Return to Form: A Review of Inside Out 2

 directed by Kelsey Mann

written by Meg LeFauve, Dave Holstein and Mann

Nine years after Pixar charmed audiences around the world with Inside Out, an animated movie about the inner workings of a human mind, presented as a work place with five anthropomorphic emotions, they're back with its sequel, Inside Out 2, which, as I write this, is apparently charming audiences even more than the first one did to the tune of a billion dollars at the box office. 

Set several years after the events of the first film, Inside Out 2 begins with Riley (Kensington Tallman) enjoying her middle school years with her two best friends Grace (Grace Lu) and Bree (Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green), who do everything with her, including play her favorite sport, hockey. When the three of them are invited to a summer hockey camp, Riley couldn't be happier. As a result, the emotions residing inside her, Joy (Amy Poehler), Anger (Lewis Black), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Tony Hale), and Disgust (Liza Lapira) live in a pretty harmonious balance especially since together, they are charged with taking care of the most important thing Riley has: her sense of self, which is the sum total of all of her memories and beliefs formed as a result. 

Suddenly, Riley is thrown for a loop when a number of things happen. First, she hits puberty, and the resulting hormonal swings suddenly mean that the five emotions' control console no longer works as it should, and on top of that, four new emotions arrive at headquarters: Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edibiri), Ennui (Adel Exarchopoulos) and Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser).  Then, the real doozy hits when Grace and Bree, en route to hockey camp, tell Riley that they'll be moving to a different high school.  As a direct result, Anxiety comes to the fore, hatching an elaborate plan for Riley to make friends with the popular varsity hockey players led by Val Ortiz (Lilimar). Faced with the imminent departure of her friends, Riley wants to ensure that she makes new ones at hockey camp, and Anxiety, as a result, overpowers Joy and the other five emotions, imprisoning them in the bowels of Riley's mind, and sets her own plan in motion even if it means mistreating Grace and Bree and basically going against everything she believes in, thus eroding her sense of self.   Joy and the others are now in a race of time to save Riley from the consequences of violating her own belief system, as Anxiety, now in control makes one questionable decision after another. Will they make it in time?

With the exception of the first sequel to Toy Story, sequels to Pixar films have an unfortunate tendency to regurgitate what happened in the film that came before them, albeit with a variation or two.  This was true for sequels to Finding Nemo and even The Incredibles, and if I'm completely honest it's a bit on display here as well.  Beat for beat, Inside Out 2 basically repeats the story of the first movie, from the happy status quo, to the disruption to Riley's life that involves someone moving away, to grappling with new, difficult emotions. That said, even though the film retreads familiar ground, it does so astonishingly well, and with, I daresay, some pretty authentic emotional beats. 

It was a masterstroke to introduce Anxiety as the film's actual antagonist, because grappling with anxiety is something that virtually everyone in the audience, regardless of their age, gender or social background has done at one point or another in their lives, and is probably why the film has connected with so many people all around the world. There's something really fascinating about the design choices made for the character, who, unlike the generally cute and cuddly-looking characters is quite distinctly ugly and haggard-looking, a look that, surprisingly, goes rather well with her domineering, obsessive personality. From my own experience  I found it totally believable that anxiety could essentially take over Riley's mind, and I'm pretty sure a lot of other people in the audience could relate to that, too.

This is when Pixar are in peak form; when they create stories that, rather than pander to one interest group or another, really manage to tell compelling stories to which people from all walks of life can completely relate. May they continue to make movies like this. 

9.5/10

All's Forgiven, Will Smith: A Review of Bad Boys: Ride or Die

 directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilail Fallah

written by Chris Bremner, Will Beall and George Gallo

In his first film that he actually shot after having slapped Chris Rock in the face at the 2022 Oscars, Will Smith revisits one of the characters who helped propel him to stardom, that of Miami detective Mike Lowry. As before, he is paired with comedian Martin Lawrence as fellow detective Marcus Burnett, as the Bad Boys hit the big screen once more.

