Anarchist_Rationale

I am a fan of Wes Anderson, so this review may be biased. I love the way his films are put together and Isle of Dogs is a return to stop-motion animation for the director, having made Fantastic Mr. Fox previously, which I adored. Even though Isle of Dogs isn’t quite as much fun, it’s still a very rich family movie. The setting is somewhere in Japan where the mayor of the city of Megasaki has banned dogs and exiled every one of them to a garbage island to fend for themselves. As a result of this decree, his own son’s loyal bodyguard-dog Spots (voiced by Live Schreiber) is sent to the island, but the plucky kid comes looking for him and befriends a pack of dogs who help him out. Meanwhile, the anti-dog sentiment in Megasaki has reached genocidal levels and a team of dog-loving students led by American exchange student Tracy Walker (Greta Gerwig) is on a mission to expose the government corruption and liberate man’s best friend.  The cast is excellent, which is par for a Wes Ander...

John Krasinski directs and stars with his wife Emily Blunt in this exceptional horror movie about a family trying to survive against predatory monsters who hunt by sound. The film is a terrific example of visual storytelling as the dialogue is suppressed to a minimum by the danger it represents to the survivors. It is also one of the most effective and high-tension suspense movies I’ve ever seen, with more intelligence and emotional power than are typical of the genre. The story begins several months after some sort of invasion by ill-defined, poorly understood but immensely superior predators which have effectively wiped out the human race. Those who have managed to survive have had to adapt to a virtually silent mode of living, walking barefoot everywhere, for example, or communicating by sign language. The eldest daughter, played by Millicent Simmonds, is indeed deaf herself, and the film uses its sound design very effectively to convey point of view of characters according to...

The latest from Steven Spielberg is a sci-fi film based on the novel of the same name by Ernest Cline. I thought it was spectacular by unsatisfying, with an overabundance of 80’s nostalgia to distract from the weak characterizations and story which all gets a bit boring after a while, though the early parts are a lot of fun. I’d say your enjoyment of it will depend greatly on your familiarity with 80’s pop culture. By the mid-21 st century, virtual reality sophistication has grown so great that people can escape their mundane reality for the limitless glamour of these digital realms. The biggest and most popular is the Oasis and upon the death of its creator a treasure hunt is launched for the keys to the kingdom: the winner becomes the majority shareholder of the company stock. It’s Willy Wonka by way of The Matrix . Tye Sheridan plays Wade, a standard everyman/nobody/unlikely hero, and Ben Mendelsohn is Sorrento, the corporate shark out to win at any cost, employing hundr...