Film Review: Game Night (2018)

August 13, 2018 by Clive in Films, Reviews

Directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, Game Night is an action-comedy (some have said dark comedy, I'd disagree) which follows a group of our lead couple's (Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams - who steals the show) friends as they participate in a murder mystery game-night. Things get turned upside down when a real mystery happens simultaneously. It becomes unclear what is the game, and what is real.

I'm reviewing this mainly as a comedy. Although it does have some twists along the way these are more there to make you laugh than to keep you guessing what might happen next. As a comedy it works pretty well, it's pacey, entertaining and there are plenty of laughs to be had.

However, I'd say the jokes miss as much as they hit and the film overused certain jokes which were not that funny to begin with. I found the 'stupid-guy' character particularly annoying and one-dimensional, and the ending used a few of the clichés I'd hoped Hollywood might have left behind.

Overall I like the idea of the premise and there's plenty of fun to be had here. I just feel it might have worked better as a psychological thriller with comedy elements, or indeed as a much darker comedy. As it is it's just a decent comedy, nothing more, nothing less.

6

Film Review: Our Souls at Night (2017)

August 10, 2018 by Clive in Reviews, Films

This heartfelt drama tells the story of Louis (Robert Redford) and Addie (Jane Fonda) who have both lived alone in neighbouring houses for many years. One day Addie proposes that they begin sleeping together platonically as a means to keep each other company, to give each other a break from the lonely nights. It is an adaptation of the book of the same name by Kent Haruf.

Redford and Fonda are the heart of the film and they both give subtly brilliant performances, their relationship beginning awkwardly and becoming more natural as the film progresses, something they convey with the panache you'd expect from two Hollywood veterans. The conversations here and the way Addie and Louis reminisce about the past feels real, affecting and in no way mawkish.

The film is never rushed, scenes are allowed to breathe, and the aforementioned conversations allowed to go on beyond the plot-points they need to cover, making us feel like a fly on the wall to this compelling relationship. The whole film is shot with an admirable delicacy, creating a great sense of place with its stunning outdoor shots and yet stepping back to let the actors do the talking when required. It feels as mature and measured as the protagonists at its centre.

Director Ritesh Batra (The Lunchbox, The Sense of an Ending) has created a really touching film about old-age, family, and above all companionship. A Netflix release that everyone should watch.

8 Clive Watches Ghibli: Part 7 (2013-2014)

July 04, 2018 by Clive in Films

It's finally here, the final part of my Ghibli retrospective (you can find the other parts over on our index page). There's only two films left to cover and not a Miyazaki in sight. Let's crack on.

The_Tale_of_Princess_Kaguya_princess_Kaguya_animated_movies-152403.jpg!d.jpg — The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2013)

Isao Takahata's 2013 swansong before his death earlier this year is undoubtedly one of his, and Studio Ghibli's, best films. Based on the 10th century Japanese story The Bamboo Cutter it follows a bamboo cutter who finds a mysterious baby that appears inside a bamboo shoot. Discovering quickly that she grows more rapidly than normal humans, he believes her to be divine royalty and sees to it that she lives as such. He is aided in this quest by the lavish gifts that also magically appear in the bamboo he cuts.

The Tale of Princess Kaguya is a soaring coming of age tale that's themes are remarkably down to earth behind its mystical exterior. Growing up, going your own way, how life becomes more complicated as we get older, the corruptive influence of money and how it hurts to let go of our children when they grow up are all central themes to the film and are delivered in a way that feels universal despite the very Japanese feel to the film. The animation is more experimental (it's Takahata after all) and I probably like it less than the more traditional Ghibli style although I can't deny it's beautiful and I do feel it suits this older, more classic story. I think the film drags a little in the middle (I feel like closer to two hours would have been the sweet spot) but it's so ripe with beauty and observations about life that I consider it in the upper echelons of Ghibli's catalogue. The final scenes are absolutely stunning too.

8/10

Hiromasa Yonebayashi's second Studio Ghibli film (his first was Whispers of the Heart) is based on Juan G. Robinson's novel of the same name. Anna suffers an asthma attack at school and worried by her declining health and anxiety her foster parents send her to live with the foster-mother's relatives, who live in a seaside town where the air is clearer. Anna soon meets Marnie in an abandoned seaside mansion nearby, and it becomes clear pretty quickly that Marnie is not from the present. To me, it had similarities to something like Tom's Midnight Garden where the protagonist can meet people who live in the same place but in other time periods. As things go on Marnie and Anna's relationship deepens and secrets begin to unfold.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film to begin with and found Anna's highly anxious character very interesting, relatable, and full of depth. However I didn't find the reveal as rewarding as a lot of people seem to as I predicted it fairly early on, to say any more would be to spoil it. Nevertheless, this is a well put together film about family, anxiety, the past, and belonging. It's gorgeously animated and perhaps one of the more emotional Ghibli films, thanks partly to a very pretty soundtrack. I didn't connect with it as deeply as some have, but I can certainly appreciate it's beauty.

7/10

And so that's it. Two more films to throw into the Ghibli mixer and see how the final rankings pop out. I suspect these will change over time (some already have since the last post), especially when I rewatch the more meaty, harder to digest ones. But for now, here's how I'd rank them with the final two additions in bold italics:

1. Princess Mononoke

2. My Neighbour Totoro

3. Grave of the Fireflies

4. Kiki's Delivery Service

5. Spirited Away

6. The Tale of Princess Kaguya

7. Howl's Moving Castle

8. Laputa: Castle in the Sky

9. The Wind Rises

10. Arrietty

11. Whisper of the Heart

12. Only Yesterday

13. From Up on Poppy Hill

14. When Marnie Was There

15. Porco Rosso

16. The Cat Returns

17. Ponyo

18. My Neighbours the Yamadas

19. Pom Poko

20. Tales from Earthsea

Wow. What an amazing set of films, it is perhaps only the last two or three that I didn't enjoy all that much (although they were still very much serviceable). The top three are masterpieces in my eyes. I've been continually blown away, surprised and believe this little adventure is the birth of a love of anime. Next, I shall be watching all the top 100 ranked anime films at random (over many years no doubt) and posting reviews over on the YouTube channel. At least that's the current plan. Should any of these crop up I shall watch them again, and my rankings will no doubt change, though I seriously doubt Princess Mononoke will be taken from the top spot.

Thanks for reading this little series and stay classy y'all!

Clive :)

Clive Watches Ghibli: Part 6 (2010-2013)

June 11, 2018 by Clive in Films

In the penultimate part of my 'watch and rank' Studio Ghibli mission, we have Hiromasa Yonebayashi's directorial debut in Arrietty followed by two films directed by Goro Miyazaki and his famous father Hayao Miyazaki respectively. The quality shows no signs of dipping in what is another thoroughly delightful set of films. Let's get started. Head on over to our articles index page if you want to read the series from the start.

Yonebayashi's directorial debut for Studio Ghibli (he also directed the recently released non-Ghibli film Mary and the Witch's Flower) is a film based on the book The Borrowers by Mary Norton. Arrietty is a young borrower who lives with her parents under the floorboards in the house of some 'beings' (the word that borrowers use to refer to their full-size counterparts). She ends up being spotted by 12 year old Shawn, who is one of the aforementioned 'beings'. Her family decides they must all move now that they have been seen, but Arrietty has other ideas...

Arrietty really surprised me, it's a film brimming with that Ghibli magic and a very strong debut from Yonebayashi. It's such a simple story and the way it portrays basic things so beautifully is reminiscent of the masterpiece My Neighbour Totoro, if somewhat less imaginative. The friendship at the film's core is truly heartwarming and Arrietty is yet another strong female protagonist, who is not only a super kind person (or borrower) but one that is strong-willed and inspirational to those around her. It is a film about friends and family, and about how sometimes we need someone to reach out and give us a little help. Another one that children would thoroughly enjoy, but one that I feel has a bit more for the adults than for example Ponyo.

8/10

After Goro Miyazaki's much-maligned Tales from Earthsea, which I still enjoyed, Goro had something to prove with his sophomore effort, and he very much delivered. From Up on Poppy Hill, which was scripted by Goro's father Hayao, tells the story of high school girl Umi Matzusaki who meets Shun, the leader of the fight to stop the school clubhouse being demolished for redevelopment. Umi's father died in the Korean war and she raises signal flags every morning for him, something she has done since his death.

From Up on Poppy Hill is a realistic drama film that tackles the idea of a country moving into the future while still remembering the past. It's a film steeped with Japanese tradition and an absolutely gorgeous one at that. I could look at that house on the hill with its flags waving all day, those light-green trees looking down on the calm sea creating a setting that just relaxes you straight away, it really is stunning. While tackling some pretty heavy topics such as losing family members to war this film manages to be one of the more light Ghibli films to watch and I feel like Goro really injected his own style into things here. The film sacrifices some emotional heft with the breezy feel it has, which at times makes some of the more emotional scenes seem a little inconsequential, but I thought this was good, simple story, well told.

7/10

Hayao Miyazaki is known for magical films with crazy ideas that burst with imagination such as Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle. The Wind Rises is a somewhat more restrained, more grounded effort. It is a fictionalised biopic of Jiro Horikoshi, designer of the famous Mitsubishi A6M Zero, a World War II fighter plane well ahead of its time.