The film opens with Mike getting married to his girlfriend Christine (Melanie Liburd) and with Marcus getting a heart attack during the reception. It was harrowing enough experience, but soon the partners have an altogether different problem: it seems that their beloved, deceased Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano, who appears in a series of recorded video messages) who was murdered in the last film by Mike's estranged son Armando (Jacob Scipio) at the behest of the drug cartel, is being framed by shady types headed by ex-Army Ranger James McGrath (Eric Dane) who fought against the cartel until he was captured and tortured. McGrath's operation has friends in very high places, so high that maybe not even Mike's boss Captain Rita Secada (Paula Nunez) and her new boyfriend, District Attorney Adam Lockwood (Ioan Gruffud) can help them. Mike and Marcus find themselves in a race against time to clear the captain's name, and soon it's clear they are in way over their heads.

Ever since the first of these films came out in 1995, back when co-producer Don Simpson was actually still alive, it should be clear that none of them was ever intended to be high art. The first one, made on a shoestring budget of USD19 million, was a solid piece of entertainment, deftly mixing action and comedy. The second movie, made on a much bigger budget, unfortunately suffered from a bloated running time and some ridiculous over-the-top action set pieces.  It was so off-putting that I didn't even catch the third movie, Bad Boys 4 Life, in theaters. After catching and enjoying it on Netflix, though, I was convinced that it was worth giving this franchise another shot in theaters, Will Smith's antics notwithstanding, and I'm glad I did. 

The filmmakers don't reinvent the wheel; as before, the film is anchored on the banter between Mike and Marcus, and the writers quite cannily age the characters along with actors, which makes them all the more relatable as much of the audience has grown old along with them.  The plot is paper-thin, of course, and a lot of the writing is just flat out silly, but that's really not what I came to see. 

On that note, the movie delivers exceptionally well on the action front, and it's worth pointing out that Belgian directors Adil and Bilail (as they are billed in the film's credits) have a really good eye for this sort of stuff. The action was pretty excellently choreographed and shot, and in a day and age when action sequences have been redefined by the likes of John Wick films, this was no mean feat. There is a flat-out brilliant use of drone shots in the climactic action set piece at the end of the film which is almost worth the price of admission by itself. Speaking of John Wick there is a surprising bit of action from a rather unexpected character late in the film, which involves a home invasion. It was interesting to see some John Wickesque ass kicking played for laughs, but darned if it doesn't work like a charm.

All told, this was a genuinely fun movie, one whose existence was arguably well-justified. I honestly don't know if they could keep this up with future installments but in the unlikely event that Sony ends this franchise here, well, they'll do so on a high note.  

8/10

Truly Pernicious: A Review of "Hit Man" (HEAVY SPOILERS)

SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ THIS REVIEW UNLESS  YOU HAVE SEEN THE FILM OR DO NOT MIND HAVING KEY PLOT DETAILS SPOILED

directed by Richard Linklater

 written by Richard Linklater and Glenn Powell

Currently charming critics and audiences on Netflix, Hit Man is the latest film from auteur Richard Linklater, who directed Jack Black to notoriety in School of Rock and who spent over a decade filming the acclaimed film Boyhood. 

This time around Linklater directs Hollywood's latest "It" boy Glen Powell (who was the smooth-talking 21st century update on the "Iceman" character in the nostalgia extravaganza Top Gun: Maverick) in a film that can best be described as an odd hybrid between a romantic comedy and an appallingly clumsy critique of the justice system. 

Gary Johnson (Powell) seems like a relatively normal guy on the surface. He teaches philosophy and psychology at his local community college and has a whole bunch of cats to keep him company at home. What most people don't know about him, though, is that he leads an extraordinary double life as, of all things, a hit man, though not a real one. No, Johnson simply pretends to be a hit man as a part-time gig for the local police, enticing would-be clients looking to off someone in their lives to engage his services and not stopping until these supposed clients provide evidence incriminating themselves such as the command to kill and the money for the job. 

It's an unusual job, but it's one Johnson does exceedingly well, even though he starts out in the film as a substitute for the corrupt policeman Jasper (Austin Amelio) who's been suspended for beating up minors. The arrest count  he racks  up is impressive, but when he meets prospective "client" Madison (Adria Arjona) who is looking to have her husband bumped off, he finds himself smitten and unable to complete the sting, instead advising Madison to take the money she would have paid him and start a new life for herself.

 The cops are disappointed with Gary, but his track record has been so good that they'll willing to let his slip-up slide. Things get more complicated, however, when not too long afterward he meets up with Madison, still in his hitman persona, and starts a steamy affair with her, one which he obviously has to conceal from his colleagues in the police, and one which threatens to complicate  his life even further when Madison's husband, furious at her for taking a lover, decides to hire Gary to kill her.

