The film actually begins beautifully in a fantastic metaphoric visualization of the journey of marriage and starting a family. That part of the film is worth seeking out, if nothing else.

This movie is brilliant in bringing to life its characters without falling prey to traditionally perfect heroes and hateful villains. In fact, many of the character are so rich and complex that they are neither heroes nor villains, yet can and do oscillate between.

Yoshifumi Kondo's first and only film for Studio Ghibli is, above all else, a tribute to young love, idealized and unrequited. But it is also, much, much more.

It’s a fun, bizarre, emotional, witty, wholly unique film about a bunch of adorable shape-shifting, anthropomorphized Japanese raccoon dogs, whose forest is slowly being destroyed and taken over by humans, that decide to fight back in hilarious ways.

You’ll cheer at the heroics of a Bogart-ish, WWI flying ace, who just happens to be a pig and laugh at good-hearted sea pirates stealing children for ransom!

You will be moved, heart warmed, fall into childhood memories, smile, cringe, and perhaps, like me, cheer with eyes blurred.

This film is not only artistically beautiful, but also thematically. It is a fantastic, uplifting, coming-of-age adventure in which a most loveable, delightful young girl must figure out the world on her own.

As I type this, I choke up, my eyes begin to water, I pause. This film will pummel one’s emotions to a pulp and haunt you.

As time sweeps past us, we can forget and lose the innocence, wonder, and magic that defined us as a child. With Totoro, Miyazaki transports us back to that perspective of sheer delight in the most life-affirming, adorable, charming, carefree, beloved story I’ve ever watched.

This is probably the best first Miyazaki film for any newcomer. I’m sad I didn’t see this when I was a kid. Because I utterly adore this film now. I can’t imagine what a splash of nostalgia would have done. It very well may have ended up my favorite film of all time.

This film is fantastic. A deeply complex, imaginative tale of nature, war, compassion, and the struggle of a brilliant heroine destined to save humanity from itself.

It's an excellent documentary that will leave you with much to ponder. Personally, a few things stood out among them all. What does it mean to be a community? Where is that line between love and fear?

I haven't seen a film this awful in years. A film about sex, beauty and desire was ironically unstimulating, while unironically hollow. They had one scene where they spoke on the concept of beauty. And it was apparently written by a 2nd grader.

Now consider the book and its reader. The book, a non-sentient object, floats around the planet with the help of other creatures. Between floatings, it can be stationary for many turns of the sun. Within it holds the thoughts of a person wishing to transplant those thoughts into the mind of another, for various reasons.

There are people who are destined to live a life ignorant of the taste of a great scotch, of betrayal, and of beautiful works of literature. For those others, we live a deeper more painful existence. Understanding we are doomed to our limited visions, our finely honed points of view, divergent from another. We must seek to see with the eyes of our fellow pilgrims if we are to glimpse even a sliver of reality.

Before him stretched a spectral waste out of which reared only the naked words in a landscape barren of say a quote or many of its ilk.

Does there come a day in every person’s life when they look around and says to themselves, I have to see if other continents actually exist? 

Neil Gaiman's Sandman with Illustrators Sam Kieth & Colleen Doran is F’n brilliant! Lovecraftian horror and kitten dreams! Wooo!

Welcome to Erik Larson's novel, a work of fiction that is not a work of fiction but is sometimes a work of fiction.

When he gets home he reacquaints himself with the reasons he has admitted the strange dark creature into his house into his heart into his mind and once he finishes that last page he sits alone on his couch and stares off.

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. knocked on my door. A door was a temporary barrier between two universes. When Kurt entered my universe he sat in my chair. It’s a chair that reminded me of one my paternal grandfather used to sit on.

Ron Currie Jr’s novel didn’t put me to sleep or kill me. But this book was like if you took the lunacy, silliness, and fun out of a Vonnegut novel, added some watered-down Cormac McCarthy, and poured it into a glass marked ‘unremarkable’.

Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is absurd, smart and hilarious. It’s this absurdity that I really found lacking in his first Dirk Gently book. It’s not absent by a long shot, just sub-par.

My reviews on Melancholia, Shotgun Stories, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, and Perfect Sense.

The absolute worst, best, unbelievable, most uplifting, and brilliantly devastating film that I am ever likely to see.

As per request, my thoughts on the last few films I have found myself in front of. I must say, I’ve had a streak of really fantastic films and I recommend all on this list, some, of course, a lot more than others.

Me and You and Everyone We Know creates a world of such believability that’s also full of such ridiculous eccentricities that I fell in love with it instantly.

The central metaphor of the film is that of the constant (faithful) gardener, the man who tends to his own world and excludes the tragedy of real life outside the lush and perfect walls of his own creations.

A quick rundown of some movies I have rented over the last few weeks.

It’s about strangers meeting strangers. It’s about how we treat one another. It’s about the reasons we act the way we do.

Bubba Ho-Tep is a must-see, especially for Bruce Campbell fans. Now, I always hate movie reviews that talk about the plot.

In the Mood for Love is probably the most breathtakingly gorgeous film I’ve ever seen. It’s a sad, achingly beautiful love story that asks us not to identify with the characters so much as to empathize with them.

KUNG FU HUSTLE is easily the most entertaining movie I’ve seen all year and there hasn’t been a martial arts film this good in a long, long time.

From the very start, you know bad things are going to happen because it’s stupid people making stupid mistakes. And that’s exactly what happens.

That said, let me tell you one to avoid. I just watched The Apartment and was extremely disappointed.