Hayao Miyazaki seems incapable of making a film that is any less than 'great' and he's done it again here. This is definitely one of his less essential works but the way it fits 20 odd years into two hours of film is quite something. It's the story of a man honing his craft, being inspired by the world around him, and watching his creations get used for something he entirely disagrees with. The love story (which I believe is entirely fictional) doesn't feel tacked on at all and feels integral to the messages of the film, one of which was that even the greatest creation bares little importance when those you love are struggling.

8/10

Three more down and they all land pretty squarely in the middle of a rather brilliant set of films. Let's see where I'd rank them. New additions in bold italics.

1. Princess Mononoke

2. My Neighbour Totoro

3. Grave of the Fireflies

4. Kiki's Delivery Service

5. Spirited Away

6. Howl's Moving Castle

7. Laputa: Castle in the Sky

8. The Wind Rises

9. Arrietty

10. Whisper of the Heart

11. Only Yesterday

12. From Up on Poppy Hill

13. Porco Rosso

14. The Cat Returns

15. Ponyo

16. My Neighbours the Yamadas

17. Pom Poko

18. Tales from Earthsea

See you next time for the final two films in the Studio Ghibli canon: The Tale of Princess Kaguya and When Marnie Was There. Stay classy people.

Clive Watches Ghilbi: Part 5 (2004-2008)

May 27, 2018 by Clive in Films

It's time for our next three Studio Ghibli films as my quest to watch and rank all the studio's output continues. This time it's a Miyazaki family extravaganza with Howl's Moving Castle and Ponyo directed by Hayao and Tales from Earthsea directed by his son Goro. If you want to start from the beginning part 1 is her e. If not, let's get cracking with these 3 and see how they compare to what I've seen so far.

Loosely based on Dianne Wynne's novel of the same name, Howl's Moving Castle tells the story of a young woman named Sophie who is turned old by an evil witch. She then meets a wizard named Howl, who lives in a spectacular but rather dilapidated old castle which moves on four legs, and is powered by a fire-demon named Calcifer. In the backdrop to all this, there is a war happening with another unnamed kingdom.

Howl's Moving Castle was made in response to the Iraq war and Miyazaki's anger about it. As such it definitely has an anti-war message in there. War is depicted as idiotic and unwise throughout the film. However, this isn't the only theme and I'd say the more prominent message is that of humans getting happier in old-age, as we are freed from the expectations and challenges of youth. It once again features a very strong female central character in Sophie who helps the rather self-destructive and vain Howl realise the power he has. This is another Miyazaki film that tackles an awful lot of subjects in its running time and I felt it didn't quite do it as skillfully as for example Princess Mononoke where, although there was a lot going on, it all still felt absorbable in one viewing. This one feels like you need to watch it at least twice and there were definitely certain parts that didn't fully sink in for me on my initial viewing. It joins Spirited Away on the list of films that may well rise up the rankings on a second viewing. It's ambitious and magical, if slightly inaccessible.

8/10

Hayao Miyazaki had always wanted to adapt Ursula K. Le Guin's Tales from Earthsea books to the big screen. When he initially asked he was turned down due to Le Guin's assumption that Ghibli was just another Disney. Many years later, when she realised this was not the case, she gave Studio Ghibli the rights to the film. Unfortunately, Hayao Miyazaki was busy on Howl's Moving Castle and so against his will, the film was given to his son Goro, who had limited animation experience. Father and Son didn't talk throughout its entire production and Hayao was apparently rather disappointed with his son's film upon seeing it for the first time.

Tales from Earthsea is a fantasy tale of wizards and dragons. It follows the story of Ged (or Sparrowhawk), a wizard who bumps into Prince Arren, a young boy with a dark side, as the world is beginning to deteriorate and all kinds of strange happenings are going on. They adventure together on a quest to stop an evil foe whose search for immortality could be the end of Earthsea.

This film gets a lot of hate and is generally believed to be Ghibli's worst film. While I probably agree, I disagree that this is a bad film, I just think it's a flawed one. The animation itself is just as stunning as any other Ghibli film (if perhaps less original or imaginative) and the dragons look particularly fantastic. The story, pacing and script are a little clunky but not to the point where it's particularly egregious, it just lacks the magic of some of his father's best work. As I've never read the books, the fact it takes large liberties with the plot didn't bother me. I liked the main characters, particularly Sparrowhawk, and thought that some of the more dreamy scenes were very effective. I also liked the androgynous villain. I think Goro Miyazaki bit off a little more than he could chew here, but the film is still enjoyable and I'd say it's 'ok' rather than 'bad'.

6/10

Ponyo is essentially Hayao Miyazaki's take on The Little Mermaid. One morning when heading down to the small beach near his house, the young Sosuke finds a small goldfish in a glass which he rescues and calls Ponyo. The films centers on their adventures together and Ponyo's quest to become a human and bring back the balance of nature.

As with a lot of Ghibli films, this one has a strong environmental message. However unlike a lot of Ghibli films, this one is definitely aimed at children. Ponyo as a character is absolutely adorable and the whole film has a very whimsical, sweet feel to it despite some of the horrible things happening. The protagonists are younger than those in most Ghibli films and that adds to the more simplistic feel of the film. It's beautiful to watch and there are some touching moments. However, it isn't among my favourites thanks to there not being as much to chew on than other films by the studio and the fact I found it a little hard to get behind the idea of kids this young falling in love. It's definitely one I'd recommend showing to children as I think they'd really enjoy it and it is very sweet, but it didn't do that much for me personally.

6/10

With only two of these posts left to go let's see how these three rank up against the others I've seen so far. New entries in bold italics.

1. Princess Mononoke

2. My Neighbour Totoro

3. Grave of the Fireflies

4. Kiki's Delivery Service

5. Spirited Away

6. Howl's Moving Castle

7. Laputa: Castle in the Sky

8. Whisper of the Heart

9. Only Yesterday

10. Porco Rosso

11. The Cat Returns

12. Ponyo

13. My Neighbours the Yamadas

14. Pom Poko

15. Tales from Earthsea

Thanks for reading. Join me again next time for Arrietty, From Up on Poppy Hill and The Wind Rises.

Clive Watches Ghibli: Part 4 (1999-2002)

May 19, 2018 by Clive in Films

As I trudge into the 2000's in my mission to watch and rank all the Studio Ghibli films fatigue has yet to set in, I'm still very much in love with this journey; the ups, the downs, the sheer beauty of it all (part 1 is here if you want to start from the beginning). This time the veterans Miyazaki and Takahata are once again joined by a directorial debutant in the shape of Hiroyuki Morita, who made his only appearance as a director for Studio Ghibli (he played a role as an animator on numerous others) in The Cat Returns. Let's get started.

Isao Takahata has at this point made such varied films that it's hard to know what to expect next. He is perhaps always slightly overshadowed by Miyazaki, but there's no doubt that Takahata is a great director who doesn't like to stand still and who is never afraid to try something new, something I always admire in an artist. This time he turns his hand to adapting Hisaichi Ishi's yonkoma manga (think Peanuts 4-panel style comic) Nono-Chan to film. It stands out in Studio Ghibli's catalogue for two main reasons. Firstly, the animation style is hugely different to any of the other films. This one stays very true to the manga with very little background detail (something Ghibli is usually famous for) and a very sketched feel that I absolutely adored. Secondly, the film has no real story arc. It is a set of vignettes ranging from 3 to 10 minutes each. My Neighbours the Yamadas follows a normal Japanese family (mum, dad, two kids and a grandma) and picks out little slices of their lives. Sometimes they connect, sometimes they don't.

This film is above all brilliantly observed and I found some of the scenes really moving thanks to a combination of some brilliant writing and an excellent soundtrack. The relationships feel real and are very relatable and at times the film is very thought-provoking. Despite this, I feel like this would have been best kept to around an hour as the run-time definitely dragged after that. It felt very much like a Saturday morning cartoon and would have worked a lot better split into a mini-TV series of 10 to 20 minute episodes or so I think. It's just hard to maintain interest for such an extended sitting when there is no main story arc, as good as the little stories contained within it are. There's a lot to be celebrated about My Neighbours the Yamadas but overall it could have done with being significantly leaner, or being presented in a different format which more suits the short-stories it contains.

6/10

Spirited Away.jpg — Spirited Away (2001)

Most people have at least heard of Miyazaki's masterpiece Spirited Away. Among stupendous amounts of other accolades, it remains the only hand-drawn and non-English language film to win the 'Best Animated Feature' Oscar, something of a landmark moment in cinema. Spirited Away tells the story of Chihiro. She gets lost with her parents on route to her new house and ends up entering a strange spirit world housed at an abandoned theme park. What happens from then on is some of the most imaginative film-making you're ever likely to see.

Spirited Away is clearly influenced by Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland: a girl wanders off on her own and finds herself lost in a strange world full of strange characters. However, don't ever come into this feeling like you know what's coming. Trust me, you have no idea. It's unexpectedly dark, kind of gross at points, endlessly discussable and full of the absolutely gorgeous animation I've come to expect of Studio Ghibli by now. It didn't resonate with me as much as some of the others have on this particular viewing, and thus won't be at the very top of my list, but there's no doubt this is a masterful piece of animation, and one I haven't been able to stop thinking about since I watched it. I'm struggling to think if I've ever seen anything more imaginative. We see Chihiro grow as a character throughout the film and her genuine, unshakeable good-heartedness is such a delight, as is the knowledge that this film is so ripe for themes and discussion that I'll get something more out of it on every repeat viewing. Although this is one of the few Ghibli films I've already seen (many, many years ago) I feel like my opinion of it will improve every time I watch it, and it may rest closer to the very top of my list once I see it once (or twice) more.