A genuinely funny and charming movie up until this point, the movie then takes a ridiculously dark turn when, apparently having written his two leads into a corner, Linklater has them straight-up murder a police officer and then ride of into the sunset. Yes, you read that right: Gary and Madison murder Jasper, who, having figured out their angle, tries to extort them for a cut of Madison's late husband's insurance money.  This isn't some madcap sequence where they kill the guy in self-defense or he kills himself by some humorous accident; it's just pure and simple murder.  Specifically, Madison drugs Jasper, and Gary, who at this point has never killed anyone in his life, puts a bag over his head.  This isn't done in a fit of panic, either; as Powell portrays him, Gary acts with the calm resolve of a cold-blooded killer.  

  

The problem I have with the resolution to this story is that this movie isn't written as some dark satire critiquing the legal system but as an emphatically light romantic comedy, so this turn it takes basically ruins the whole thing, like a bottle of soy sauce emptied on a perfect apple pie.  Part of the narrative feels distinctly like a critique of the justice system as Gary attends the court hearings of the people he has entrapped into hiring his fake hit men, but it's never meaningfully developed. Also, by resolving the film so sloppily Linklater ensures that any ethical discussion would be hypocritical on his part considering he allows murderers to walk away scot-free. 

It's honestly a shame because, in truth, Powell, is a pretty compelling actor, and given the critical acclaim this movie has received (from people who aren't me), this movie is quite an effective showcase of both his comedic talent and his credibility as a leading man. It's honestly just a shame that the ending of this movie had to go to the dogs, even though it's weirdly consistent with Linklater's mindset that he showed in a much older movie, one I'll write about next. 

1/10

The Movie That Humiliated Hollywood: A Review of Godzilla: Minus One

 directed by Takashi Yamazaki

written by Yamazaki, Ishiro Honda and Takeo Murata

Last year, Hollywood's cookie-cutter, conveyor-belt approach to making movies blew up in its face in the worst way possible, with a majority of its major, big-budget releases tanking at the box-office nearly all year round. No one was safe, whether it was the once almighty Disney, whose flops included a Marvel movie, an original animated movie and an Indiana Jones movie, or even Tom Cruise, whose Mission Impossible movie managed to underperform at the box office even after he had dragged it to completion during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

It was against the backdrop of these creative and financial disasters, that Godzilla: Minus One, a low-budget, entirely Japanese-produced disaster movie starring the iconic kaiju, opened to nearly universal critical acclaim and global box-office glory, taking nearly everyone by surprise, arguably including the filmmakers.

Godzilla: Minus One takes place immediately after the Second World War has flattened Japan. During the dying days of the war, a failed kamikaze pilot Koichi Shikishima (Ryonosuku Kamiki) lands on a secluded island populated by mechanics, asking them to attend to his plane. The lead mechanic Tachibana (Munetaka Aoki) realizes that Shikishima is a deserter, but before anything else happens the small island is invaded by a gigantic creature known to the locals as Godzilla. The creature kills everyone on the island except for Shikishima and Tachibana, whom it leaves for dead.

Shikishima returns to the mainland to find his home completely destroyed, and as he struggles to rebuild, he finds himself starting a rather unusual family with the drifter Noriko (Minami Hamabe) and an abandoned baby she has adopted. Shikishima finds well-paying work as a minesweeper, shooting mines with pinpoint accuracy from a small boat, and all seems to be going well for him. Even as the Americans conduct nuclear testing in the nearby seas in Bikini Atoll, Japan strives to rebuild.

Then, to everyone's shock, Godzilla reappears on the mainland, only this time it has grown much, much bigger as a result of the nuclear detonations. The gigantic creature leaves wide swaths of destruction in its wake, and soon the people of Japan find themselves in a race against time to figure out how to stop it from flattening what's left of their country. After suffering another unthinkable loss, Shikishima volunteers to lead the charge, together with his minesweeping crewmates, Captain Akitsu (Kuranosuke Sasaki) Engineer Noda (Hidetaka Yoshioka) and Crewman Mizushima (Yuki Yamada).  Noda and other volunteers come up with a daring plan to take down Godzilla once and for all, but it also requires someone to act as bait for the monster by piloting an airplane, a job for which Shikishima is eminently qualified. There's only one mechanic he will trust to help him prepare his plane, though: Tachibana.  The stage is set, and Shikishima and his allies make one final, valiant stand against the seemingly invincible creature known only as Godzilla.  

