one will prove to be a little more complex.
The next warlord that Mando has to find is one named Coin, but the catch is that no one knows what the guy looks like and the only way to score the intel is to do the bidding of the nefarious Hutt Twins. However, for them to play ball and cough up the intel, the Mandalorian and Grogu will have to rescue their nephew, Rotta The Hutt, who is being held by a criminal syndicate.
The reason that Rotta is so valuable is that he’s the son of the late, infamous gangster Jabba The Hutt, but when Djarin arrives on the planet Shakari to perform his rescue mission, he soon discovers that things aren’t what they seem. Before you know it, both he and his adorable green tyke are thrown into a succession series (some might say episodic) of adventures that sees them fight for their lives against a string of foes that are all shapes and sizes. But even if Mando can muscle their way past a disturbingly ripped Rotta, an alien fighting pit, a mysterious bounty hunter with a peculiar line in hat wear and whatever nefarious double cross the Twins presumably have in store, can he possibly guarantee the safety of his little charge and his near-endless appetite for both mischief and snackies?There’s a sense that the knives will be out for The Mandalorian And Grogu no matter how good or bad it ends up being and that’s not just because Star Wars has one of the most hostile fan bases in history. One of the main worries about the show’s transference to the big screen is that the powers that be are playing things way too safe by making the franchise’s belated return to cinemas essentially a feature length episode. Honestly, it’s a fear that proves to be well founded as the hugely episodic and insanely long film is broken up into various sections so distinct you can virtually see where the episode breaks would take place. One minutes our heroes are playing chicken with looming Imperial Walkers on a hostile ice planet, the next Mando is beating all kinds of Bantha scat out of a selection of aliens that look suspiciously familiar if you payed close attention to that iconic chess game in Millennium Falcon back in ’77. From there we get some much needed down time on Nevarro, before a hefty final act sees our title stars embark on yet more action setpieces on Nal Hutta, but if director Jon Favreau and newly minted Star Wars head honcho, Dave Filoni had streamlined their story telling a bit, we could have got a return to Star Wars that could have been twice as effective with only half the effort.
Less problematic, but surely to piss off spoilsports is the fact that The Mandalorian And Grogu fully embraces George Lucas’ repeated insistence that Star Wars is for kids. But while the movie makes good and varied use of its little, doe-eyed sidekick (watching Grogu go native on Nal Hutta and embrace his inner Dagobah to protect his dear old dad is genuinely glorious), it replays the old Grogu-is-hungry joke over and over again. In fact, Favreau may need to get his memory checked, because he also includes multiple instances of Mando trapped in a fighting area and endless sequences of him battling CGI beasties (including Jeremy Allen White’s rather dour Rotta), which add a fairly repetitive feel to the film.However, this is undeniably Star Wars and despite all the issues I had with this glorified, extended episode, there’s nothing else that engages your inner twelve year old faster than spending time in this world. Yes, Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin (or, should I say, his masked suit performer) is in desperate need of a proper character arc, but it’s more than made up by the fact that we’re watching little Grogu slowly mature in front of our very eyes. In fact, while supporters of the hyper realistic politics of Andor may be disgruntled that the main character of the film is a little green baby, but Favreau is definitely shooting for the adventure aspects of the franchise and you certainly get your money’s worth. Also, while easter eggs from various eras fly at you thick and fast (prepare to weather an assault of lesser used creatures, vehicles and characters that’ll have super nerds repeatedly jabbing their digits at the screen – hi Embo), composer Ludwig Göransson goes all out to provide a score that frequently expands what a Star Wars soundtrack can be.
Whether this heralds a new and sustained cinematic run of Star Wars movies will remain to be seen, after all no one can hamstring Star Wars more decisively than Star Wars fans, but for all it’s faults, The Mandalorian And Grogu does frequently provide the exact kind of thrills that only a galaxy far, far away can provide. Yes, it’s skewed young – despite featuring a surprising amount of graphic immolations – but when baby Grogu is allowed to cook, its impossible not to still be utterly enthralled at the little fella while the puppeteers breathing life into him are working overtime. And if that doesn’t impress you, how about a Phil Tippett stop-motion sequence or the sight of Sigourney Weaver flying an X-Wing?It may be more Solo than Rogue One, but that doesn’t mean that the big screen bow of The Mandalorian And Grogu fails to deliver. In fact, when judged purely on the familiarity of the franchise, there’s enough here to make you thrilled to be back in a universe of twanging laser blasts and iconic aliens. However, anyone looking for anything deeper than high flying, rollicking adventure may find matters are about as deep as a puddle on Tatooine and if Star Wars manages to get a big screen reprieve it so badly deserves, it needs to get a little more daring than this.
#2020s #2026 #FilmReview #JeremyAllenWhite #JonFavreau #JonnyCoyne #MartinScorsese #PedroPascal #SciFi #SigourneyWeaver #StarWars #StarWarsTheMandalorianAndGrogu #SteveBlum #TheMandalorian
This is the way. Mostly.
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Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) – Review
The year is 2008 and Star Wars is essentially in limbo. George Lucas’ flawed prequel saga has yet to be reassessed via decades of memes and the big return of The Force Awakens is still around seven years away, and while tie-in novels, comics and rewatches of Genndy Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars miniseries had been keeping the flag flying for devout followers, cinemas are bereft of the sound of lightsabers igniting or the strains of those absurdly recognisable John Williams themes.
