I completely agree. also alot of times when anime has scenes like that they’re based on real locations.

I think that sequence also highlights just how much time Ghost in the Shell devotes to giving its futuristic world a concrete sense of place. The setting has a life beyond the relatively narrow business of world-building. And that’s a feature that Mamoru Oshii shares with William Gibson, who also seems to care more…

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is another classic Miyazaki that doesn’t get as much credit as it deserves. It features some of the same type of iconic fantastical designs and elements as Castle (steampunkyish airships, strange creatures, war, not understanding the other, conflict between humans and nature, magic,…

A lot of what’s out there does pretty blatantly pander to the otaku-crowd. Those films that are really good tend to deviate from the norm signicantly. Even with shows I remember recommending Cowboy Bebop to a co-worker, and he later responded that he loved it, and wanted to know what other anime held up as well. At…

Paprika is probably better on drugs, or maybe it is drugs so don’t.

I loved both those movies. Highly recommend. Heck I should give them a re-watch. If only I had the time...

I think Beth couldn’t have hit it out of the park any more by selecting Laputa given the context of her article. It is exactly the entry point an anime newbie should take into Miyazaki’s portfolio.

I haven’t seen Wolf Children or The Girl Who Leapt through Time, but the rest of these are inarguable delights, so I’ll have to check them out.

Spirited Away is my favorite Miyazaki as well, but Castle in the Sky has some of his most evocative design work, from the airships with their buzzing dragonfly wings to the lumbering robots with their lopsided eyes.

I subscribe to it. The library changes from month to month as the curated collections rotate through (lately they have a pile of film noir, a massive tribute to Toshiro Mifune, and other series devoted to directors and stars), but there is always more than I can get through, with a pretty diverse range of material.…

That’s cinematography, not format. You can shoot schlock on 70mm film just as easily as you can on a digital cinema camera or 16mm or a smartphone.

I don’t think I’m going back to the movies until we’re seeing some effective treatments and fewer cases. And even then I might check the seating chart to make sure I’ve got six feet around me.

...with the exception of big Hollywood blockbusters, most movies don’t really benefit all that much from these hardware upgrades.

Mike Mignola is a serious contender for “best lockdown Twitter.” His sketch of Godzilla in a tophat was delightful, while his rendition of Snap, Crackle, and Pop exuded an obscure sense of menace. I love how many of the characters in his sketches are saying their own names.

It has been six weeks since I had a non-digital conversation with a human being who wasn’t selling me food. Perhaps for that reason, the leisurely pacing of the FFVII Remake is really working for me. If it weren’t for social distancing, I have a creeping suspicion that the game’s goofball crowd patter and…

The story here reminded me of Rebuild of Evangelion, another remake that lets its characters struggle against the original plot. Both FFVII and Evangelion belong to roughly the same formative moment in nerd culture, and the creators have chosen to recreate that experience in a way that makes nostalgia and anticipation…

The games were cool, and I love the revival of radio drama thanks to podcasts. We’re not back to Jack Benny and The Shadow just yet, but every little bit counts.

I mean, no one is expecting Dune to be a romp, but this shot does imply that Villeneuve has not shaken off his predilection for sparse, cold, center-framed shots. His films have redeeming facets, especially the ones that involve Roger Deakins, but it’s not unfair to call out their heavyosity.

Oh, I think that social distancing is leading us inevitably toward the ultimate listicle of regret: fantasy novel sex scenes. 

Ad Astra was excruciatingly bad. We actually got up and walked out halfway through. I don’t mind a slow burn or an artsy film...but it still has to be good.