The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (Hosoda, 2007)

  I may have a new favorite film. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (Hosoda, 2008) is a Japanese animated film that falls into the sci-fi genre with strong elements of romance. However, the film stays grounded in reality as it tells the tale of tom-boy Makoto Konno as she travels back in time to correct what she deems as mistakes. It starts out with changing her grades and waking up early but she soon discovers that small things here and there create big changes, even life threatening changes. From the simple, yet beautiful animation to the touching story that leaves your heart feeling warm and fuzzy I can’t give enough love to this film. So warning, very lovey dovey review coming up.

  Is there anything bad I can say, maybe screw the ending which I have mixed feelings about. I love it and yet I cannot stand and since I don’t want to give away any spoilers to a lesser known anime film that I bet many Britain’s have not seen (but should) I shall leave it there.

Where to start with my rave review, let’s go for characters. Our antagonist, the tom-boy Makoto, is so relatabley average it’s almost strange. Makoto isn’t particularly good or bad at anything, when one thinks about it she could easily slip into the background but then we’d all miss out on one amazing story. Her two best friends are guys that are loveable, attractive, and are constantly making fun of her for being how she is but that’s what friends are for right? Makoto’s aunt is somewhat important as a guide to Makoto, she helps her see how her time leaping may be affecting others. She makes Makoto open her eyes a little bit.

  The animation, oh it’s so beautiful. If I could live in that watercolor world I would be happy forever. The background is like those of most every other anime film or TV series but what was different was that the characters would go from regular anime movie, ghilbi-esque faces to much more cartoon like faces, like their mouths taking up the entire bottom half of their face when they cry. It kind of took away from the reality of the film without pushing you out of the world of the film. I think it worked well, as I think it reflected Makoto’s character. She seems carefree and quite childlike which I think is shown through how she is animated. In fact all the characters kind of have this, especially one of her guy friends, Chiaki Mamiya, whom always has a hidden face as though he is hiding something about himself. Enough animation ramble I think, moving on.

Overall, this film is gorgeously animated (if I hadn’t made that clear) and the story is heart warming, yet infuriating and will always have you absorbed and guessing what’s going to happen next. There wasn’t a moment when I wasn’t with Makoto, I honestly forgot about the real world for 98 minutes. It’s such an amazing story, and character piece. It’ll leave you with tears in your eyes and thoughts in your brain. It may leave a little heartache as well, no spoilers but it’s so moving. Honestly a film I didn’t know about, had no intention of watching, saw it on sale in HMV so I picked it up and now has a firm place in my favorite  films of all time. If you love animation, watch it. You love sci-fi, watch it. You love film, watch it.

Rating: Do I really have to say, could you not guess? 5 out 5, if I could give it higher I would.

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The Lego Batman Movie (Mckay, 2017)

Let’s start out by saying that this film is a Batman film done entirely in Lego. Yes, it has a ‘The Lego Movie’ take on that but if you are not inclined to the Batman universe from Adam West to Ben Affleck there are a lot of jokes that you probably won’t get. The Lego Batman Movie (McKay, 2017) is a very well done family film that anyone can enjoy as it is just funny even if you don’t understand the insane amount of references. The film follows Batman as he yearns to have a family and yet won’t admit to such because he is batman and he works alone. This film questions the batman universe, much like its big brother did as well with the Lego universe.

Ok, so what I really enjoyed about this film was of course the animation because it’s so well done, to the point that my friend was convinced the film was in stop motion. The humour is sarcastic and yet simple enough for younger viewers to understand without it boring to adults. Will Arnet as Batman is perfection, his batman voice is much better than others *cough* Christian Bale *cough*, to be honest all the casting in this is pretty perfect. None of the voices took me out of the film and made me think ‘woah, that didn’t sound right’ or make me think about who the actor was as they sounded different from themselves which is always good.

Now the stuff that wasn’t so good. My only real complaint about this film is the amount of jokes. There was just too many, it was as though the next joke had started being told before you had even finished laughing at the first one. It was just a constant barrage of jokes, some of which not everyone would have gotten anyway because they where so deep within the batman universe that very few of the biggest batman fans would have understood them fully. But again, this is really my only complaint. Which I guess means that it’s a pretty good film.

