Movie Reviews: The Boy and the Heron (2023)

Title: The Boy and the Heron
Release Date: July 14, 2023
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Production Company: Studio Ghibli
Summary/Review:

During the Second World War, teenager Mahito Maki (Soma Santoki) loses his mother in a hospital fire. He moves with his father (Takuya Kimura) to the countryside to live with his mother’s sister Natsuko (Yoshino Kimura), who marries his father.  Upon arriving he is frequently harassed by a Grey Heron (Masaki Suda) who leads him to a derelict tower that proves to be a portal to a fantastic alternate universe.

This is (allegedly) writer and director Hayao Miyazaki’s final film and if so serves as a capstone on his storied career.  The film builds on ideas and imagery from Miyazaki’s earlier career imaginatively creating a film that is strange, visually spectacular, and often very funny.  It’s a coming of age story that deals with generational trauma and grief, and it’s conclusion could very well symbolize Miyazaki’s farewell message as he passes the baton on to other creators.

I’m happy I got to see this wonderful film on the big screen in a full theater at Coolidge Corner Theatre.

Rating: ****1/2

Book Review: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Author: Matt Haig
Title: The Midnight Library 
Narrator: Carey Mulligan
Other Books Read by the Same Author: How to Stop Time 
Publication Info: Penguin Audio, 2020
Summary/Review:

“In the Midnight Library you can’t take the same book out twice.”

Feeling useless and unloved, Nora Seed attempts to end her life through an overdose. Instead she finds herself in a library managed by Mrs. Elm, a school librarian who was kind to Nora in her youth. Mrs. Elm explains that all the books are stories of Nora’s life that diverge from different decisions she made during her life.  Nora is allowed to experience her life in different universes until she finds one where she is content.

Nora enters a life where she actually married her ex-fiance Dan and they run a country pub, a life where she joined her friend Izzy in Australia, a life in which she remained committed to competitive swimming and became an Olympic medalist, and a life where she followed her dream of becoming a glaciologist, among several others.  The rules of the library are a bit unfair as Nora is plopped into situations with no memory of the life that got her to this point or even the people she’s supposed to know.  Even in the most satisfying life, Nora notices negative changes in the lives of people she knows (shades of It’s a Wonderful Life) and feels like an imposter.

The ending of this novel is quite predictable, but nevertheless it is an inspiring story of embracing the life one has, and a great take on the multiverse theory.

Recommended books:

• Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore
• Every Day by David Levithan
• 11/22/63 by Stephen King
• The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

Rating: ****

Book Review: Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett

Author: Terry Pratchett
Title: Wintersmith
Narrator: Stephen Briggs
Publication Info: Clarion Books, 2007
Summary/Review:

Attending the “Dark Morris” dance, young witch Tiffany Aching finds herself inextricably drawn to participate.  The Wintersmith, the mysterious personification of winter, mistakes her for the Summer Lady and kind of gets a crush on Tiffany.  Now faced with the prospect of endless Winter, Tiffany has to solve the problem of the Wintersmith with the help of Granny Weatherwax, the Nac Mac Feegles, and her friend – and potential love interest – Roland (Tiffany is 13 after all and is beginning to develop feelings for boys although she won’t admit it).  On top of this, the elder witch Miss Treason dies, leaving her cottage to Annagramma, but it’s up to the more skilled Tiffany to help Annagramma succeed as the local witch.  This is another clever, amusing, and well-told tale from Discworld.

Rating: ****

Book Review: King of Shadows by Susan Cooper

Author: Susan Cooper 
Title: King of Shadows 
Narrator: Jim Dale
Publication Info: Listening Library, 2000
Other Books I’ve Read by the Same Author:

• The Dark Is Rising
• Over Sea, Under Stone
• The Grey King
• Greenwitch
• Silver on the Tree
• The Magic Maker: A Portrait of John Langstaff and His Revels

Summary/Review:

Nat Field is a boy from the American South who joins a company of boys from across the country to travel to London and perform Shakespeare’s plays in the recreated Globe Theatre.  One night during the rehearsal period he falls ill and swaps places with another boy from 1599 who was being loaned to act with Lord Chamberlain’s Men at the original Globe! The unpleasant realities of Elizabethan London are a challenge for Nat, but he grows to enjoy the camaraderie of the company and a bond with William Shakespeare himself. This is an enjoyable historical fantasy, and I think for young readers would be a good introduction to Shakespeare and 17th-century history.

Recommended books:

• Stage Fright on a Summer Night (Magic Tree House #25) by Mary Pope Osborne
• Shakespeare of London by Marchette Chute

Rating: ***1/2

90 Movies in 90 Days: The King and the Mockingbird (1980)

Every day until March 31, 2024 I will be watching and reviewing a movie that is 90 minutes or less.

Title: The King and the Mockingbird
Release Date: March 18, 1980
Director: Paul Grimault
Production Company: Les Films Paul Grimault |  Les Films Gibé | Antenne 2
Summary/Review:

Over 30 years in the making, The King and the Mockingbird is a surreal animated fantasy film known as an inspiration for Studio Ghibli founders Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. The film bridges Disney and Warner Bros animation styles with the later Ghibli style and is inventive in its own ways.  The basic plot involves an autocratic king who is deposed by a painting of himself and then pursues a shepherdess  from another painting who is actually in love with a chimney sweep.  All along he has taunted by a bird who unravels all the king’s plots.  The animation is as delightfully weird as the plot.