The makers of this film get right virtually everything that the 2014 American film, directed by Gareth Edwards, got completely wrong. First and foremost, they created characters with whom the audience could connect and identify. While Shikishima's deep trauma and survivor's guilt are front and center, it's clear that everyone else in the supporting cast carries some version of that pain considering the state of their country, and when they express anguish upon realizing what they are facing their despair is palpable.  While we do not get to intimately know these characters, they are nonetheless both written and acted effectively enough to impress on us why we should care whether or not they make it to the end of the movie.

Even though Godzilla has relatively little screen time, the build-up between his appearances is commendably effective. Each of the monster's appearances in the film is timed to near perfection and follows meaningful scenes of character development and world-building as opposed to slogging exposition or filler.  Of course, by limiting his exposure to pivotal scenes, the filmmakers are able to stretch their limited budget as far as possible. The digital effects that bring Godzilla to life are remarkable indeed, and while the creature definitely suffers from a pretty noticeable case of "dead eye" in several scenes, the computer-generated imagery on display here still puts to shame the effects work of Hollywood films which had budgets that were well over ten times what this film cost to make (I'm looking at YOU, Thor Love and Thunder).

The film still has a firm connection to its B-movie roots, from the occasional jerky movement of the creature to the sometimes exaggerated actions of its actors, but that only adds to its earnest charm. These guys are definitely punching well above their weight here.     

 The film isn't quite the masterpiece its biggest fans are touting it to be; some of the inherent silliness of the storytelling used weighs it down a little bit, like the crucial scenes where Godzilla appears to be standing in the open sea even though the water beneath him is several hundred meters deep. All that aside, though, it's a sterling example of tight, well-woven storytelling that Hollywood, in its never-ending quest for pushing product on its hapless audience, seems to have forgotten.  Here's hoping Godzilla: Minus One teaches Hollywood how to make good movies again. 

8.5/10

Clumsy at Times, but Full of Heart: A Review of "If"

 written and directed by John Krasinski

In the current marketplace dominated by adaptations of existing intellectual property, whether they're comic books, novels, video games or even previous movie franchises, when I see a property that looks even remotely original I usually make it a  point to check it out at some point, although often that usually just involves switching on Netflix.

To see the family-oriented fantasy "IF," though, required a trip to the movie theaters, and fortunately, the film's trailer enticed me enough to not only make the trip but to bring almost all of my family along for the viewing. I'm happy to say that the film, for the most part, was worth the trip. 

The film starts with a brief prologue narrated by its protagonist Bea (Cailey Fleming), a 12-year-old girl who lost her mother to cancer at a very young age, and whose father (John Krasinski, pulling triple duty here as an actor, director and writer) is about to undergo heart surgery as the film begins. A bit hardened by the pain she has experienced early in life, Bea, who moves in with her kindly grandmother (Fiona Shaw) initially resists her efforts to get her to engage in whimsical, childlike activities like painting and drawing. A chance encounter in her grandmother's building with a mysterious neighbor changes everything, though, as Bea meets her next door neighbor Cal (Ryan Reynolds).  Cal is a man with whom she shares the remarkable gift of being able to see people's imaginary friends (IFs, as they are referred to), two of whom she meets almost immediately, the insect-like cartoon ballerina Blossom (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) and the giant purple furball Blue (Steve Carell).  Many of these IFs face the problem of their children having forgotten them, and it's up to Bea, Cal and their friends to help the IFs find their way back to the hearts of the children who once loved them.

It's a simple enough story, told with generous helpings of humor and heart, and a fairly decent amount of computer-generated imagery. The storytelling logic doesn't really hold up all that well to scrutiny, but charming performances from the lead actors basically carry the film, along with an enchanting, if occasionally overbearing music score from Oscar-winning Pixar veteran Michael Giacchino, and some understated but striking cinematography from two-time Oscar winner and regular Steven Spielberg collaborator Janusz Kaminski. Of course it also helps that Krasinski has recruited a murderer's row of extremely talented actors to voice the IF.  In particular, it tugged at the heartstrings a little bit to hear the late Louis Gossett, Jr.'s voice as Lewis, a kindly old teddy bear of an IF who runs a retirement home of sorts for them. It was his last onscreen appearance, and there's a brief tribute to him at the very end of the credits.  

