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Feature Four Frames

Using Deception for Good in Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox

Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) revolves around Mr. Fox (George Clooney), a cunning, somewhat egotistical bird thief. The film is a dry, witty comedy suitable for both children and adults; however, it’s greatest interest is the portrayal of a morally gray character. Anderson sets up expectations for Mr. Fox’s character in the opening scene, […]

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Feature Interview

“The short film is a space for infinite freedom”: Interview with filmmaker Nicolas Bianco-Levrin

The sprightliness of the reimagined story of Little Red Riding Hood. A dark, atmospheric cautionary tale set in the slumps of Louisiana on the jazzy score of Adrien Chevalier. A little mouse who lives among books and their extraordinary adventures and who, when the candle burns out and he runs out of matches, must take […]

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Feature Screengem

Screengem: The tin of sweets in Grave of the Fireflies (Isao Takahata, 1988)

Childhood sweets are happy memories. They’re treats from loving parents, for being good, for being loved. It’s wartime in Grave of the Fireflies, but a tin of sweets cherished by a little girl is an image that transcends culture and time. That the sweets are later replaced by her ashes remains one of cinema’s cruellest, […]

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Brilliant Failure Reviews

Brilliant Failure: The Congress (Ari Folman, 2013)

Simply scrolling onto The Congress’ official website gives a very accurate depiction of Ari Folman’s feature. One is presented with an outlandish, gyrating mosaic of film clips; enough to make anyone recoil at its unrelenting visual assault. The colours are all too vibrant and little sense can be made of the story being told. The […]

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Feature Thousand Words

Spotlight: Animal Kingdom

Cleaver Patterson and Kieron Moore pull out their binoculars for a close-up look at some of the movies where the animal kingdom takes centre stage. NATIONAL VELVET (1944) Dir. Clarence Brown When young horse fanatic Velvet Brown first sets eyes upon a magnificent gelding she calls The Pie, she falls in love and dreams of […]

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Feature Four Frames

Four Frames: Tetsuo’s transformation in Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo, 1988)

A cautionary metaphor for the dangers of unchecked power, or just a slice of Japanimation at its most ass-kickingly spectacular? Whichever way you look at it, the influence of Akira, the 1988 anime cult favourite, endures persistently. A nightmarish sci-fi yarn of motorcycle gangs and child psychics, of terrorists and telekinesis, amidst an imposing post-apocalyptic […]

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Feature Thousand Words

Thousand Words: Go-Motion animation: it was all just a blur

I can’t help thinking that, for anyone born in the 1980s and subsequently raised exclusively on a diet of post-Jurassic Park creature realisation, the cinematic work of stop-motion maestro Ray Harryhausen must seem as archaic as Victorian magic lantern shows. What then would they make of Go-Motion, the near-forgotten transitional fossil of animation techniques that […]