9/10

One of the few Ghibli films not directed by Takahata or Miyazaki. This one is Horyuki Morita's only appearance as a director for the studio. The Cat Returns is a loose spin-off of Whisper of the Heart and follows our protagonist Haru, a quiet and shy girl who is invited to a magical cat-kingdom after saving one of its important inhabitants from being run over by a truck.

The animation of the characters in The Cat Returns isn't quite as detailed, although this feels like an artistic choice, and the story is far more simplistic than most of the famous duo's films. Nevertheless, the film is fast, entertaining, and one of the few Ghibli films that is very much suitable for younger children. Unlike My Neighbours the Yamadas I wasn't hugely moved at any point, this isn't that type of film, but unlike that film, I was very much entertained from start to finish. The film has good characters, a good sense of humour, and is admirably lean. There are far worse ways to spend 1 hour and 15 minutes.

7/10

So now it's time to get ranking. Let's throw this lot (all shown in bold italics) in the mixer and see what happens...

1. Princess Mononoke

2. My Neighbour Totoro

3. Grave of the Fireflies

4. Kiki's Delivery Service

5. Spirited Away (again, I feel this will probably end up higher when I watch it again)

6. Laputa: Castle in the Sky

7. Whisper of the Heart

8. Only Yesterday

9. Porco Rosso

10. The Cat Returns

11. My Neighbours the Yamadas

12. Pom Poko

Thanks for reading, we're past the half-way point now! Join me next time for Howl's Moving Castle, Tales from Earthsea and Ponyo.

Clive Watches Ghibli: Part 3 (1994-1997)

May 10, 2018 by Clive in Films

It's time for part 3 of my adventure to watch all the Studio Ghibli films in order of release and rank them as I go! Head over to parts 1 and 2 here and here respectively if you want to read my thoughts on the earlier Ghibli films. This time we've got the lesser known Pom Poko and Whisper of the Heart as well as the anime giant Princess Mononoke. For the first time each of the three films features a different director with Isao Takahata directing Pom Poko, Yoshifumi Kondo making his directorial debut with Whisper of the Heart before his unfortunate death from overwork shortly after and the legendary Hayao Miyazaki directing his classic Princess Mononoke. Let's get to it.

Probably the weirdest Ghibli film I've seen so far. Takahata's Pom Poko tells the story of a tribe of raccoons who are having their habitat mowed down by humans to make way for a new housing development outside of Tokyo. The raccoons have magical testicles (yep, it's a thing) that can help them transform into all sorts of things, which plays a big part in the film's plot. They use these skills, among others, to attempt to thwart the human attempts to build on their land.

Pom Poko delivers its message in a very heavy-handed manner, and coming in at just shy of 2 hours feels a little too long. To me, it doesn't quite justify its running time as the story is very simplistic, never has any major surprises, and doesn't have all that much to say on the topic other than that we need to consider the effects of destroying habitats. A great message no doubt, but not one that needed to be delivered in a fresher way than it is here to hold my interest. I didn't latch onto any of the characters in this one in the same way I have in other Ghibli films, and I have to say it's my least favourite of the bunch so far. Not bad by any means, perfectly watchable, pretty as usual, and there's fun to be had here. But overall I found it a little disappointing.

6/10

Whisper of the Heart is a pretty straight love story. Shizuku is a bookworm who is constantly taking out books from her school library. She soon notices that all the books she chooses have been checked out by a boy before her and she endeavors to find out who this mysterious guy is. As well as the love story at its core, the film tackles the idea of living as an artist and the sacrifices it entails, a topic that is close to my heart.

I really liked this film. I don't generally like love stories all that much but I found Shizuku completely charming and the relationship depicted never seemed cheesy or overly sappy. I strongly disliked the final scene because it felt so out of place with the rest of the film's tone regarding this but I won't go into more detail as I wouldn't want to spoil anything. Perhaps I just need to see it again? Animation-wise this is one of my favourite looking Ghibli movies, which is quite the achievement. It somehow makes normal neighbourhoods look magical, and the attention to detail is phenomenal. I thought the film had a lot of interesting things to say about honing one's craft as an artist, a theme that was covered in a much more interesting way than a lot of films I've seen. A delightful film slightly hampered by the not-so-great final scene.

8/10

Princess Mononoke is a hard film to write a blurb for because there's just so much going on but I'll try anyway. Ashitaka is cursed when he defends his village from the attack of a boar god. On his way to find a cure, he finds San, or Princess Mononoke, who is fighting to protect the forest from the local humans, led by their strong-willed queen Lady Eboshi, who are planning to destroy it.

I'm just going to come right out and say it. This is a masterpiece. My favourite so far. Although longer than Pom Poko (this one comes in at over two hours and ten minutes) none of its running time is wasted and it feels much shorter than that. There is so much going on in this film it's almost ridiculous, and yet it is never confusing or overbearing. The plotting and pacing throughout are masterful. Then there's the animation, which is hands down some of the best I've ever seen, it's thematically much darker than other animations I've seen and this is brought across perfectly in the darker, and yet still bold, colour palette of backgrounds. The film has so many themes: environmentalism, feminism and war being just a few of them and it handles them all in such a way as to never feel preachy, and yet you'll still take a bunch of messages on board. It also has one of the strongest endings you'll see anywhere, not just in animation. A magical piece of art that redefines to me just what an animation film can be.

10/10

Now it's time to throw these three in amongst the other Ghibli films I've seen and see where they rank. This post's films are in bold italics.

1. Princess Mononoke

2. My Neighbour Totoro

3. Grave of the Fireflies

4. Kiki's Delivery Service

5. Laputa: Castle in the Sky

6. Whisper of the Heart

7. Only Yesterday

8. Porco Rosso

9. Pom Poko

Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time for My Neighbours the Yamadas, Spirited Away and The Cat Returns. Stay classy.

Clive Watches Ghibli: Part 2 (1989-1992)

May 05, 2018 by Clive in Films

So here we are with part 2 (read part 1 here) of my watch-all-the-Studio-Ghibli-films-in-order adventure. The more I watch the more I'm beginning to appreciate the stunning animation these films have. Each shot is like a work of art that has people living in it, they truly are some of the most beautiful films I've ever seen. Anyway, without further ado, here's the next 3 films, my thoughts on them, and how well they rank against the others I've seen so far.

Kiki is a 13-year-old witch, and 13-year-old witches have to leave home during a full moon to find their purpose. Kiki decides her time is now. She flies with her black cat Jiji, to a wonderful coastal town, and sets up her own delivery service. After all, witches' flying abilities make them pretty efficient postladies.

Kiki is adorable, her cat Jiji is adorable (in a kind of dry sarcastic way), heck, this whole film is adorable. An absolute delight from start to finish, I fell in love instantly. At this point, it seems pointless to say the animation is gorgeous (it's a Ghibli film after all) but it is. This is a wonderful coming-of-age story about leaving home, finding a purpose, and forging an identity among a larger community. Not only that, but it has a strong, independent girl protagonist whose main aim in life is definitely not to be wooed by a guy. I loved this film, it's going up there with my Ghibli favourites.

9/10

Takahata's Only Yesterday is one of those Ghibli films that I can't imagine a child enjoying. It's a very slow and realistic adult drama about a woman named Taeko who has lived all her life in Tokyo. She decides to spend the Summer out in the country with the brother of her brother-in-law helping with a safflower harvest as she did the year before. On her way there she begins having flashbacks about some of the most memorable events in her childhood, the ones that have shaped who she is now.

I really enjoyed this film. It's a quiet meditation on how our childhoods form who we are and how often, as we grow up, we move away from what we wanted to be as children, which isn't always a good thing. This isn't going to rank among my favourites as it doesn't quite have the magic of some of the other films I've seen on this adventure but there's no doubt this is a very accomplished drama that tells its story affectionately and beautifully.

8/10

Porco Rosso is about a famous pilot who is turned into a pig by a curse after he flees a battle in which many of his friends die. It's an action-packed adventure that follows our charismatic protagonist Porco Rosso as he battles air pirates and smokes cigars in his beautiful, bright red plane. It features a more standard plot with a good guy (our aforementioned protagonist), his awesome mechanic prodigy sidekick Fio, and a cocky, power-hungry villain.

Porco Rosso is a really fun action film. To me, it didn't really have the thematic depth or discussable quality that most Ghibli films have, with the only real theme being Porco Rosso's journey of coming to terms with who he is, but it's thoroughly entertaining, full of fun characters, and stands out even among Ghibli's catalogue for how well the action scenes are animated, particularly the air battles.

7/10

So now we're 6 films down. Here's how I'd rank them all so far. With the ones reviewed in this particular post in bold italics.

1. My Neighbour Totoro

2. Grave of the Fireflies

3. Kiki's Delivery Service

4. Laputa: Castle in the Sky

5. Only Yesterday

6. Porco Rosso

Thanks for reading, the journey will continue next time with Pom Poko, Whisper of the Heart and Princess Mononoke.