The movie was good fun; I would hardly list it as an all-time favorite, but I think it's the kind of movie studios should try to make more of, i.e. non-franchise family movies.

7.5/10

A New Breed of Franchise Epic: A Review of Dune Part 2 (Spoilers for Dune Part 1)

 directed by Denis Villeneuve

written by Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts

I had thought about reviewing these films as one big film at first, but decided against it given that I only just saw Dune Part I on Netflix, arguably compromising the viewing experience I was meant to have. Also, it would do a disservice to both films to weigh them together, given that each of them has its merits and flaws. Needless to say, there will be mild spoilers for Dune Part 1.

Dune Part 2, as the title suggests, tells the second part of Frank Herbert's seminal sci-fi novel, which takes place thousands of years into the future, when humankind has traveled to other planets. The film itself, like Part 1 takes place mostly on the planet Arrakis, a world rich in the highly-coveted resource known only as the Spice, which is coveted enough to inspire mass murder.  On that note, Dune Part 1 has ended in utter tragedy for our story's main character, Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) and his mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson).  Their family, the House of Atreides, was destroyed by the rapacious Harkonnens led by Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard) and his nephew Rabban (Dave Bautista) as revenge for having been deprived of stewardship of Arrakis and its riches by  Emperor Shaddam IV (Christopher Walken) who had then entrusted the planet to the Atreides clan led by Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac). Leto, knowing the Harkonnen's nature, had recognized the stewardship of Arrakis for the death sentence that it was, but even then could not prevent what was to come. Fortunately, however, his son Paul and his concubine Jessica have survived the massacre, only to flee into the deadly desert populated by gigantic predatory sandworms, and by the indigenous population the Fremen, led by Stiglar (Javier Bardem) who, on their worst day, could be every bit as fierce as the monstrous creatures under the sand.  The Fremen, like the Atreides clan, despise the Harkonnen for what they have been doing to their planet for years.  

Paul and his mother, however, are safe from the initial hostility of the Fremen because Stiglar and the others see in him the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy of salvation. They believe him to be the Lisan Al Ghaib, or their long-awaited savior, or come to do so with every challenge that Paul overcomes. Having been well-trained by his father's military adviser, Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin), Paul is a skilled fighter who makes himself extremely valuable in the Fremen's fight against the Harkonnens. His skill and integrity also endear him to Chani (Zendaya) a young Fremen fighter who rejects the old superstitions about the Lisan Al Ghaib.  It is the skills passed down to Paul by his mother, however, that make him far more than just another fighter. As a member of the society of shamanic women known as the Bene Gesseret, Jessica has essentially imbued Paul with considerable powers, which include mind control and clairvoyance.  Through the latter, Paul has had terrible visions of a future in which billions die because of holy war started in his name.  As a result, he dreads going down to the south of Arrakis, where legions of zealots await who would happily wage war in his name. 

The resistance Paul is leading, however, prompts a more brutal response from the Harkonnens, with Vladimir recruiting his murderous nephew Feyd Rautha (Austin Butler) in order to crush the Fremen rebellion. Feyd Rautha has no compunctions about raining fire down on every square inch of Northern Arrakis to flush out the Fremen, thus confronting Paul with an awful decision; does he stay in the North with his ragtag army fighting against a far larger force, or does he head south and realize all of his worst fears?  The decision is not an easy one at all.

There has been no shortage of praise for this film since it was released a few weeks ago, and to my mind the praise is, for the most part, richly deserved. It's been awhile since I've seen a movie like this, one that is truly sumptuous in its scale and scope. Shot on location in Jordan, Abu Dhabi and Hungary among other places, with the best cameras available for the job, this is one of those rare experiences where the viewer can see every last dollar of the film's $190 million budget on the screen. There is a seamless marriage of live-action and computer-generated imagery, and absolutely topnotch performances by the entire cast seal the deal as they sell the verisimilitude. I could not help but be transported to this world thousands of years into the future and light years away. Everyone involved in this is firing on all cylinders, from director Denis Villeneuve, whose work I've admired since 2013's Prisoners  to actors Chalamet, Zendaya, Ferguson, Skarsgaard, Butler and the legendary Christopher Walken.  Florence Pugh makes a brief but pivotal appearance as Princess Irulan, the Emperor's daughter. All these sterling performances are framed against some truly brilliant cinematography, and set to a mesmerizing score by pop-culture god Hans Zimmer, who, even as he innovates, presents a score evocative of some of his very best work, like Gladiator.  