However in 2008, we got something of a return that not only filled that Star Wars void, but would eventually go on to form the entire backbone of a new generation of lore that we’re still feeling the effects of this day. It came in the form of The Clone Wars, an animated movie that would go on to become the pilot of a television series that itself would end up redefining the entire franchise for new generations. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, because without those seven seasons of all important context, The Clone Wars proves to be quite a painful watch.The Clone Wars is still in its infancy and as the Galactic Republic and the Separatists scrabble to conquer or liberate countless planets, the Jedi realise that if they don’t manage to secure more hyperspace lanes, their forces will be stranded as they’ll get out manuvered by their enemies. We rejoin Jedi Knights Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker as they lock horns with a droid army on the planet Christophsis and wait for some vital reinforcements, but much to Anakin’s annoyance, all they get sent is a young padawan named Ahsoka Tano who comes with some alarming news – Yoda has decreed that she’s not to be trained by Kenobi, but by the more headstrong Skywalker. Obviously the legendarily reckless Anakin is pissed that he now has to babysit a teenage girl in the middle of a war zone, but as the two banter and butt heads as they slice up battle droids together, dark forces are plotting against the Republic.
Realising that the only hyperspace lines still available to the Jedi are owned by slug-like gangster Jabba The Hutt, Count Dooku has hatched a plan to frame the Jedi for the kidnapping of Jabba’s son, Rotta The Huttlet. In retaliation, Anakin and Ahsoka travel to the planet Teth to order to rescue the little slug and thus save the war, but as Dooku closes his trap, his assassin Asajj Ventress targets Obi-Wan in order to make the Republic’s failure complete.
With Padmé Amidala joining the fight as she searches for clues of Coruscant, can the Jedi worm out this conspiracy, save Rotta and deliver him back to his slimy papa in order to save the war, or will the multi-tiered plans of the shadowy Darth Sidious come to pass, thus dooming the galaxy?Before we get into the nitty gritty of it all, I fully recognise that Star Wars: The Clone Wars is ground zero for many of the things we take for granted in the franchise today, not least withstanding the rise of George Lucas’ natural successor, Dave Filoni. Not only a creative force for the rest of the Clone Wars series and Star Wars: Rebels, but vital to the creation of Disney+ shows such as The Mandalorian, Ahsoka, The Bad Batch and Maul – Shadow Lord, he’s not only oversaw elements from the extended universe become cannon, but he’s brought numerous original creations from his animated shows into live action too. None of this would have been possible without the opening salvo of the Clone Wars animated movie, so it’s kind of a surprise to discover that it’s pretty damn irritating. While eighteen years of subsequent world building can do wonders for a film, back in 2008, we had no idea what would eventually occur and as a result, it kind of sucks.
For a start, the pilot of a TV show, even one based on Star Wars probably had no business being on the big screen, especially as the animation wasn’t exactly on par with the more polished likes of Wall•E (which was only released about a month before) and the pace was more akin to the overstimulated freneticism of a Saturday morning cartoon show. Gone is the slightly more sober style of the live action films as the majority of plot, exposition and character work are delivered on the run, usually with lasers zapping everywhere and things blowing up every two seconds. It also doesn’t help that the film feels more like three episode grafted together which gives the whole thing a disjointed feel.The plot concerning the kidnapping of Jabba’s son (technically a precursor to baby Grogu?) doesn’t really take hold until the second act, with the first devoted entirely to the introduction of Ahsoka and a lengthy battle on Christophsis. But by the time we get to the third act, the story suddenly shoehorns in Padmé out of nowhere to do some spy stuff and further along the plot. Also, anyone expecting a more classic Star Wars feel was no doubt thrown by the use of an opening narration in the style of an old news reel rather than an opening crawl and the fact that a lot of the voices we decent representations of the characters, but sounded slightly off as Ewan McGregor or Hayden Christensen.
However, one of the made sticking points proves to be the addition of a brand new padawan for Anakin that immediately drew the ire of fan boys everywhere. These days the character of Ahsoka Tano has become both a fan favorite and a leading light of the entire franchise, but back in 2008 complaints about her never even being mentioned in Revenge Of The Sith, having out of place Valley Girl energy (a fucking boobtube, Filoni?) and being cynical pandering to the kids were genuinely valid.
If you think I’m being overly harsh, I’d like to point out that even though the Clone Wars series went on to become impressively layered and incredibly dramatic, that doesn’t suddenly magically and retroactively stop it’s starting point from being a strangely hollow affair that reduces its source material to a string of loud noises. Still, the design ethic of the character models is solid, Samuel L. Jackson and Christopher Lee return to provide vocals and there’s a genuinely great action sequence in the form of vertical battle that sees a bunch of AT-TAs plod their way up the side of a sheer cliff. However, just because Star Wars: The Clone Wars was a great show, it doesn’t mean that the pilot was a good episode – or a movie.Even operating in sort of a Star Wars lite capacity, The Clone Wars simply can’t hope to even come close to the grandeur of even the prequel saga as it’s sights are set on simpler targets. However, regardless what I feel about this awkward little sub-adventure, we wouldn’t have half of what we have now without it – whether you think that’s a blessing or a curse is down to you.
#2000s #2008 #Animation #AnthonyDaniels #AshleyEckstein #ChristopherLee #DaveFiloni #DeeBradleyBaker #FilmReview #IanAbacrombie #JamesArnoldTaylor #MattLanter #SamuelLJackson #SciFi #StarWars #StarWarsTheCloneWars #TomKane
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Film Review: THE WAY BACK (2010): Peter Weir, Ed Harris
Link: https://film-book.com/film-review-the-way-back-2010-peter-weir-ed-harris/?fsp_sid=203038
#ColinFarrell #DejanAngelov #dramamovie #EdHarris #filmreview #JimSturgess #MarkStrong #MovieReview #NewmarketFilms #PeterWeir #saoirseronan #TheWayBack #TheWayBack2010 #ZaharyBaharov