Overall, a very entertaining film where you get to see Batman rap and be lonely which is an interesting take on the character. If you liked The Lego Movie then you will most likely enjoy this film too because the humour is very similar. I would say that even if you aren’t the biggest Batman fan go and see it because past it being a batman film it is a very clever satire of superhero films in a more general way, obviously specifically batman but don’t let it stop you is my point because it is a little bit more than that. Although, any Batman fans reading this that haven’t seen it, you will probably go mad with the amount of references.

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Strong women in cinema

Warning, may be slightly rant like as this subject pisses me off just about a lot. 

The representation of women in cinema is a complicated matter to begin with but the representation of 'strong women' in particular annoys me maybe too much but I can't help it. Why do so called 'strong' women of film become masculine or psychotic and murderous? Try to think of a 'strong woman' that isn't covered in defined muscles or psychotic, it's a tricky task. I want a strong woman that cries, wears a dress, falls in love and yet is strong because woman are just that. Women cry, women wear dresses (or whatever else they want for that matter), women fall in love and are strong. The amount of shit that women have to put up with is ridiculous, the amount of times I get stared or whistled at by men when I'm wearing a skirt (basically anything to be honest) is ridiculous and makes my mood boil. Why do men think it's appropriate to do that, oh yeah because the media tell them that it's ok. That women are flattered by this kind of attention. Honestly, I cannot recall a conversation with another women talking about this where we haven't concluded that it makes us feel like nothing but objects, that we are nothing if not loved by men.
Honestly, fuck you society. Woman are strong: we create life, we break and break and yet continue to build ourselves up over and over again. We don't need some man staring at us to make us feel good about ourselves. Women should look into the mirror and be happy, feel safe and strong. We shouldn't have to worry that what we are wearing is too provocative, I doubt that a man taking his shirt off in public has that thought cross his mind and yet before we go outside we ask ourselves this question.
Cinema needs women that are girl bosses, that get mad when men whistle and stare. We need women that aren't super muscley and yet can be powerful with not physical strength but the strength of her mind. We need a dorky girl that doesn't get a makeover in order to save the day. We need a women that can save the day without looking like a man.
The representation of woman in cinema needs to change for the better of our own minds. Cinema brainwashes all to think that whatever it shows is the norm, it has done since the 1950's. It needs to show positive images of woman that don't die, don't kill, don't imitate men. It needs to show woman that are woman as they are in reality: Strong, powerful, and independent. Beautiful, smart, and kind. (The lists could go on)

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Identity (Mangold, 2003)

For those of you that enjoy a classic psychological thriller Identity (Mangold, 2003) may just be up your alley. This film fits perfectly into the frame work of a psychological thriller, twist included which does mean that it only really works once. I guess you could watch it again but I doubt that it would have the same impact that makes the first watch enjoyable. Identity is a murder mystery about ten people that all end up stuck in a motel because of an incredibly heavy storm. As time passes the characters are murdered one by one, and of course panic ensues and John Cusack tries to figure out who has been killing everyone. There are clues to the twist if you’re looking for them, which I’m sure if you’re a thriller veteran you probably look out for without being told about their existence.

For recommendation, as I said earlier, if you like a thriller (especially psychological) you will most likely enjoy this film. This is because it has many of the common tropes that makes the genre what it is. The music is perfectly timed to get those jump scares out of you and the lighting works very well with the storm setting to create a very tense atmosphere. These two aspects in combination make for a very suitable atmosphere, especially if you watch it in the dark (as one should with ‘scary’ films). The storm setting lends itself very nicely to the film as it allows for a situation where lights will flicker, lightning bolts can light up just enough of the space, phone lines are out, etc. It adds to the tense atmosphere that pulls audiences into this kind of a film.

The performances are slightly irritating if I had to pick one thing out that doesn’t really work for me. It’s just very over the top, although it would probably be somewhat unbelievable if they did anything else. Some of the lines are kind of clunky and sound rather awkward. Overall the performance suits the piece but is very expected for that reason, none of the actor do a bad job it’s more a problem with specific lines that probably wouldn’t work no matter how amazing the actor.

Overall, a rather good film to just sit back and enjoy (not sure how correct that word is here). It makes you think as most mystery narratives do but isn’t too overly complicated that you can’t keep up and lose interest. Certainly not art and doesn’t do anything very outside of the genre it resides within. Although that makes it easy to recommend to people that like other psychological thrillers such as Shutter Island and the like.  

Rating: 3 out of 5

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