As odd as this may sound, though, my issues with this film are not at all with the stage craft behind it but rather with the writing that underpins the entire narrative.

For one thing, there is a specific course of action which Paul is loath to do, one which could actually kill him, and yet towards the end of the film, he changes his mind without apparent catalyst or significant reason. This is completely distinct from his decision to head south, incidentally. It just feels like one of those things that happens because the plot needs it to, and quite frankly it feels out of place in a movie this meticulously put together.

Second, and this is more intimately tied into the story, I had a problem with how the Fremen leadership, and in particular Stiglar, went from being wise in the ways of the world and Arrakis in general to babbling zealots in the second film. It's yet another example of Hollywood taking a shot at religion (a whole other post in and of itself) and does a disservice to the character.  But more on that elsewhere.

All told, however, this film is truly excellent and should really serve as a blueprint for how to make blockbusters moving forward. 

9/10 

The Master Returns: A Review of The Boy and the Heron

written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki

It feels strange to say this considering my family and I own on DVD nearly every film ever directed by legendary director Hayao Miyazaki, but The Boy and the Heron was the very first Miyazaki movie any of us had ever seen in movie theaters.  Better late than never, though.  The guy is an anime legend, and I am grateful to have seen at least one of his wonderful films where it was meant to be seen: on the big screen.   Coming into this film, I was actually a little worried; Miyazaki's most recent film prior to this, 2013 The Wind Rises, had lost a lot of his charm, but even though The Boy and the Heron isn't quite on the level of Miyazaki's very best, it is at least a very welcome return to form for him.

The story actually starts out on a grim note, with the protagonist, teenage boy Mahito Maki (Soma Santoki) losing his mother to a fire as the Allied Forces bomb Japan in the middle of World War II.  Following the chaos, Mahito and his dad Shoichi (Takuya Kimura) move out to the countryside, Mahito meets his father's new wife Natsuko (Yoshino Kimura) who also happens to be his mother's younger sister. As Mahito grapples with his grief and loss out in the countryside, he receives a most unexpected visitor: a talking gray heron (Masaki Suda), who leads Mahito into a magical, mysterious world where he learns a lot of things he didn't know about life and death, including certain truths about his mother.

This film is reportedly rather personal to Miyazaki; he grew up in post-World-War II Japan and like Mahito, he, too, lost his mother, though much later in life, and to disease and not a fire.  This tinges the whimsy with a gentle melancholy. As a result, even though Miyazaki's usual commentaries about greed or the military-industrial complex are absent from this film, there's still a weight to it that makes it feel compelling in its own right.  By anchoring its narrative on the kind of pain that only the death of a loved one can induce, the film introduces audiences to a Miyazaki protagonist unlike any we've ever seen before. Miyazaki's last protagonist, airplane designer Jiro Hirokoshi, was notably unsympathetic as a character because of how he put his love for aviation over everything, even his own humanity. Fortunately, Miyazaki goes in completely the opposite direction with the youthful Mahito, who bears a very human emotional burden all throughout the story.   

I'll admit the film sometimes feels unwieldy because of the wildly different tones it must juggle, but Mahito's heartache lends the story real gravitas, and imbues the striking images with a weight and soul they wouldn't otherwise have. The whimsical world Mahito visits, after all, is the Land of the Dead.

Miyazaki's visual signature permeates the film, which is what makes the fantastical elements pop all the more. It was a striking choice to start the film with the violence of the blaze that killed Mahito's mother, but as the fire recurs throughout the film in flashbacks, it helps lend the film its distinct visual identity, as do Miyazaki's flourishes like a multitude of cute characters, namely the Warawara, who evoke the Soot Sprites from My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away. Miyazaki's longtime composer Joe Hisaishi contributes a suitably emotional score, if not a particularly striking one.

It really was gratifying to finally see a Miyazaki movie in theaters. Given that the man is 80 years old I don't imagine I'll get to see a whole lot more, which makes this even more of a privilege. Though I may not consider this his best work, if I only ever watched one Miyazaki movie in theaters, I could have done a lot worse than this one.

8.5/10