One Category at a Time: Animated Feature

Guys, we need to talk about Best Animated Feature. Most years, this is one category that hardly requires discussion at all. If it isn't a slam dunk victory for one obvious frontrunner (which it almost always is), then it can at least be boiled down to a two-horse race with the also-rans far in the distance. This year was shaping up to be another easy call you could use to inflate your prediction accuracy, until the biggest shocker of nomination morning. Everyone enjoys griping about presumed snubs that ultimately don't affect the outcome of the awards race, but this is one snub that has truly blown the category wide open.

The cast of The LEGO Movie is stunned by its Oscar snub!

Review - The Tale of Princess Kaguya

Guess what: Today is Isao Takahata's birthday! What better day to review his latest film.

Apart from his 1988 masterpiece Grave of the Fireflies, the works of animator Isao Takahata have never had much exposure in North America. They may have less crossover appeal than other outputs from Studio Ghibli – the revered and beloved Tokyo-based anime company that brought us My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away, among others – because his are less dazzling in a fantastical sense.

Nevertheless, Takahata has built a superb resume over the last thirty years at Ghibli. So what a rare and special treat it is then, to be able to see his latest (and possibly last) feature in theatres: The somewhat slow but visually splendid The Tale of Princess Kaguya. The narrative itself is a simple one (perhaps too much so to justify this film's leisurely 140-minute runtime), but Takahata gleans from it several adult themes about the pursuit of happiness, truth and artifice, and the cyclic yet finite nature of life.

Quick take on The Wind Rises and other late season catch-ups

It's getting down to the wire for me to see all of this year's nominated feature films. Not my fault! I swear! It's these damn late/limited releases making it nearly impossible for me to see everything in time. Thankfully, new technologies such as iTunes and Netflix and the like have granted me access to all the years nominated documentaries and some of the foreign films too. However, for some titles I've had to get real creative (and rely on my high school French), while for others I've simply had to wait for them to finally see the light of day. I finally had the opportunity to see what all the fuss is about The Wind Rises, and if I'm lucky, I'll be able to catch Omar the day before the Oscars.

For now, here are some capsule reviews from late-breaking docs and miscellaneous films that I simply haven't had the time to write about:

The Wind Rises

The life and times of Japanese aeronautical engineer Jiro Horishoki – who designed the deadly Zeros that Japan would use in WWII – is brought to life by the gifted hands of master animator Hayao Miyazaki, which may (or may not) be his final feature film. Beyond its linear biopic format, Miyazaki's [non]swansong is an artful ode to the winds of artistic inspiration and a poignant reminder that even products of impassioned creative genius can be warped for sinister purposes. Though conspicuously lacking in the fanciful whimsy and fantastical world-building on which Miyazaki has built his auteur status (although he still plies his visual imagination to Jiro's vivid dream sequences), this is perhaps his most mature work to date, eschewing the childlike worldview of his previous films and adopting a more adult writing style. However, that doesn't change the fact that what we're watching is still a straightforward biopic about a man who may be interesting as a research curiosity, but is pretty flat as a screen character. Unlike other Miyazaki films I've treasured over the years, this one actually had me checking my watch at various points throughout. The picture is a thing of beauty yes (and a feast for the ears as Joe Hisaishi's score is one of the year's best), but it hasn't the story to match.

*** out of ****

Sunday Top Ten - Depressing movies

“There aint no cure for the summertime blues,” sang Eddie Cochran in his 1958 classic. I hear ya, Eddie. And what better way for this cinephile to sing the summertime blues than with a list of his most depressing movies. Mind you, the definition of “depressing” is somewhat amorphous, at the very least variable for me. It's not simply a matter tear-jerking. Many of the movies that get my waterworks running I find possess an ultimately uplifting quality to them. It takes a different kind of film altogether to actually leave me feeling depressed, and none have done it better than these ten downers:

Some SPOILERS lurk beyond this point.

Best of the Decade #6: Spirited Away (2002)

From the unfathomable depths of master animator Hayoa Miyazaki's imagination comes this modern masterpiece about coming of age and summoning the courage you never knew you had. Akin to Alice in Wonderland, Spirited Away places our young heroine, Chihiro, in a bizarre fantasy world – a bathhouse run by and frequented by ancient Japanese spirits – with strong thematic ties to her real world. Already burdened by the anxieties of moving to a new town and school, Chihiro encounters challenge after challenge after challenge in this dreamlike universe, as well as an array of incredible characters, all of them highly allegorical in relation to Chihiro's inner quest. She must first overcome the tests and trials of this world before she is ready to face the same ones in real life. This subtle but very mature character arc makes Spirited Away as strong an adult character study as it is a children's fairytale; prestigious but not pretentious.

Auteur that he is, Miyazaki includes several of his most frequently visited themes and motifs, including love & friendship, greed & gluttony, and man's exploitation of the environment. His visual approach is also quite distinct. Having hand drawn many of the pictures himself, it is clear from watching Spirited Away that it is the work of a brilliant and devoted artist operating at a level of genius. Few films (let alone animated features) have ever looked as vivid, inventive, and flat-out beautiful as this one, which boasts arguably the richest production design of the decade.