Sequels to popular films can be hit-or-miss. They have the capacity to be incredible, but more often than not, they could be seen as lesser versions of their predecessor, failed attempts to capture what made the original so successful the first time, this time without the same charm and effort of the original. In recent…

I’m someone who enjoys surreal, twisted cinema, but even I have my limits, and I think I may have just found the one film that has managed to completely bewilder me, the animated dark comedy Have a Nice Day (Chinese:  大世界), perhaps the most polarizing film I have seen this year. In all honesty, I…

I am planning to do a retrospective of Wes Anderson’s career in the next few months, which will entail, amongst other things, doing a ranking of his films, looking at them in comparison to each other and noting his highest points. Anderson is a filmmaker that has, in my view, never made a bad film,…

To date, I don’t think there has been a single film based on a novel by Roald Dahl that I have not liked. The Witches was a juvenile horror masterpiece, James and the Giant Peach was enthralling, and both adaptations of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory were thrilling and entertaining, not to mention Danny De…

Like many people, I was born into an era where Disney and Pixar films were the epitome of quality, and would regularly dominate the animation industry. I have absolutely nothing against these studios, and many of their productions defined my childhood and I still regularly find solace in some of their work. However, in all honesty,…

Pixar has done it again, and they have yet to do it better than they did here. After nearly a decade of making good (but not entirely brilliant) films, they produced Coco, one of the most endearing and beautiful films Pixar has ever made, and undeniably one of their greatest works to date. It is…

Cinephiles sometimes have a keen instinct for films, with the ability to tell what will be good, and what will be a disaster. However, sometimes one can be wrong, and sometimes it is so liberating to have your expectations exceeded. In 2013, when I heard there was a movie based on LEGO being produced, much…

Animated films may very well be the highest form of cinematic art, stretching from the earliest days of cinema, right up until today. Obviously there are some individuals that abuse the power of animation by making subpar films made for a quick profit. Yet there are still voices in cinema that keep to the brilliance…

There are very few films that have made me openly weep with bitter sadness and melancholy – and one that is possibly the most emotional response to a film I’ve ever had was Grave of the Fireflies, one of the greatest animated Japanese films ever made. The man behind that film, Isao Takahata, is a…

We’ve all heard the phrase “less is more” – and its something that I constantly praise, because being a huge supporter of independent film, it is difficult to not love the idea of someone constructing something out of nearly nothing, free from the confines of mainstream Hollywood. Yet there is no filmmaker working today that…