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Reviews
Hauru no ugoku shiro (2004)
Best Writing in an Anime
In Howls moving castle, Hayao Miyazaki flips his own script and turns a coming off age story into a film where people should have come of age but didn't. Howl, Sophie, Markl, Calcifer, are people who don't want to take responsibility for where they are in their life, and don't want to move on. The great thing about this film is that all they layers to the film are neatly wrapped up in strong character-based storytelling which remains the core of the film. Sophie has a lovely outlook on life at the beginning of the film. She doesn't want to live her life in the back room making hats, but 'it's still better in here than out there'. So when Sophie gets her 'curse' it's actually great for her. She's really quick to embrace it because it means that she can skip this adulting thing entirely and go straight into old age. The point that the film makes is that while all adults are horrible in their own special way, all these coping mechanisms to avoid becoming and adult do not work. This resolution comes when the characters can learn to define for themselves what adulthood is.
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
Beautiful Film
Roald Dahls written work has taken on a life in the form of film. His stories are often darkly comedic and occasionally find themselves bordering the morbid. But that is the beauty of Dahls storytelling, he does not flinch from the notion that children can be adult and adults can be childish. Nowhere has this been more evident than in Wes Anderson's adaption of Fantastic Mr Fox. The film dives into what it means to be a father and husband, and the relationship of his family, and also explores issues of class struggles. Wes Anderson presents the film to his audience with his old-school stop motion animation, it's beautifully portrayed. There is a constant use of warm colours which were used to depict the humans and animals in the film, the colour scheme is also involved with the characters and their costumes. Anderson also uses wide camera shots, to make the movie easier to watch, while using the rule of thirds, having the most important element in the middle of the screen. Wes Anderson has a flawless filming style and a beautifully shot film.
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018)
Mind-Blowing Movie
Fully interactive 'choose your own adventure' movie. The story flirts with interesting themes and concepts. It has your questioning who's really I'm control, is it Stefan, me, the remote, or someone else? If you ignore the fact that you are developing the story, you can see how your perspective of what is happening changes. Instead of you controlling him, he appears to be insane. There is a borderline sadistic relationship with the viewer and Stephan, we choose options for Stephan including, drugs, suicide, and murder with a disregard that Stephan makes it increasingly clear that he doesn't want to play anymore. Much like Stephan, us the viewer is also given the illusion of choice, we choose what Stephan does, but our choices are meaningless as everything has already been chosen for us. The performances are amazing, Fionn who plays Stefan did an amazing job, as he really gets into his character and even makes us question who is in control, and Will Poulter as Collin was typically fantastic at bringing more depth into the movie. It's dark, it's twisted, it's off the scale.
Rick and Morty (2013)
Best Cartoon Show
Rick and Morty is an animated show, created by Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland, and it is about a grandfather-grandson duo, embarking on a series of fast-paced, high-tech, and absurd adventures. Rick, often represented as the smartest man in the universe, is a master of technology; throughout the series, he develops gadgets that allow him to stop time, teleport, store and erase memories, make animals smarter, access infinitely many TV-channels, turn himself into a pickle, and so on. He usually carries along with his grandson Morty to his adventures, who is an emotional and angsty teenager on the brink of puberty. The show provides ample material for many philosophical and scientific issues and problems, such as determinism-freedom, artificial intelligence, identity, alternate universes, sentient existence, animal rights, religion, commodification, slavery, narratives, and meta-narratives. In fact, each episode can be said to tackle a specific philosophical or ethical issue.
Gravity Falls (2012)
Best Cartoon Show Ever
Gravity Falls is the story of twins Dipper and Mabel who have been sent to Gravity Falls to spend the summer with their "Grunkle" Stan. Stan runs The Mystery Shack, one of those side-of-the-road places you see on a road trip that promises crazy sights like bottomless pits and other eye-popping wonders. The thing is that Gravity Falls really is the center of a lot of mysterious, supernatural activity, which Dipper and Mabel get to investigate in every hysterical episode. It is a beautiful blend of old fashioned storytelling about the Pines kids and their array of friends and co-workers as they investigate with a modern sense of humor. It works for all ages, never overplaying its themes but incorporating them into the storytelling. But taking a deeper look into the show, it is quickly apparent that the series is far more mysterious and detail-orientated than previously thought. Even though the story is presented through animation, Gravity Falls is certainly among one of the most in-depth mystery television shows because of the creator's extensive understanding of the plot and characters and even more the numerous secret and codes to decipher. The show is consistently, laugh-out-loud funny every week, with a new adventure or conflict ready for our heroes to overcome. But the show never loses sight of the long-game: The big overarching story of mystery and dark magic that lurks just beneath the surface.