While GKIDS is known to most for licensing anime films in North America, they do license animated films from other countries as well. Marona’s Fantastic Tale is one of their latest offerings, a French animated film written and directed by Anca Damnia.
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Released at the end of July in virtual cinemas after having some limited screenings before COVID-19 struck, Karen Maine’s second screenplay is based on a short film of the same title produced by her several years prior, just like her other film Obvious Child. Yes, God, Yes is coming of age film that takes an intimate look at sexual awakening and Catholicism, and unlike Child, she’s also the director. The film challenges the hypocrisy and double standards while also offering a positive message in a film that’s both accurate and slightly satirical, perfectly capturing the Catholic school environment and all that comes with it.
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It’s a story that’s all too familiar: two people meet, fall in love, and have a perfect life. There’s always another part to this type of story, however, typically a secret that threatens the relationship or one of the two becoming very sick. That’s exactly what we see in Japanese director Takahiro Miki’s The Girl in the Sun, also known as The Girl in the Sunny Place. The film, while falling into that cliche, does offer a little more in terms of twists and also has some great shots of the landscape.
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There are ways I like to think of films: those that are already forgotten just as quickly as you watched it, those that you may think of from time to time as they’ve made a loose impression on you, and those that stay with you for a long time. Never Rarely Sometimes Always falls into that last category.
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Another film I missed out on at last year’s Philadelphia Film Festival, The Vast of Night made its way to Amazon Prime as an exclusive just over two months ago now. Similarly to what I did recently with signing up for HBO Max and Netflix trials to watch exclusives on their services, I also briefly signed up for a Prime subscription so I could check out this movie. In this debut film from Andrew Patterson, Vast easily draws comparisons to series such as The Twilight Zone, as the film’s setting is the 1950s and has a science fiction and mystery vibe to it.
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It’s not uncommon to dwell on the past, the would’ve could’ve should’ves. What is a tad more uncommon, however, is to think about past lovers and what things could’ve turned into with them while you’re married That’s exactly what we see with Maria (Chiara Mastroianni, who was in another film I reviewed recently, The Girl with a Bracelet). After her husband Richard (Benjamin Biolay) sees some texts on her phone from a man named ‘A’ about having enjoyed their sleeping together, he confronts her about her infidelity.
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Grasshopper Films has been on a roll lately with scooping up the rights to some excellent films, with this new 4K restoration of Bungalow being no exception. Up until now, I’ve never seen a German film, and after watching this, color me impressed with this directorial debut from Ulrich Köhler dating back to 2002.
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Slowly but surely, I’m catching up on films I wanted to see at last year’s Philadelphia Film Festival but was unable to. Last weekend I discovered one of those films, Fourteen, has been streaming online since May. Naturally, I pounced on the first opportunity I had to watch it.
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After watching a film, one thing I like to do is do a little research on it as typically there’s something I’ll learn. It could be something simple such as finding out it’s based on a novel, it could be that the film is an adaptation of another film, it could be information about what went into making the film, anything really. With Shirley, I learned in the credits that it’s adapted from a novel of the same name, but it gets even deeper than that: the novel is a homage to a real person. That person would be Shirley Jackson, who is known for her works of horror and mystery, consisting of several novels and many short stories. Admittedly, I’ve yet to read any of her works.
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Originally going to be released in theaters in Japan in early June, Studio Colorido’s A Whisker Away had its theatrical release pulled due to COVID-19. Netflix instead acquired the film, releasing it on their streaming platform a couple of weeks after its previously-scheduled theatrical date. While English subtitles were available at the time for interested audiences such as myself, an English dub of the film was also added a little over a week later.
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