Reviews

Whenever you come home, feeling a bit lonely or overlooked, and you do not have a dog, this is one of those movies that make you feel warm in your chest and pressed in your throat.

My Dog Tulip is about the loving relationship between a man and his dog, going through the most common circumstances with so much care and affection, that it leads to endless devotion between both and the kind of spotted emotions that we usually call "human", that make you, the viewer, blight and smile.

The animation and the story are both drawn and written so personally, that it detaches itself from other films in the way it reaches you. It also contains so much social reflection and wisdom that is makes a remembrance that is everlasting.

10 out of 10

I have seen "Sen to Chichiro no kamikakushi" (Spirited Away in Disney's English translation) once now, and I am planning on seeing it many more times, and I am planning to write a review for every time I see it, so that I can add new things I found, and new emotions I experienced.

It all started for me when I got more interested in Japanese culture by reading Haruki Murakami's book The Wind-Up Bird Chronichle. The next name I stumbled upon googling for Japanese masters of art was his, director Hayao Miyazaki. I started watching his first full movie, "Kaze no tani no Naushika", and became touched by his detailed (the best explanatory word) way of drawing and exploring theme's. I have now followed through all of his 90-minute-+ works, and I think I can say I feel his intentions and humanism in every of his films.

Miyaki makes two kinds of films: the epic, and the emotional. To me, Spirited Away, is his most innocent emotional artwork. It has two perfect, settings (witch Yubaba's commercial bathing house for the ghosts of the country and witch Zeniba's peaceful residence on the country side), both demonstrating an extreme in the human world. It has a pleasant speed of action, accustomed in children films - a speed which already takes motion at the start with a moving car in a motile environment - that continues to entertain until the end. This is both due to the wonderful Alice in Wonderland-like story and the appealing characters, but also to the magical, colorful and (still the best word) detailed drawings and the unstoppable fantasy floating through the screen.

An important mention is that the fact that this film is an animation (anime) film, and that it is a children's story with a child hero, does not take away that it is a film only enjoyable for children. None of Miyazaki's films are. If you are a western man or woman, this film (and I highly recommend "My Neighbour Totoru" or "Tonari no Totoro" too), this film will introduce you to the vagarious Japanese culture aspects of shape-shifting and the rest of the ghastly occupied spiritual worlds. A world in which you are guided by the young heroine Chichiro and her (humanistic) relationship with Haku, through the frames covering the essence of emotions that go from loneliness (Kaonashi / No-Face), to love (expressed in its purest form by Chichiro, to her parents, and to her soul mate); through frames half criticism, half teachings (in the form of The ghost of the River, Okutaresama); but most of all through the frame of Imagination. A frame you will never forget.

10 out of 10

The Dark Knight Rises is a superhero-movie. What you should not expect when you go to watch the last of Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy, is to watch anything similarly good to the second. The Dark Knight Rises is well played: a whole other setting in a Gotham, developed and lightened by the resulting success of the 'Dent lies', shows in the city's characterizing inhabitants. Wayne, Alfred, Fox and Gordon therefore have to adapt twice in the film: one to a time wherein not Batman, but a lie about Dent's death is the hero the town needs, the other, when those two flip back around. In the time between, choices need to be made: a plot will be formed.

A long seven year departure of Batman from the world, Wayne has become a recluse, which elicits agitation from those who care, Alfred especially, and raised many questions in associated minds. Those associated minds are two of the three newly introduced characters of the film: millionaire and do-gooder Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard), and hot- hearted young cop John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, playing a good side- hero). Bruce Wayne initially cares not for the invitations from the outside world ["There's nothing out there for me", wittily replied to by Alfred: "And that's the problem..."). As the movie starts, we already are invited in a speed of action (which later decelerates to slow characters shaping process) and introduced to the bad guy: Bane (Tom Hardy, to be remember particularly for speaking an accent and intonation perfect for the atmosphere and the build-up). Bane is the physically strongest of Batman's enemies, out to terrorize the city and everything in it. Now, Bruce Wayne and everyone around him must start to think about what to do, whether to rise or not. And that is where the movie starts up.

At this moment, the movie sets a tone of decision making. This opens interesting portals for Nolan, which can lead into the heart of the Hero and the Villain, demanding motive, therefore history, therefore character-making, which is the most illusive and important in superhero movies: explanation, along with explosions and an "I love it when it all comes together".

Nolan keeps himself busy for a while with Choice, the intensity or extremism of one's choice and one's dedication to the choices you have already set in motion. A short list of choices can make you understand the points of view of this theme within the film, without revealing too much:

1. The dedication: how large is the hero's dedication to Gotham, to his life and to his ideology? The Batman rises, but does he stand his point? Gordon and his police force fight, but is there enough dedication. Blake has the near-heroic dedication to save the innocent, close to that of (the good) Harvey Dent in the second film, making heroism more human and closer to the people of Gotham. Gordon flies in between, with an above- human dedication for good. Will their dedication suffice?

2. The same applies for the villains, what devotion do they have, and how does it withstand the tests from the heroes? Does terrorist Bane have soul enough to out go his plans, and where does it come from? (The intensity of the epic fight between Bane and Batman disappoints, both in choreography as in drama, which is a bugger.)

3. The which side are you on: There is also, of course, a coming-of-age story within the film. This time in the form of Catwoman, the elegant master-burglar, absolutely incredibly interpreted by Anne Hathaway, who surprised me in expressing wit and sexiness. What happens with her?

As I said, already enough doors to go through. But, Nolan does not kick in these doors (as he did with The Dark Knight). He misses the fortitude and acuteness himself, in making the decisions in this film - perhaps unconsciously mirroring his creations - which makes the film nearly inconclusive and unending. The film does not conclude any story or character, it merely finishes. Again, the end of the film leaves enough blanks: not something I adore after already nearly 9 hours of film altogether. Not only is the end loose in some ways, also the persona's, revealed not fully until the last 15 minutes, for example Bane, surprises, making the point that characters cannot be fully explained on screen, without actually making the point. Neither does anything in the film.

An explanation for this could be that Nolan made the movie too complicated, added too many layers and leaved too many untouched. Less complication would have sufficed, doing it "The Dark Knight"-style, with on the surface entertaining complexity that makes you wonder, but from within states a few-layered point, that you can wonder TO. Another (sadder) explanation could be that the incredible character The Joker could in no way be included in the rest of the saga, and was therefore a miss.

The fact that the movie misses the perfection of The Dark Knight, and the fact that in my opinion the movie leaves too many plot holes, and too few conclusion, does not make the movie a bad see, as many already noticed, summing up to a + 400 million gross profit. The trilogy's conclusion lacks epicness and power and thus a point to make - It is unbalanced, the Batman overthrows Bane* in status. Nevertheless, what it does not lack, is action and exhilarating wittiness, at some times, together with a great staging of catastrophe and scene. Altogether, the film is sufficiently entertaining, the characters make me wonder, but, probably not for long.

7 out of 10