Rating: ****

90 Movies in 90 Days: Charlotte’s Web (2006)

Every day until March 31, 2024 I will be watching and reviewing a movie that is 90 minutes or less.

Title: Charlotte’s Web
Release Date: December 7, 2006
Director: Gary Winick
Production Company: Paramount | Kerner Entertainment Company | Nickelodeon Movies
Summary/Review:

Charlotte’s Web is a competent if uninspired live-action adaptation of one of my all-time favorite books. Dakota Fanning is sweet as Fern, the girl who saves the runt of a litter of pigs, Wilbur (Dominic Scott Kay). Instead he is brought to a barnyard where he befriends the spider Charlotte (Julia Roberts) who spins words in webs with the help of the rat Templeton (Steve Buscemi doing a great job as my favorite character). A number of other big names voice various barnyard animals including John Cleese, Oprah Winfrey, Robert Redford, and Andre 3000, while Sam Shepard is the narrator. Despite this star power, the movie fails to capture the magic of the book, or even the charm of Babe, a movie it’s clearly trying to emulate.

Rating: **1/2

90 Movies in 90 Days: Angel’s Egg (1985)

Every day until March 31, 2024 I will be watching and reviewing a movie that is 90 minutes or less.

Title: Angel’s Egg
Release Date: December 22, 1985
Director: Mamoru Oshii
Production Company:  Tokuma Shoten Studio Deen
Summary/Review:

In this beautifully animated and deliberately paced film, a girl (Mako Hyōdō) wanders an desolate city while protecting a large egg. The city seems occupied by people frozen in time who only come alive to hunt shadowy fish that float through the sky.  The only other person in the film who feels “real” instead of a ghost is a young man (Jinpachi Nezu), possibly a soldier, who pursues the girl to learn about the egg.  With very little dialogue and allusions to myths and religious beliefs, this film is open to many interpretations.  It definitely fits in the the category of fantasies with gorgeous imagery that make you say “huh?” alongside Fantastic Planet and Son of White Mare.

Rating: ****

 

 

90 Movies in 90 Days: Tux and Fanny (2019)

Every day until March 31, 2024 I will be watching and reviewing a movie that is 90 minutes or less.

Title: Tux and Fanny
Release Date: May 2, 2019
Director: Albert Birney
Production Company: The Eyeslicer | Cartuna | Sweaty Eyeballs Animation | Pixilart
Summary/Review:

Tux and Funny, a pair of blob-like humanoids animated in the pixel-art of Atari era video games, are friends who star in this compilation of shorts originally posted on Instagram.  Their adventures vary from the grotesque to the surreal to the surprisingly wholesome.  Also, they speak Russian for some reason.  It’s a weird and fun film and easy to watch on YouTube.

Rating: ***1/2

90 Movies in 90 Days: Princes and Princesses (2000)

Every day until March 31, 2024 I will be watching and reviewing a movie that is 90 minutes or less.

Title: Princes and Princesses
Release Date: January 26, 2000
Director: Michel Ocelot
Production Company:  La Fabrique | Les Armateurs | Salud Productions | Studio O
Summary/Review:

An anthology of animated adaptations of fairy tale stories from different places and times, originally aired as part of the French television series Ciné si. The silhouette animation style is reminiscent of Lotte Reiniger and is made by the same director as Kirikou and the Sorceress. The conceit here is that three filmmakers, voiced by Arlette Mirapeu, Philippe Cheytion, and Yves Barsacq, are creating movies with the help of a magic robot and then they “act” in them.  There are six stories in all plus the framing narrative.

The stories range from Ancient Egypt, Japan, and into the future as well as the more typical fantasy settings inspired by Medieval Europe.  The animations are beautifully realized.   I like the “Fractured Fairy Tales” type of humor of the films as well, particularly a dragon that poops cannonballs, or the final story in which each time a Princess and Prince kiss they turn one another into another animal.  Definitely a fun way to spend an hour if you’re looking for something different.

Rating: ****

 

90 Movies in 90 Days: Comet in Moominland (1992)

Every day until March 31, 2024 I will be watching and reviewing a movie that is 90 minutes or less.

Title: Comet in Moominland
Release Date: August 8, 1992
Director: Hiroshi Saitô
Production Company: Telecable Benelux B.V. | Telescreen Japan
Summary/Review:

The Moomin series of books by Finnish writer and illustrator Tove Jansson are beloved by children around the world.  I never heard of them until one of my children received a book as a gift from a Scandinavian family in his preschool.  This animated film by a Dutch and Japanese production team (and questionably dubbed into English) adapts Jansson’s second Moomin novel.  It is delightfully unhinged.

Moomin (Sarah Huaser), the optimistic protagonist of the story is accompanied by his friends, the whiny and greedy Sniff (David Mckinney) and the cynical and mischievous Little My (Andrea Kwan), on a quest to a distant observatory.   They learn that a comet is due to hit the Earth causing an apocalyptic disaster (kind of dark for a children’s story).  Along the way they meet the explorer Snufkin (Michael Pizzutto), the damsel-in-distress Snorkmaiden (Kate Baldwin, whom Moomin crushes on hard), and her intellectual brother Snork (David Bridges).  Their adventures are beautifully illustrated and features some bizarre dialogue that at times approaches non-sequitur.  The grumpy philosopher Muskrat (Victor Lee) and the judgy Little My get many of the best lines.

Definitely something worth watching with the family, especially if you want to bewilder the kids and possibly give them lifelong trauma.

Rating: ***1/2