Popcorn Perspectives with Danny Minton
Week of December 4, 2023
The Boy and the Heron
Rated PG-13 for some violent content, smoking and bloody images
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%
In Theaters
If you watched the recent 2016 documentary Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki, you would have thought that at 82, the legendary Japanese animator was done making feature films. But now, 10 years after his last creation, The Wind Rises, he is back with a brand-new story that feels very personal, and yet wildly creative. The story follows a young boy whose city is fire-bombed during WWII, losing his mother in the attacks, and thus forced to move away to the countryside with his father and new mother a year later. While there, a magical heron visits him, guiding him on a journey to a strange world, shared by the living and the dead, where he must find his new mother, all the while searching for signs of his dead mother also. At least I think that’s what it is about. This is a really weird one, even for Miyazaki. His films have always felt like parables, full of symbolism and magic. While this one follows that path, it was certainly a crazy one to try to figure out. I can only assume the film is about a boy trying to adjust to his new life, using this fantasy universe to sort out his horrific past, present and potential future. Either way, the film is absolutely beautiful to look at, as you would expect. The animation is surreal and very much feels like a two-hour dream. Along for the ride is long-time collaborator, composer Joe Hisaishi, whose score adds a wonderful and calming dimension to the madness. On first viewing, I’m not in love with the project, but I’m assuming that just like some of his other projects like My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away, this one will grow on me with inevitable future viewings. B
Poor Things
Rated R for gore, disturbing material, graphic nudity, language, and strong sexual content
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%
In Theaters
From filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite, The Lobster) comes this wildly imaginative tale about a young woman (Emma Stone) who is put back together by an unorthodox surgeon (Willem Dafoe), replacing her brain with that of a baby’s after her suicide attempt didn’t consume her body. As she develops and learns to live in her new world, she discovers sexual pleasure and attempts to explore every bit of it that she can. While there is more to her journey than just erotic indulgence, the film is, at its heart, a Frankenstein-like tale full of sex and imagination, and it’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. To call it weird is an absolute understatement. Here, Lanthimos uses film as his palette to create some of the most visually creative art that is sure to stir up Hollywood with a ton of upcoming awards nominations. What stands out most, aside from a sexual side to Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo that we’ve never seen anything like previously, is its otherworldly production that will blow your mind, if you give it a chance. Cinematographer Robbie Ryan and production designers Shona Heath and James Price provide the visually stunning world which you will be difficult to wipe from your memory. And newcomer composer Jerkin Fendrix gives a score here that is as unusual as it is unsettling, providing the perfect soundscape for the bewitching universe. This is not a film for everyone, but it certainly will reward those looking for something incredibly different. A-