Ah, the timeless tale of a boy and his dragon. As recounted in HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON I and II, it was magical. Even more magical is that the final part of the trilogy, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD is the equal of the first two without being a repeat of either installment.
MARY POPPINS RETURNS
It’s a testament to just how good MARY POPPINS RETURNS is that the weakest part of this sequel to the 1964 film is the sequence with Meryl Streep. I hasten to point out the relative nature of the word “weakest”. Like everything else in this practically perfect cinematic exercise, it’s eye-popping and clever as the… Read More »
SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE
Just when you thought the Spiderman franchise might have finally run its course of endless reboots comes SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE, a film that that reinvigorates both animation and the super-hero origin story. Told in a wry, raucous style, it dares to explore complicated themes of family ties and personal responsibility while slyly poking fun… Read More »
VENOM
We none of us, least of all your humble correspondent, lives in a vacuum. So perhaps it’s because I’ve recently seen THE PREDATOR that the mere, yet aggressive, mediocrity of VENOM did not make for a completely awful cinematic experience. Which is not to say that this ploddingly plotted effort is good, but for sheer… Read More »
THE BOOKSHOP
Florence Green, the widowed heroine of THE BOOKSHOP, is a woman of patience, determination, and kindness. Qualities that would stand anyone in good stead, they are enough to get her dream of opening the eponymous entity in this evocative adaptation of the Penelope Fitzgerald’s novel. Whether they will be enough to keep it going in… Read More »
EARLY MAN
Click here for the KMR interview with director/co-writer Nick Park. The filmmakers at Aardman have carved out for their studio a specific niche among animated films. Theirs is a humor that is sly, unafraid of a pun, and equally fearless in its embrace of the silly for the sake of silliness. It is a universe… Read More »
THE MAN WHO INVENTED CHRISTMAS
In an era when Christmas, or at the least the merchandising for it, begins sometime in late August, there is a certain charm in THE MAN WHO INVENTED CHRISTMAS, which looks back to a time when it barely registered as a blip on the cultural radar. And the the to origins of the story that… Read More »
THE RED TURTLE
We are reminded in THE RED TURTLE how superfluous words can be. This animated fable from Studio Ghibli, aimed more at adults than at children, is a thoughtful film about the cycle of life, and a sublime cinematic achievement. A masterpiece, in fact. Starting with a shipwreck, it tells the story of a castaway marooned… Read More »
LONG WAY NORTH
LONG WAY NORTH uses deceptively simple animation to tell an epic adventure. At its center is Sasha (Christa Théret), a spirited and determined 15-year-old set on restoring her family’s honor, and the legacy her of her beloved grandfather, Oloukine (Féodor Atkine) an arctic explorer gone missing on his last expedition. It would be a monumental undertaking… Read More »
KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS
KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS continues Laika’s string of arresting, unconventional stop-motion animated films that are both sophisticated and enchanting. Like PARANORMAN and CORALINE, KUBO is audacious enough to tackle serious subjects and to do so with no pretense about the finality of death, or the reality of evil. Taking its cue from Joseph Campbell’s… Read More »