Clive Watches Ghibli: Part 1 (1986-1988)

April 29, 2018 by Clive in Films

I've always liked anime, but have only ever scraped the very surface when it comes to watching any. While going through one of life's rough patches I visited my good friend Josh Keighley (of the books podcast on here) and we watched The Wind Rises together. The beautiful animation, the messages, the music, it was like a warm hug, I felt instantly better. I decided there and then I was going to make it my mission over the next few months or so to watch all the Studio Ghibli films in release order, to keep chasing that high. I'll be presenting them here in sets of three, and attempting to rank them as I go along (hey, I just like ranking things). Let us begin with the first three Studio Ghibli movies.

Officially, Laputa: Castle in the Sky is the first Studio Ghibli film, though I know there are others before made by Ghibli directors before the studio was formed. Castle in the Sky follows a young orphan named Sheeta who gets kidnapped by one of the film's best characters, the pirate leader Dola, and meets fellow orphan Pazu. Together they try to find the magical city of Laputa, which allegedly floats in the sky.

This film surprised me. It's an action packed adventure that rarely lets up over its 2 hour 15 minute running time. The animation is absolutely gorgeous, the soundtrack suitably epic and yet pretty, but what really set the film apart for me was the character interactions. I loved Pazu and Sheeta's relationship, and any scene featuring Dola's pirate gang was a complete joy. The film definitely has themes of protecting the nature in our world and has the common anti-corporation/big business angle which I expect will come up in future Ghibli films too. Honestly, this is just a great action-adventure film, and I'd say pretty much anyone would enjoy this film. It's just a damn good time.

8/10

Directed by Isao Takahata The Grave of the Fireflies follows Seita who is left to look after his little sister Setsuo as a result of the war. It's a heartbreaking tale of children having to grow up too fast, homelessness and the futility of war.

This was by no means an easy watch and certainly not one I'll be rewatching in a hurry because of just how heavy it is. However I firmly believe that anyone with even a slight interest in anime should not miss this. The animation is stunning as always and the story is paced beautifully. A delicate and yet emotionally brutal look at the effects of war. I cried, possibly twice.

9/10

We're back to Hayao Miyazaki directing. This one features Ghibli's iconic mascot Totoro! The premise is a simple one: a father and his two daughters move into an old house in the country to be closer to their mother who is in hospital. It's a slice-of-life type film where the family settle into their new home and soon meet some mysterious forest creatures.

What can I say? This is one of my very favourite films and one of the few Ghibli films I've seen before. I love how there's no real plot, villain or good guy. The interactions when they first get to the farmhouse are so spot on I was taken right back to my own childhood, a crazy feeling of nostalgia, even when I'd never seen this film before. From then on we're taken on a fantastical journey with themes of nature and community, and the fact that the very things that most define us, are what we're losing. I can't think of another film that nails that feeling of being a child as well as this one. A warm hug of a film (yes I know that's the second time I've said that, but it's just true) that kept a stupid childish grin on my face for its entire duration. A truly magical masterpiece.

10/10

So here we are. 3 films down. I promised I'd rank them as I go along so here goes:

1. My Neighbour Totoro

2. Grave of the Fireflies

3. Laputa: Castle in the Sky

Thanks for reading and I'll catch you next time for the next 3 Ghibli films: Kiki's Delivery Service, Only Yesterday and Porco Rosso.

Alex Wain's Top Films of 2017 (UK Release)

February 08, 2018 by Alex Wain in Films

2017 was perhaps the year of the noble failure for cinema. Failure from a variety of perspectives. Blade Runner 2049 failed, from a commercial standpoint, to ‘wash its face’ – the brilliantly simple industry analogy for a films net gross covering both its budget and marketing. Get Out failed to preach to anyone but the choir, judging from the continuous attention received by the ‘alt-right’ in the race relations conversation. The Death of Stalin failed to receive a significant cinematic audience in the one nation that needed to see it most. Oh, and Moonlight, well Moonlight failed to even get a best picture award without a ludicrous gaffe. Yes, 2017 was the year of the noble failure for cinema. Great art is often neglected in its own time, be it from a commercial perspective, a critical one or simply an inability to instantly enter the zeitgeist. 2017 was the year of the noble failure for cinema, but it was also a year that I am convinced will be remembered with reverence.

Matt Reeves appeared to bring the curtain down on this most resistant of franchises with a third act as impressively poignant as it is bombastic. Caesar, the messianic leader of the apes, leads a desperate struggle for survival against human forces determined on their extinction. Andy Serkis, the granddaddy of mo-cap, brings life and a sense of humanity to his performance as Caesar. An artificial computer-generated skin may layer Serkis during this performance, but the dignity and pathos he manages to project deserve recognition. The Apes franchise has always had the whiff of B-movie absurdity, but Reeves (and originally Rupert Wyatt) have achieved a rare feat in blockbuster film-making by maintaining the original concept and instilling a new sense of gravity. I cannot help but think of Richard Donner convincing audiences in 1978 that a man could fly. Taking in over $1.6bn at the global box office for the combined series, the Apes franchise is continued proof that intelligent popcorn entertainment has a market. Serious monkey business (sorry, not sorry).

Jump scares are cheap, a lingering sense of dread is built to last. My favourite horror-cum-thriller of the year and a welcome reminder that tired genres can still surprise. Set during an unexplained outbreak of a deadly virus, It Comes at Night is a survivalist end-of-world thriller that will linger at the base of your neck follicles long after you’ve finished watching. Drenched in an unsettling and claggy atmosphere of dread, the narrative concentrates solely on two families with understandable trust issues, guessing and second-guessing motives in the name of survival. Joel Edgerton is on reliable form as the stoic and patriarchal head of one family, continuing a rich vein of form with his customary understatement. It Comes at Night is likely only to be a footnote on a crowded genre page, but it is a considerable achievement for debut director and writer Trey Edward Shults.

Christopher Nolan continues to genre-hop, with a typically unconventional take on the war movie. Obsessed once more with time and the manipulation of it, Dunkirk confronts the historical concept and gradual mythologizing of the British stiff upper lip. Nolan’s soldiers just want a way out. The fight is lost and the only victory can be taken from getting away with as many pieces of themselves as they can carry. Nolan is both respectful of the event that Britain built its spirit of resistance upon, but ruthless in inspecting the reality of being cattle trapped for the slaughter. Un-showy performances all round, with special mentions to Mark Rylance and Cillian Murphy are the backbone of creating a believable portrayal. While not Nolan’s finest work, Dunkirk adds to an already varied canon.

As much a Western as anything else, James Mangold surprised both the comic book industrial movie complex and the wider cinematic community with this raw and unflinching conclusion to the Wolverine series. The near future has not been kind to Logan (or Wolverine). Living in a disused set of industrial buildings just over the Mexican border, Logan has become bound to a life of continuous struggle as he cares for the rapidly-declining telepath of mass destruction Charles Xavier. To make matters worse, his own powers of healing that have created an aura of invincibility are waning. Logan hurts and can be hurt. Not so much on the nose, as a punch to the nose, Johnny Cash’s overplayed, but undeniably haunting cover of ‘Hurt’ has never been more appropriate for appropriation. What is often missing from even the best of superhero movies is a sense of stakes, a sense of genuine danger to our protagonist. Logan convinces the audience that all cards are upon the table from the opening scene. A bold entry into a genre in dire need of caustic creativity.

The only entry on my list I have not seen in a cinematic format is typically one of the finest to look upon. Released to a limit run in cinemas, Mudbound is a Netflix-original production that most will only have had the opportunity to see on the small screen. Set following World War Two, Mudbound follows the contrasting receptions that two war heroes receive upon return. Class and more significantly, race, define the narrative in this withering and poetic production. Mudbound tightrope walks the viewer between differing emotions. Rarely have I been moved to tears and riled to physical-sensation anger by scenes just minutes apart. Dee Rees grounds the film in the economic reality of land ownership, with scenes of status quo racism often as impactful as Klan activity. Special mention must go to Mary J. Blige and again to Joel Edgerton as what might be considered a palatable racist; a man without malice and without determinable prejudice, but lacking in moral backbone. Mudbound makes the oft-argued case that all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

Armando Iannucci made a welcome return to the big screen with this adaptation of the same-titled French graphic novel. Interspersing wry satire, pure abyss-black comedy and belly laughs, it’s difficult to remember the last time I was this enthralled by a cinematic comedy. Semi-historical, The Death of Stalin creatively recreates the power vacuum and subsequent struggle between Stalin’s underlings in the wake of his untimely death. Singling individual performances amongst such a wonderful ensemble seems unfair, but Simon Russell Beale is a rare performer on the big screen and his reptilian portrayal of Lavrentiy Beria, snarling and contemptuous, is something to behold. The Death of Stalin is, at time of writing at least, banned in Russia, branded ridiculously as propaganda by certain institutions of the state. Looking at the film as piece of art rather than as a commercial venture, this feels like a final satirical flourish that Iannucci could not have planned better.

This is probably the most controversial pick of my top ten, knowing that this film is forever associated with the alleged abusive behaviour of its star Casey Affleck. While the alleged behaviour is not said to have occurred during production of Manchester by the Sea, it haunts the legacy of what is otherwise an exceptional piece of filmmaking, and it has to be said, a towering performance from Casey Affleck. Lee Chandler is our solitary and ravaged protagonist, living in isolation away from his hometown of Manchester following an awful incident that leaves him unable to cope. The death of his brother Joe means Lee becomes the legal guardian of Joe’s teenage son Patrick, forcing Lee to remain in Manchester. Directed by Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea is a study of grief and guilt, shot compassionately and with real nerve. This isn’t a world where redemption can be found easily. Manchester by the Sea is brave enough to ask the audience to consider if there are some things in life you just can’t recover from. Irrespective of his alleged abuse, Casey Affleck fully embodies his character in a performance that I have rarely seen the likes of. Bleak and honest, but with traces of real beauty, Manchester by the Sea is an essential watch.

