Dec 25 - Dec 31
Saltburn, Leave the World Behind, Petit Maman, My Neighbor Totoro, Castle in the Sky, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke
- Saltburn [2023] - 88
Saltburn is an excellently artistic movie that combines a few of my favorite elements in film: creative and intentional cinematography, genre defying plot, and loads of weirdness. This movie is uncomfortable and strange, gross and depraved, and funny and mean. It’s hard to say “you need to watch this movie” to a general audience, but it is one I heartily recommend if you’re in for a quality film experience. There’s not a lot more to say here that isn’t said in my full review so, just keep your tongues out of the bathtub. Thanks.
- Leave the World Behind [2023] - 77
A not-pocalypse film, Leave the World Behind is one of the only movies I watched this year to do something I’ve not seen before. While I wish it executed most of its elements more deftly, there is a lot to be said about its plot in general… and I can’t wait to read the book to see where they all got bastardized. This was a fun watch, but not one I’m likely to return to, as too many characters are either striated or annoying, and too many small elements of the film made me sit back and say “wait, there’s a better way”. Though their overall narratives are very different, this mostly reminds me of 2017’s It Comes at Night if it was made after someone watched Don’t Look Up. Though certainly better than Don’t Look, Leave the World Behind is similarly weak when forcibly conveying its message… or any time Julia Roberts speaks.
- Petite Maman [2021] - 88
A great little 70-minute French film, Petite Maman feels much larger than its runtime. Though not perfect, the story of grief poised around the loss of Nelly’s grandmother is mostly well told and explored. Maman journeys into a realm I think most film doesn’t, and that’s exploring parents as people, rather than guardians through the struggles of Nelly’s mother at the passing. Put simply, she abandons Nelly and her father to clean out the now vacant grandmother’s house, and this is one of the central themes of the film — Nelly’s feelings of responsibility to both care for her mother… and her own guilt at being an “obligation”. It’s deftly handled and never villainizes the mother or frames her parenting as “bad”. I wish the story overall took a slightly different approach to one or two elements, but there’s some real clever and deep stuff here. Very easy recommendation.
- My Neighbor Totoro [1988] - 80
Coming off of internet darling Kiki’s Delivery Service with something of a sour taste, I was nervous when approaching the universally beloved My Neighbor Totoro… especially because I’d seen it before and felt very “meh” about it. This time, however, I watched the English dub… and boy-absolute-howdy did that change my perception of the film. Gone were the glass shattering octaves of the original voice cast that made my original experience so jarring. Though still not perfect [Totoro shares many of my complaints with Song of the Sea], this is a great and charming journey that is entirely worthy of its online recognition. Still not one I’m likely to come back to on my own, it is one that I will pass to other people who are looking for something cute, fun, and sweet… if a little dark for a bit towards the end.
- Castle in the Sky [1986] - 85
If you’ve been following my weekly trek through Miyazaki’s nonsense, you’ll already be familiar with my complaints against Proco Rosso and Kiki’s Delivery Service. Namely, both of those movies’ total lack of context around plot points, complete disregard for interesting world building opportunities, and shallow narratives with extraneous characters. Castle in the Sky feels like someone heard me and made a movie specifically addressing those issues; which is weird considering this came out years before either film. Though still not entirely bereft of the oft go-to anime trope of adult men fawning over teenage girls… at least it’s only brief and not terribly explicit in this one… ugh. Other than this minor scene that is set up in a genuinely comedic way, Castle in the Sky marks a true high point for Miyazaki’s storytelling structure, complexity, and themes. There’s a lot happening in Castle in the Sky, and most of it is pretty gray, rather than black and white/ good and bad. An extremely refreshing watch after a ton of previously drivel work.
- Spirited Away [2001] - 89
While I don’t think that Spirited Away is quite as interesting from a narrative structure standpoint as Castle in the Sky, it is an absolutely phenomenal film and one that avoids nearly all the anime tropes that drive me up the wall… though Chihiro is a little screechier than I prefer. Suffering from the same thing as much of Miyazaki’s work, Spirited Away’s greatest weakness is having one or two too many characters… but that’s mostly my biggest gripe here. The creativity on display is incredible, the story is moving and interesting, and each stepping stone within the narrative is engaging. Winning the 2002 Oscar for “Best Animated Feature” from both Treasure Planet and Lilo and Stitch, Spirited Away is surely an entry point into the anime genre for many people of my generation, and one of Miyazaki’s few genuinely meaningful works.
- Princess Mononoke [1997] - 92
Another of his few meaningful works, Princess Mononoke is not only my last film of 2023; it’s the last film on the Miyazaki list, and the first of his I ever saw. This is a film that informed my taste in action, plot density, narrative structure, maturity of themes… and women, from the first time I saw it as a kid. I don’t know when exactly I saw it for the first time, but it was likely around 1999, as we hadn’t yet moved to California, and I was watching it on a VHS recorded from the TV. So, between this, seeing The Thing for the first time, and The Phantom Menace rebooting Star Wars, the end of the 90’s was a big time for 8-year old me. Should I have watched The Thing or Princess Mononoke at that age? Probably not… but I also shouldn’t have read Carrie and Cujo when I was 11 or 12 either. Here we are now 🤷.
That all said, I purposely held this film to the end to see if I still loved it after slogging through what I knew would be a ton of garbage drivel and… I definitely do. Like most things, there’s some minor plot stuff that could be cleaned up, but it’s an overall astounding and interesting piece that really exists in an entirely different league than anything else Miyazaki or Studio Ghibli has ever produced.
