I watched Howl’s Moving Castle in the theaters before I launched this site, so I didn’t review it back then. I was too lazy to trek across town to watch the subtitled version, so I went to the theater near my apartment, which was playing the dubbed version.
The film was released on DVD, and I watched it again, this time in Japanese with subtitles.
It’s not hyperbole to call Miyazaki Hayao a magician. The first time you watch one of his films, it’s incredibly easy to get caught up in the visuals — so much detail and such great imagination. It’s also easy to overlook any shortcomings in the storyline.
The first time I watched Howl’s Moving Castle, I was taken in by the animation. I wanted to catch all the little things that I didn’t pay much attention to the bigger picture. The second time I watched it, I could pay more attention to the story, and I nearly fell asleep.
The first time I watched My Neighbor Totoro was back in 1998.
It was recommended to me by a co-worker, a single mom with a daughter who was into Pokemon. She told me flat out it was a children’s film, but one with appeal for adults.
My affinity for Japanese indie rock aside, I’m not an anime geek. Fan, yes. Geek, nowhere close. So the name Miyazaki Hayao didn’t resonate with me back then, and it would be another five years before he became an Oscar winner.
I watched My Neighbor Totoro, and I agreed with my co-worker — it was a wonderful film. But like most anime released in the US back then, the English dubbing was seriously dumbed down for a children’s audience.
I wasn’t familiar with any of the nominations for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards, but after having watched Block Party the Friday before, I was rooting for Three 6 Mafia.
And I agree with Jon Stewart — that’s the way to accept an award. (Although I giggled a bit, because it did seem like something parodied on The Boondocks.)
Of all the music I cover on Musicwhore.org, hip-hop is not well represented. Chalk it up to culture — I’m not from the streets, so hip-hop doesn’t speak to me.
But after watching Block Party, I got the sense hip-hop is, in reality, rock ‘n’ roll, a conclusion reached by better critics ages ago.
Let me mention the two things that may turn people off from watching Mysterious Skin. That way, you can decide whether you want to continue reading this review.
It deals unflinchingly with the effects of child molestation. And it’s directed by Gregg Araki.
Making Love was made in the early ’80s — disco wasn’t completely dead yet, and the home video wars were still fought between VHS and Betamax.
So the swell of strings at the start of the film, and the "aw, shucks" dialogue during the exposition are par for the proverbial course.
Michael Ontkean and Kate Jackson play Zack and Claire, a married couple with their careers on the rise. He’s a doctor, and she’s a TV executive. They have no children because they’re waiting to get established in their jobs.
A number of writers have tried to downplay the “gay cowboy” part of the “gay cowboy love story” description of Brokeback Mountain. They would rather emphasize the “love story”, not the “gay cowboys”.
That Don Roos is a pretty hot guy, but as a film director, I’m not sure I’m quite sophisticated enough to get his storytelling.
Happy Endings is one of those multi-plot films with characters separated by only a few degrees from each other. Everybody just about knows everybody else, and in the end, their lives intertwine in unexpected ways.
But to get to the Happy Endings promised in the title, they have to go through a few hurdles.
The main reason the movie adaptation of the musical Chicago worked so well was the way the musical numbers were framed within the imagination of the lead character.
The audience didn’t need to suspend its belief about people spontaneously bursting into song because it had a plausible “out”. And thankfully, the story lent itself well to such a device.
Rent isn’t so easily confined. The original stage production was thoroughly-sung, and a literal translation of that production would have meant two hours of straight song.
So Rent, the movie, turns to dialog for parts of the story and keeps other parts in song. Does it work? Only if you’re familiar with how opera works.
I started watching Angel because I really liked looking at David Boreanaz. I stuck around till the series finale because I grew to admire Joss Whedon’s writing.
I didn’t, however, catch Firefly when it first broadcast because it was on Fox, and Fox is nowhere near the orbit of my channel surfing. If Firefly had followed, say, Gilmore Girls, I probably would have watched it.
And instinctively, I didn’t really think a Joss Whedon sci-fi story was cut out for TV. Just the pitch alone sounded something better for film. So I promised to watch Serenity when it opened in theaters. It was a smart choice.