Maybe I’m wrong, seemed at the time like audiences were mixed about it.
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Saw the Hunger Games prequel this weekend. It was good. It’s about the bad guy from the originals, the character played by Donald Sutherland, when he was young and how he started on his way to being an evil piece of shit. It’s split into three distinct acts (complete with titles): before the 10th Hunger Games, the actual Games, and afterward.
I thought it was a little long and I did have some questions about some character development in the third act, but overall, I enjoyed it. Don’t think it will be as memorable as the original (mainly #1), though. Acting performances were excellent.
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I’m just recommending all the films of Satoshi Kon, (RIP) they’re so damn good. Paprika is a masterpiece of anime imo, it’s like if Inception was good. Perfect Blue is less essential but still a quality suspense thriller. With Christmas coming up it’s a fine time to see the holiday magic of Tokyo Godfathers.
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American Fiction is really good. Very much enjoyed the concept, and the comedy hits well; the scene where our main character demands that his book title be changed sent me into a full-on laughing fit, and as the movie went on I kept thinking of that scene and trying not to laugh out loud again out of context in the theater. Not without its flaws, but I was happy with it. On the borderline between a 3.5/5 and 4/5.
+1 for Tokyo Godfathers. Hana is a rare Xmas trans character.
Your days are numbred Superman! Nobody can defeat ANNOYING LOUD BROADCAST MAN!
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I mean, my kryptonite is certainly repeated hot takes.
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I’m generally with you on this, but I do find myself wondering if animation is an exception since it’s not a mix-and-match of one person’s voice with another person’s physical performance.
In part, I think my issue here is that I’ve unlocked most genres of film as things that I can enjoy, but after struggling to really get into anime stuff so far, it feels like I should consider another angle instead of just giving up. It seems like Miyazaki is legendary enough that he consistently gets pretty significant names to voice his English-language tracks. I might try Princess Mononoke (which I haven’t seen in any format) in dubbed form to see if it’s worth my giving The Boy and the Heron a go.
For those struggling with anime adoption, like me, I suggest starting with a native English anime and working your way to subs. Blue Eye Samurai and Scott Pilgrim Takes Off are two great anime style shows with native english dubbing. Might get the juices flowing.
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Related only because that caused me to look up Blue Eye Samurai, which in turn caused me to see that Randall Park is in the voice cast, but: Randall Park is fucking hilarious every time he shows up in anything, and he really should be a bigger deal.
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He was instantly recognizable in this but wasn’t a funny character.
Yeah, fair enough, and obviously I don’t require any funny actor to be in a funny role every time. I suppose his profile must be growing, because I do find myself encountering him more and more.
The day the world realized Randall Park could be anyone, anywhere, anytime.
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One of my favorites, and probably the first time I encountered him. I also love his exchanges with Paul Rudd in the Ant-Man movies. And he and Ali Wong were great together in Always Be My Maybe, which is one of the better romcoms in years.
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Appreciate the suggestion for adopters. My favorite anime as a kid was Ninja Scroll, but I struggled to get into other anime offerings. The other one I really liked was Vampire Hunter D, also made by Yoshiaki Kawajiri.
The Wachowskis said Ninja Scroll was a huge inspiration for The Matrix. The maker of Ninja Scroll later made two of the short films in The Animatrix anthology.
An interview with them about all of the above:
In this era of streaming services, Fresh Off the Boat (co-starring Randall Park) was a rare really good network sitcom.
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Yeah, he has made both a rare very good sitcom and a rare very good romcom in the span of a few years and I think a lot of that rests on his head (though Ali Wong is fantastic in Always be my Maybe)
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Actually Ali Wong is fantastic in a lot of stuff. I loved Beef. Strangely, Im not a huge fan of her standup but think shes an incredible actor.
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