The majority of films on this list can be categorised with relative ease, but Get Out could sit comfortably within three genres. Part horror, part black comedy (pun honestly not intended, but it’s staying) and part thriller, Get Out was arguably the best surprise of 2017. Starring Daniel Kaluuya, an actor of real magnetic presence, we join Chris as he visits his white girlfriend’s wealthy family in the country. A pleasant time is had by all. The end. Hah. Get Out satirises the worst of wealthy white America, scything away at the façade of pleasantries that mask the reality of current race relations with wit and unpredictability. Never letting the audience sit comfortably, Get Out achieves a genuine disquiet that left me often out of sorts with my own emotional reactions to events on screen. This power to leave an audience suspended between mirth and unease is the real strength of the film. Without going into detail, for risk of spoilers, I wonder whether Get Out would have been even stronger with the ending flipped. Jordan Peele addressed the subject and said he couldn’t bear to end the film on the note in question. Despite the worldview on show, the film never relents to hopelessness and this feels like the right decision. Described by a fellow Stick Around reviewer as world-view altering, my only fear is that the people who need to see and correctly interpret Get Out the most, will either never see it or miss the point entirely.

An entirely worthy winner of the Best Picture award at the 2017 Oscars, in spite of the farcical nature of the ceremony and the fall-out that enveloped proceedings (sorry, not sorry). Moonlight is a special achievement that circumvented the trepidation I had before viewing. Beautifully shot by cinematographer James Laxton and meticulously orchestrated by director Barry Jenkins, we follow the coming-of-age of Chiron through three different stages of his life. Despite its weighty subject matter, dealing with race, LGBT issues and poverty, Moonlight is immensely watchable from start to finish with hyper-real performances in contrast with artistic direction. I was drawn into the narrative and I was reminded of Boyhood, a film I narrowly prefer, as we journey through the stages of what felt like a very real life. Barry Jenkins is clearly a superlative talent, capable of building a reality the audience is dropped right into, without need of exposition. I am not qualified or educated enough to discuss the reality of LBGT life in the African-American community, but it struck me that Moonlight approached the subject with a confidence and grace that could only have been achieved by an African-American LGBT director and an entirely African-American cast. This isn’t to say that an outsider couldn’t have achieved similar results, but Moonlight has a really authentic feel.

It gives me immense pleasure just not be disappointed by Blade Runner 2049. A sequel 35 years after an original, and an original that was never crying out for a follow up. When initially announced, the news of a Blade Runner sequel was met with fear as much as anything else. The original Blade Runner was a one of a kind science fiction film with great levity and intellectual class, never imagined as the first of a franchise. Blade Runner 2049 did not need to be made and nor was the news that it would be made met with welcoming arms by just about anyone, especially yours truly. Thank fuck it was. Blade Runner 2049 is a titanic, staggering achievement, taking the best elements of the original film and grafting on new ideas. Denis Villeneuve, director of recent sci-fi success Arrival, wasn’t an obvious choice, despite the quality of his work, but here he excels balancing raw entertainment with weighty concepts. Told with breath-taking scope visually and immense sound design, Blade Runner 2049 is a feast for the senses, with Roger Deakins surely a shoe-in for best cinematography at the Oscars. 14th time’s the charm, eh? Ryan Gosling is back to his stoic best as blade runner K, a replicant designed to hunt his own people. K's counterpart Luv, played with icy indifference by Sylvia Hoeks, forms the backbone of the film alongside him. What most makes Blade Runner 2049 such a success is the decision creatively, I assume consciously, to be a sequel and an original creative property simultaneously. It wasn’t welcome and it wasn’t needed, but Blade Runner 2049 is an instant classic, superb in just about every facet.

Michael Johnson's Top 10 Albums of 2017

February 01, 2018 by Michael Johnson in Music

2017 was as strong a year for music as any other. I don’t remember a year since I got deeply into music circa 2006 where I wasn’t treated to an abundance of great albums, from the flat-out entertaining to the boundary busting. In that sense, the year needs no greater introduction than any other. These were the albums which made their finest mark on me during 2017.

EnglishTapas — 10. English Tapas

SLEAFORD MODS

The Mods continue their shit-hot streak as Britain’s most essential contemporary band, one of an unrelated Transatlantic collective of acts camped in the intersections of punk, hip hop and electronic and showing that angry blokes aren’t always regressive (see Run The Jewels, Death Grips, Young Fathers). As excoriating as ever with an ever-increasing dose of musicality, Jason Williamson’s poetry is as caustic as ever, Andrew Fearn’s beats remain as deadheaded. Tracks like “Carlton Touts” and “Drayton Manored” rank among their finest. Brexit unsurprisingly racks up the mentions; a better track on the matter than “B.H.S.” is yet to be written. The Foreign Secretary and the culture which absurdly allows him to continue operating in politics is skewered on “Moptop,” not for the first, or one suspects last, time. This is no reshaping, more of the vitally needed same from the foremost chroniclers of Cameron’s Britain, now dealing, like the rest of us, with the aftermath of Dave’s voyage into the sunset.

Bjork’s first collaboration with Venezuelan electronic maestro Arca, 2015’s “Vulnicura,” proves to be a dry-run against her aptly-named new album. Arca’s percussion still snowballs with sound and momentum like a comet trapping interplanetary debris in its orbit, but where there were strings there is now an arsenal of flute and birdsong, an astonishing, wide-eyed sonic backdrop to the latest morphing from a master thereof, on her tenth record proper. In contrast to his shard-sharp trademarks and the apocalyptic leanings of Arca’s own self-titled 2017 album, “Utopia” is euphoric from the opening of the stunning “Arisen My Senses” onwards. Bjork moulds vocal form in as investigative a fashion as ever on “Body Memory” and “Sue Me,” the sort of tracks which go a long way to justifying the record’s whopping 71 minutes. This is a transcendent work of avant-garde music from an artist still setting herself impossibly high standards, with the assistance of one of the decade’s most groundbreaking electronic artists.

I was done with Jay. Notwithstanding the fact that he has never recorded two great albums in a row, the respective messes that were “The Blueprint 3” and “Magna Carta Holy Grail” made it seem unlikely that capitalism’s favourite rapper could ever again elevate the artform over the commerce. A lot happened in between to get us here in 2017, with my most surprising record of the year. This became a must-hear when I was paralysed by the deft provocations and thundering keys of “The Story of O.J.” and its jaw-dropping visual. Anyone who doubts the value to hip hop albums of sticking to one producer need look no further than the magic No I.D. works on this album. I was still scoffing when I heard Jay cite “Illmatic” as an influence, but he nails that, from the golden age feel of the music (“Marcy Me” is a major throwback), to the concise length of the album. Nothing feels overdone, so often a problem for Hov, and every track seems to come stacked with something genuinely insightful, none more so than the confessional title track. Like Beyonce’s “Lemonade” and Solange’s “A Seat At The Table,” the record is as much about America as it is any family feud. Jay had my music quote of the year when asked what he would say to anyone who accurately surmised that we all got three top-notch albums out of Jay’s unthinkable infidelity; “the three of us went into that elevator as great artists.”

BellWitch — 7. Mirror Reaper

BELL WITCH

My choice for top metal recording in 2017. First of all, let’s just say that that is hands down the album artwork of the year. “Mirror Reaper” builds spectacularly upon the considerable promise of the 2015 album “Four Phantoms” from the guitarless Seattle funeral doom outfit. Few bands have ever committed the feel of mourning to a record as perfectly, all the rawer on this one as it follows in the wake of the death of former drummer Adrian Guerra. Implementing enhanced elements of post-rock, the record, conceived as one 83-minute track, is still markedly a doom record, one in which chord progressions and segues between movements alike move like the shifting of tectonic plates or the creeping of lava. When remaining founder member Dylan Desmond sings clean, he still devastates, unleashing atmospheric angel dust. The undoubtedly purposeful flickers of light separate it from so much doom music. This is hugely ambitious and beautifully realised, one to be heard before it should be talked about. Attention will deservedly grow for this band.

PureComedy — 6. Pure Comedy

FATHER JOHN MISTY

When former Fleet Foxes drummer and rather prolific folk artist Josh Tillman reinvented himself as Father John Misty, high priest of acidic sarcasm and stab-happy cultural criticism, an album like this didn’t seem round the corner, but his third under the moniker seems likely to prove his best in my book. Employing folk structures with lush orchestration, Tillman’s lyrics evoke Bill Hicks as much as anyone. The same acerbic take on entertaining ourselves to death with a burgeoning cult following, I was one of the converted he was preaching to when I was lucky enough to see his excellent live show last year. Reluctantly appointed as a spokesperson against the 45th President when “Pure Comedy” dropped barely three months after inauguration, the lyrics are the main pull here. The opening lines of the title track provide one of the all-time great opening sections out of the gate, and nobody who hears the opening of “Total Entertainment Forever” is likely to forget that imagery either. The epic centrepiece “Leaving LA” is the centre of gravity, borrowed straight from the aforementioned Hicks’ “Arizona Bay” playbook, and it’s between that and the inadvertently centrist “Two Wildly Different Perspectives” for a track to rival the previous two Misty albums’ “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings” and “Bored In The USA” in terms of songs with the most crossover potential. The album meanders and will lose anyone not sold on its thematics, but the orchesteral arrangements sound good enough to eat and sometimes become the best thing about a track, as on “I’m Growing Old On Magic Mountain.” “In Twenty Years Or So” ends the record on a hopeful note which might seem out of place at first, but then again, that’s another Hicks trick. The man was forever telling us life was a ride, something the Misty character is likely to empathise with.

