Hot Takes On Film

 Puss In Boots: The Last Wish (2022 USA) Antonio Banderas leads an all star cast in this cotton candy colored animation about a cat with 9 lives who must come to terms with his own mortality because he has only one life left. Yup you read that right.  Technically, this is a kids movie. Puss is even chased by death depicted as a wolf. I thought at one point they may end up playing chess or Twister but sadly no. Banderas does a great job as the swashbuckling cat who up until now was quite carefree. It has jokes. Some are familiar like the big eyes joke. After the joke they then get back into talking about making the most of your life because you only have one (left). I don't know if I would take kids to this. The younger ones aren't going to get the philosophy but older ones might and I think that's a bit much. I enjoyed it and other adults will likely enjoy it too. Guillermo Del Toro acted as an Executive Producer and had a hand in the script. Yeah, that's totally on bra

 My Neighbor Totoro (1988 JP) Two young girls coming to terms with their mothers illness have adventures with the magical forest creatures. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki for Studio Ghibli. Wow this is a gorgeous Anime film. I saw it on the big screen recently in a revival showing and what a treat. Miyazaki's work really resonates with people and I think there are several reasons but primarily his own emotional pain is expressed through his art. For instance as a child Miyazaki's mother was hospitalized for long periods with a health issue that left her without the ability to be mobile even when she was home. In this film the strength of these two protagonists in dealing with their situation has inspired so many. I loved the watercolor art particularly the nature backgrounds. I do think the unsung hero of all of Miyazaki's films but particularly this one is the audio. We focus on the visual art because that's kind of what we do but when you have audio editing that's jus

 The Yellow Submarine ( 1968 UK) Based on the music of the Beatles mostly from the album of the same name. The Fab Four are recruited by a dottering old man to help save Pepperland from the Blue Meanies. Ok stop what you are doing and go watch this film. I know that so many people have not seen it yet and that is a crime. This film is one of the most influential animated films ever. It put animation in the grown-up sphere whereas before it was limited to kids. It was directed by George Dunning and animated by some guys who clearly had been on a lot of trips. Even though the characters were the Beatles the Fab Four did not do the voices cuz really they didn't want to. They did make an appearance at the end as a way to fulfill their contract to United Artists. Although, the Beatles did make another picture with UA after Yellow Submarine. There is a boatload of anecdotes and historical trivia associated with this film which I could go on for days about. The DVD and BluRay have little

Turning Red (2022 US) It's #FemaleFilmmakerFriday and todays entry is this animated feature from Domee Shi. A 13 year old girl turns into a large red panda when she gets too emotional. In case you are wondering it's about puberty and menstruation. OMG this film created a HooHa in the middle aged dude community. It was clearly not meant for middle aged dudes so seriously just move one. Shi got a lot of grief on different sites for this film. I actually read comments. I know, I know that's never a good idea. TBH it was hind of shocking, how entitled and out of touch certain people are. I read one commenter that gave the film low marks and suggested that "if you want a good coming of age story, watch The Little Prince. It does it better". I'm sure that this person also believes that babies come out of the belly button. Don't take a bath or the baby will drown.  Another person suggested the main character was self centered, annoying and smug so she really shou