Set in Bryneich in medieval Britain, a kingdom stretching as far into Scotland as the Forth and down through Northumberland and Durham, the freaky folk of Newcastle-upon-Tyne’s Richard Dawson on the visionary “Peasant” positively bristles with literary heft. Packed with madcap group choruses and odd instrumentation (is that a synth on “Prostitute”?!), the album shouldn’t be underestimated for its folk riffage, tangled guitar drawing influence from Indian qawwali music which unfurls into something glorious at least once a track. Dawson expressed that he had no interest in doing a “Game of Thrones” album and it shows (HBO’s motherlode is better suited to folk metal anyway, a genre mystifyingly never utilised in its promotional material). This, with its tales of everyday characters, is something more fundamental and homespun, like the tales, fictional and otherwise, inherited by generations. Although often twisted, sometimes a tad nightmarish, it examines community and the interactions between people and fate. To me, it studies the relationship between the English and their land, a resurgent topic in our Brexit age, a musical contemporary to Ben Wheatley’s hallucinogenic “A Field In England” and Paul Kingsnorth’s gripping novel “The Wake.” Moreover, it does so uniquely, one of the most inventive folk albums of recent times, one of two triumphant folk achievements at the centre of this list.

ADeeperUnderstanding — 4. A Deeper Understanding

THE WAR ON DRUGS

Nobody would have envied Adam Granduciel for having to follow up 2014’s immaculate, Springsteenian opus “Lost In The Dream.” He chooses to do so with a collection of ten tightly-wound, skyscraping compositions, which are ever edging towards climaxes that sometimes occur, but often don’t need to. “Thinking Of A Place” is the best example; the epicentre of the record is a becalming epic which progresses through its sections with the speed and strength of snowflakes. Its big climax constantly appears to be in the rear view mirror rather than out in front. Granduciel’s lyrics similarly evaporate on contact with air, and regularly reoccur, but they feel far more powerful than they mean. So many of the records on this list push at the boundaries of modern pop music but none pack as many sing and hum-a-long moments. It seemed unthinkable that this could be bigger than its predecessor, yet it somehow is; witness the statuesque peaks of “Strangest Thing.” The crystalline guitar lines of “Holding On” and “Nothing To Find” splutter apart like heartbeats. Call it love songs from the Rust Belt if needs be, but this is an almighty slab of Heartland rock, towering tracks which left the other big indie comebacks of the year from The National and Fleet Foxes in their shadow. Where to next take a sound so heavily indebted to 80s rock is unclear; but Granduciel evidences an immense control and deftness to sculpt this amazing record from such tried and tested cues.

The greatest musical twist of the year came with Alejandro Ghersi’s decision to commit his voice to his records for the first time, with the encouragement of his collaborator and friend Bjork. Having already marked himself out as a most single-minded producer with previous full-lengths “Xen” and “Mutant,” this self-titled effort is his most wondrous yet. The voice of the London-based Venezuelan is a marvel; delicate and haunting, it adds a touching vulnerability to the regular barbarism of his atmospherics and feels like the final piece needed to complete Arca’s vision. Singing in his native Spanish only renders the effect all the more alien to these untrained ears, yet all the more powerful for the fact that he can conjure such limitless emotion without formal meaning. At its finest the album effortlessly evokes the “Silencio” scene in David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive,” one of the most affecting in cinema, which is also testament to some of the man’s most widescreen productions to date, as they occur here. The listener cannot doubt the intimacy of much of this album, but will come away bearing signs of the almost violent yearn which has been ever-present in Arca’s music, but now seems to claw its way through the maelstrom in the form of the human voice, revealing itself in all its tempered majesty and luminescent necessity, a touch of irony for an artist whose work with the visual artist Jesse Kanda has been heavily rooted in the physical rather than the aural form. Little is as satisfying as following an artist and still being there when they reach the very top, and though it has taken only a short span of albums for Arca, what is laid out on this record bares the amount and weight of living behind it.

“Culture” is a far cry from the string of gimmicky hits which propelled America’s now biggest hip hop group from (famously) the north side of hip hop’s reconvened capital in Atlanta to current superstardom, such as “Versace,” “Look At My Dab” and even the latter-day “Pipe It Up.” Dismissed as such since day one, things turned with the super-smash “Bad and Boujee,” a track and video impossible to tear away from. I didn’t listen to any song more in 2017, and it powers this album alongside the not so much earworm as earsnake that is “T-Shirt.” After giving us the Dab, Takeoff, Offset and Quavo give us the album. Everything that makes “Culture” their ultimate artistic statement is missing from last week’s sequel “Culture II.” That is to say, whether accidentally or not, the album is measured by the inch, the guests (Gucci Mane, 2 Chainz, the fourth Migo Travis Scott, Lil Uzi Vert) are spare and seem selected with care and only the most elite beats are allowed, whether from trap wonder boy Metro Boomin (“Bad and Boujee”), the veteran Zaytoven (“Big On Big” is luxury beatmaking which bursts at the seams) or a host of the finest complementary artists (the way Ricky Racks laces “What The Price” is a personal fave).

The tripled up flow which brought Migos to attention is there, but they are undervalued as MCs at your peril; this is mainstream hip hop at its most charismatic, each rapper displaying unquantifiable magnetism and a diversity of technical approaches. Then there are the ad-libs, that other calling card, the frequency of such signatures being enough to display how creative these guys are at brand-building. The way they add to the end of one another’s bars runs us through the spectrum, whether adding humour or merely an inimitable texture to the track. How they execute this so effectively, across every track, is why it would fascinate me to witness their working arrangements in the studio. If these tracks were tossed up casually, as golden age heads seem insistent on thinking, then that is more impressive in its way as a display of artistic singularity at work. Everything I hear here suggests a process realised to perfection. Rarely has an entire album, as a piece of music but also as a pop culture spectacle, felt as correct. Whatever happens in the Migos story from here, those like myself who spent so many hours with “Culture” in 2017 will continue to fly its flag.

This album instantly finds Lamar in his most paranoid and worrisome vein, turning his potential legacy over and over in his hands for a near hour, all too aware of the heaviness of the ability to craft that legacy which still also rests in those same hands. It is not the experimental, confrontational, mind-bending, best-of-decade titan of a record that “To Pimp A Butterfly” was, but it seems to me critics have found difficulty in expressing exactly what to say about it while simultaneously recognising its importance. What is most surprising about that is that the album’s intro seems to give the game away before even the sample of Geraldo Rivera of Fox News is employed to pantomime effect. For me the album is about the assassination of Kendrick Lamar, an event which doesn’t seem unlikely in the current American tinderbox. Look at that title. We hear the event at the outset, and we then hear an album-long pondering, in virtuosic style, of the exact destiny of the young and highly successful black artist in the USA.

We hear it over an undoubtedly expensive selection of beats. Eyebrows would have been raised by Mike Will Made It, but “DNA” seemed to be everybody’s favourite track on the album, a pyrotechnic opening gambit. “Humble,” a technicolour lead single, sounds precisely like the sort of cartoonish carnival theme primetime Eminem, the last rapper to sound this electric on track, used to enlist Dr Dre to open his own records with. Even a U2 feature on “XXX” ends up seamless. Lamar is still popping wheelies on the zeitgeist, but at a variety of paces and sometimes with great subtlety. The reversal of the tracklist on the album’s recent special edition suggests structural interplay as well as anxiety at one with the central theme I picked out earlier. The duality of the juxtaposed song titles is notable (“Pride” followed by “Humble,” “Lust” followed by “Love”). Call it a tour de force. Fidelity is a major consideration, on the Rihanna-featuring “Loyalty” and the heavenly pop of “Love,” perhaps Lamar’s most accessible track ever and a gorgeous one to boot. The record closes with some trifecta; the Alchemist-helmed “Fear” is the simmering 8-minute suite where Kendrick pointedly cleanses himself of the album’s narrative scuzz and distills soup for the soul from the resulting miasma. “God” is one of the most inexplicably tear-jerky cuts in hip hop history. The closing (or opening) “Duckworth” is startling story-telling hip hop, all the crazier for being true.

The paradox of “DAMN.” is that while a more conventional record on the surface, albeit still an expansive one, it may be more complicated a creation than the flamethrown free-jazz and verbal gymnastics of “To Pimp A Butterfly.” Nobody came away from that one unscathed by its intentions; the album was never about Kendrick Lamar. This one is initially more mystifying but slowly reveals itself as a study of the artist, encased in the magma of 2017, very sure of what is behind him but not of the implications for what may come next and quite how brutal they may be on both a personal and physical level. One of the most incredible things about this album’s ability to dig under the skin is that shortly after its release I dreamt that Lamar was murdered and awoke from one of the most emotionally distressing dreams I can remember having. It is the believability of it amid the chaos of our decade which chills to the core, something this artist at the very peak of his powers, on a Dylan-esque run of albums to cite an equivalent example from another decade of sheer tumult, seems to understand well and which he stores at the forefront of his mind on the most fascinating and endlessly explorable character study of this and many years.

Clive's Top 10 Films of 2017 (UK Release)

January 21, 2018 by Clive in Films

2017 was an amazing year for films, and probably my favourite yet. I watched close to 40 releases and thoroughly enjoyed over 30 of them. Picking a top ten was particularly difficult and I feel this is probably the strongest top ten of any year since I started watching far too many films back in 2015. Before I crack on with my list I'd like to mention a few films that only just missed out. There were many that came close, but Wind River, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Hidden Figures and Maudie are perhaps those that came the closest. Here's those splendid pieces of cinema that made it:

The story of a boy who bullies a deaf girl and then, a while later, tries to make amends. It's a wonderful film. It tackles its subject in unexpected and mature ways and goes some dark places. Some have called it slow, but I feel dealing with the delicate matter of a person transitioning from being someone who is essentially horrible, to someone who feels regret and struggles to make peace with his actions, deserves the more delicate touch. Which is exactly what it receives here.

Christopher Nolan's foray into the war films genre. An incredibly tense film from beginning to end. All the interwoven stories worked well although their timelines were a little confusing at points, something I think a second watch will help. The film is the definition of a visceral experience. The sound and cinematography is fantastic, putting you right in the middle of the action and making you feel for characters that you know very little about. The simple story works, however I feel that it's one of those films where you come out having loved it, but then it doesn't really stick with you. This is the main reason it hasn't ended up any higher on this list. A fantastic piece of cinema, but I'm not sure it'll have even close to the same effect on a smaller screen.

Barry Jenkins' Moonlight, the coming of age story of Chiron, made quite a stir when it arrived and ended up clinching 2017's Best Picture Oscar. I loved Moonlight, it was full of amazing performances, had a beautiful story at its heart, and was shot with some of the most beautiful cinematography ever seen on the big screen. Why is it not higher on my list? Well, for me, the fact it was shot in such a stunning fashion where every shot is a work of art, took me out of the hyper-realistic nature of the film a little, and I think that was the prime reason that it didn't end up resonating with me as much as some of the films higher up on this list. Nevertheless, Moonlight is a film that no one should miss and deserves all the accolades it has got.

I delayed watching this because all the talk around it made me hate it before I'd even seen it. When I finally did watch it, however, and I was completely ready to hate it for being Oscar-bait, I unexpectedly fell in love with it. It's beautifully shot, I like the slightly understated nature of the songs and dance performances and I thought the chemistry between Gosling and Stone was brilliant. Yes, the dancing isn't technically perfect, but I think that's kind of the point, it brings some much-needed realism to a genre usually entirely based in fairyland. Completely stuck the landing in terms of its ending too. A gem.

Mosntercalls.jpegAMonsterCalls — 6. A Monster Calls

I felt sure after I'd seen this that it would end up in my top five at the end of the year but it's been such a strong year that it has just missed out. The story of Conor O'Maley's struggle to cope with his mother's terminal cancer was one of the most affecting films of the year for me. So much darker than I was expecting and all the better for it. It handles depression and grief in a realistic way, despite its fantastical nature, and never feels manipulative. Fabulous performances across the board, particularly from Felicity Jones, who brings across a vulnerability and anger that glues the whole thing together.

Jordan Peele's Get Out is a strikingly intelligent horror film. It's one of the rare films where I truly had no idea what was going to happen next, and I was genuinely terrified on many an occasion. The film obviously has a strong message but even if you weren't to consider that, which would be foolish, you'd have a brilliantly paced thriller that keeps you completely absorbed in its crazy, dark world throughout. Not only an amazing film, but also a razor sharp social commentary of our times. Uncomfortable and yet essential viewing.

The dialogue-free story of a man's survival on an island after a shipwreck. A beautiful film that is ripe for discussion of its themes and meaning. It's a quiet, meditative and contemplative study of life and its meaning. A heavy subject, tackled in a way that gives no answers, but makes you think about it in ways you never have before. The muted colour palette and basic animation style is stunning and suits the film perfectly, combining with an amazing soundtrack to provide one of 2017's most quietly moving cinema experiences.

Yet another animation! My Life as a Courgette is highly stylised with its brightly coloured claymation tinged with a deep sense of melancholy, but beneath the beautifully animated exterior lies a very real and raw film about love, friendship and the lack of family. A film that dared to be 65 minutes long, and is all the better for it. This one kept bouncing around my head for a long time after I'd seen it. A film that is in essence very sad, but also has a message of hope without a hint of cheese.

I fought tirelessly on our top five films of 2017 podcast to have this one included in our top five. My feelings about this amazing film are made more clear there than they ever could be in a small paragraph but here goes. Sean Baker, director of one of my 2016 favourites Tangerine, has graced us with an absolutely stunning tale of deprived childhood close to one of capitalism's biggest symbols, Disneyland in Florida. The child acting is quite probably the best I've ever seen, it's completely natural, and the way Baker always has the camera at a child's level is a genius touch that adds to the hyper-realistic nature of the film. Dafoe and Vinaite give unforgettable performances as the film's leading adults too. The film has an empathy for its subjects without forcing you to think one way or another, it shows you something that is happening, and lets you make up your own mind about it. It's a snapshot of a time, a sight into lives of the variety we probably have little exposure to, an eye opening tale of raising a child when everyone has already made up their mind about you.

Absolutely stunning. One that you really need to see in the cinema, so it's a shame it hasn't done very well at the box office. A film that is hugely stylised and creates a dystopian world that seems to have become more desolate since the original Blade Runner. Ryan Gosling is fantastic in the leading role and perfectly conveys the inner turmoil of his character in a way that isn't overwrought at all. The central story is gripping but everything around it is such a sensory overload that I doubt I'll ever forget watching this for the first time in a practically empty cinema late at night. The soundtrack drones and thumps, often focusing more on noises than any sort of melody, perfectly complementing this swamp of a world. The colours go from bright radioactive orange to a kind of dark, grey, muted metallic seamlessly and you feel like you're in some sort of strange dream, sat there wondering how on Earth something could be so gorgeous and yet so bleak at the same time. I came out of this one knowing I'd seen something special, and I firmly believe this is one of those films that will be looked back on as a classic many years from now.

What a year for film! Let's hope 2018 is as strong.

Thanks for reading,

Clive :)

Clive's Top 10 Albums of 2017

January 17, 2018 by Clive in Music

I've never listened to as much music as I did in 2017. I reviewed and rated, in an amateur manner, well over 100 albums, over 80 of which were actually released in 2017. That said, most of my favourite discoveries last year came out in other years. I got into David Bowie, Guided by Voices, Sleaford Mods, The Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd to name a few, and music has well and truly taken over my life. As for 2017 releases, there were lots that I really liked, but few that really blew me a way in a similar way to Bee Thousand and Station to Station. That probably speaks more for the amazing quality of those two albums than it means that the list below is in any way weak however, as I love all the albums below. Before we get into the list it's only fair I mention the albums that have cruelly been missed off and might have made the list on another day. These include Slowdive - Slowdive, Perfume Genius - No Shape, IDLES - Brutalism and Japandroids - Near to the Wild Heart of Life. Should you wish to read all 80 odd of my 2017 reviews you can head over to my rateyourmusic list here. If you'd rather read a slimmed down, better-looking and slightly better written top ten list, then scroll down and enjoy:

The definition of a grower. It takes time to dig out the gentle hooks from the up-front and dominating guitars but it's well worth the effort. It has a really Velvet Underground feel to it. I love how each track subtly builds on the last ending in the, perhaps a little overlong, Reprise with it's excellent, almost raucous ending. They do so much with so little.

Shins - Heartworms — 9. Heartworms

THE SHINS

It seems I'm higher on this than pretty much anyone out there in music reviewing circles. I think it's full of great melodies, interesting production and hooks that stick with you for days. It's an album that has a breezy, happy feeling, but without feeling cheesy. One that I've kept coming back to as the year has progressed, particularly as a morning album, and it more than deserves a place on this list.

ABlackMile — 8. A Black Mile to the Surface

**MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA**

This has a ton of production on it, which isn't always my bag, but in this case it sounds great. It's a really atmospheric and huge sounding album. The songs flow into each other in a way that doesn't make many of them stand out but there's a real cohesiveness to the album and some really massive moments. There is a lyrical theme throughout about a strained relationship with a father and a suicide attempt which is a little cryptic but interesting to decipher should that be your kind of thing. I found the more positive songs about his daughter (The Sunshine, The Maze) a nice change of pace from the very serious and heavy nature of the rest of the album. Definitely one of the most memorable albums for me this year.

WorldEater — 7. **World Eater**

**BLANCK MASS**

My second favourite electronic album of the year. I love how it blends electronic sounds with more organic ones creating a kind of strange squishy, hellish atmosphere that is still infinitely listenable. Full of amazing crescendos.

6. Music for People in Trouble

**SUSANNE SUNDFØR**

I didn't expect to rate this as highly as I do but it just keeps getting better with every listen. Magical vocals and melodies, and a really timeless sound. It's beautifully minimalistic, except for the end of Undercover which is a little overblown, and feels very cohesive as a whole. I like how the more avant-garde tracks (e.g The Sound of War) break things up too. One of the year's highlights and my go to relaxing listen of the year.

5. Oversleepers International

EMPEROR X

I remember seeing this dude live having never heard anything of his before and being a fan of his weird and charismatic performance. This is the first album of his I've listened to and I'm very impressed. Great, interesting lyrics and endless catchy melodies. I pretty much enjoy every song on here and how up-tempo the album is as a whole. Also, his transition from gentle singing to shouting is always great. The production is a little thin but it doesn't take too much away from what is one of 2017's most overlooked gems.

It's more of the same - to last album Lost in the Dream - but it's even better in my opinion. Less stand out tracks possibly, but more consistent throughout and I feel it better justifies its running length. Gorgeous instrumental sections, vocals that blend in effortlessly and an even bigger sound than the previous album make this a great experience to listen to. Great as background music, or for an attentive listening session.

ACrowLooked — 3. A Crow Looked at Me

MOUNT EERIE

A heartbreaking album about the loss of his wife. This is achingly sad and not an easy listen. It's so raw that the simple melodies and sparse guitar sound as if they were made up on the spot to enable him to express his feelings, which come through in his painfully honest and simple lyrics. For the 40 minute duration of this album, you're in Phil's shoes and you feel his heartbreak. You're never relieved by some catchy chorus or nice melody. It's not something I'm going to be listening to regularly, it's a little too heavy for that, but it's something that has a massive effect on me every time I listen to it. A truly remarkable album.

I'm kind of in love with it. It never repeats itself, it's crazy and it's one of the few albums that is manic enough to keep my brain quiet. Wacky may be the best word to describe it. It's an electronic album with a difference, you never know quite where it's going to go and no five seconds are the same as the last. Iglooghost has created something that really appeals to my inner child, but in a way that isn't cheesy whatsoever. In fact, it's unlike anything I've ever heard. An endlessly creative, insane journey that is not to be missed. Again, I feel this one has been unfairly overlooked. It's magic.

1. Reflections of a Floating World

ELDER

Wow. This blew my head off in the best possible way even on the first listen. Amazing riffs, a big, expansive sound and some really solid drumming make for a completely visceral listen. It feels like everything has been done to engage the listener and not to show off instrumental skill, which is something that often holds back the prog-rock genre in my eyes. The vocals, though rare, give a nice variation to the generally 10 minute running length of the tracks. Personally, I'd have cut short 'Sonntag' as I feel it's only track that doesn't go anywhere although its interlude type feel does perhaps heighten the impact of the final track, which is a truly emphatic way to finish the album. This album has single-handedly got me back into a variety of genres that I hadn't listened to in a while. It's one of those albums I've struggled to turn off when required because all the songs just seem to get better and better as they go on, just as you think the song has hit its crescendo things build yet further, seemingly impossibly. An amazing album.

Thanks for reading. I'm already excited to think what this list will contain in 2018!

Clive :)

The Top 10 Games Clive Played In 2017

January 14, 2018 by Clive in Games

Games is the one list where I can't restrict myself to one year of release. With indie games so often coming out a year or so late on consoles and me having no way to play them on PC, it seems unfair to disqualify so many games that I may end up loving from my lists. The fact console release dates vary just further complicates the issue. I've therefore opted for an approach of listing the top 10 games that I played that year, regardless of when they were released. This year five of the games in the list were released in 2017, largely due to the very strong year Nintendo has had! Before I start I'd like to give an honourable mention to another Nintendo game, Mario Kart 8: Deluxe, which I've fallen in love with again this year with it's release on the Switch. I loved it on the Wii U and it is testament to its brilliance that I ended up putting 30-40 more hours into it on the Switch despite having put a ton of time into it on the Wii U only a few years ago. It was a highlight of my Christmas break with the family due to the improved four-player split-screen racing and just generally brought a lot of joy to my year. It hasn't made the list simply because it is basically a port of Mario Kart 8, which I'd already played extensively on Wii U and which made my top five games in 2014 when it was first released. Without further ado, here's my favourite games I played in 2017, what a fun year it's been!

As a huge fan of F-Zero, I was excited to hear this was being moved to the Switch from the Wii U, where I enjoyed but didn't play enough of FAST Racing Neo. I really enjoyed FAST RMX's sense of speed, the hugely improved look since the Wii U entry and the wealth of tracks available. The game is fun to play but lacks a little personality when compared to F-Zero and also allows much fewer racers on the track at one time, which means races are somewhat less intense.

9. Everybody's Gone To The Rapture

**(Playstation 4)**

One of those experiences that stick with you. A peaceful game about exploring an abandoned town trying to decipher what has happened there. The story takes some unexpected twists and turns and required me to read up about it on finishing to discover a variety of different interpretations, but I like that in a story. It looks gorgeous too.

This one crept on here thanks to the amazing fun I had with it over Christmas with my family. Up to 4 players work collaboratively to keep up with restaurant guests' orders in the kitchen. A game that is really quick to teach people and an amazing time when you hit the 3-4 player sweet-spot. You end up hilariously shouting at each other before you decide a more sensible plan of action is required. This one had pretty much every one of my brothers and sisters in stitches at some point. Highly recommended, and now running as smooth as butter on the Switch.

On the show I probably often sound down about first-person shooters but I actually love the genre when it brings something new to the battlefield and has a strong single-player campaign. This one does both. The campaign kept me hooked, largely due to the great relationship between the player and his mech 'BT'. The way you can wall-run and battle other mechs one-on-one really gave the combat a fresh feel too. A really tight shooter and well worth the discounted price you can get it for now.

MarioRabbids — 6. Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle

**(Nintendo Switch)**

I was sceptical as soon as this was rumoured, but on actually seeing some gameplay I was sold. The turn-based combat is much like a simplified X-Com yet much deeper than I expected. The Rabbids fit into the Mario universe surprisingly well and there are some really hilarious moments in the story (such as the opera boss). I didn't think that walking around the worlds outside of the battles really felt engaging enough but the great combat scenarios and fun progression more than made up for that. Probably my surprise of the year. An absolute stunner to look at too.

Two first-person shooters on the list? See, I told you I can like them! This one is just so fun and visceral. The replacement of that silly 'hide and re-heal' mechanic present in pretty much every FPS nowadays with the way more fun 'kill stuff and get health from it' mechanic really makes Doom stand out among other first-person shooters, rewarding a more gung-ho style. Probably the most fun I've had with a shooter campaign since Goldeneye on the N64, it really is that special. The way the stunning visuals and pounding soundtrack go together really gets the adrenaline pumping. It's silly cheap now so if you haven't played it yet you really need to.

Probably the weirdest entry on my list. This one went some really strange and interesting places and had me completely hooked throughout. Satisfying environmental puzzles, a gorgeous yet bleak look, and a story that stuck with me long after the game was finished made for one of the most affecting video experiences of the year.

I loved Splatoon on the Wii U but ended up loving Splatoon 2 even more on the Switch. The ability to play handheld meant I got in way more hours than on the Wii U and meant this ended up being my second most played game of the year behind only the huge Zelda: BOTW. They improved on the original in pretty much every way. There's more weapons, the specials are much more balanced and the single player was much more varied thanks to not being limited to one weapon. I think the 'it's too similar to the original argument' doesn't hold too much water when the whole idea itself is so unique, fun and packed with its own style. There's still a few niggles here and there but that doesn't hold this back from being easily my favourite online-multiplayer experience of the year. I'm not sure there's anything in gaming quite as satisfying as splatting another inkling with a bucket full of paint. So. Much. Fun.

3D Marios are historically my favourite type of game and so when Odyssey was announced at the start of the year my level of excitement was hard to contain. Thankfully, it didn't disappoint. A return to a less platforming heavy and more explorational style was welcome and the game just oozes joy. There's an unbelievable amount of things to do and although I don't particularly like the overworld map (I'd have liked something more like the castle in Mario 64) the worlds are so diverse you just never know what will happen next. The cap mechanic is brilliant, the fact everything wears caps is an utter joy, and some of the inventive things the game has you doing re just pure genius. Time will tell if it's my favourite 3D Mario (Galaxy and Mario 64 are tough to beat) but it's definitely up there.

BOTW — 1. Zelda: Breath of the Wild

**(Nintendo Switch)**

I'm usually more of a Mario man than a Zelda man, although I love both, but I just can't have Breath of the Wild anywhere but at number one. Nintendo completely changed things up and made me love an open world game more than I thought I ever could. You know why? Because it felt like a genuine adventure, not just a game that has a huge open world that has you essentially following a bunch of waypoints to markings on a map for its entire duration. In this game you put the marks on the map. In this game, adventures vary so hugely from one player to the next that it really feels like you're having your own adventure. In this game, you actually can go anywhere, which I feel is the first time this has actually been true. The feeling of climbing a tall mountain and looking out at the vastness of the world you can explore sprawling out beneath you is one of the best feelings I've had in any video game. The game definitely has some problems. The story is nothing special and a lot of the inventory management is clunky but the world is so fantastic that it barely matters. A genuine contender for my favourite game of all time, and I've got so much more left to explore. I'm not sure I'll ever completely stop playing it, and when I do, I sure as hell will never forget it.

Thanks for reading, and let's hope my 2018 list is just as strong!

Clive :)