Film Shapes

What's this then? Modern horror, I guess. Or just another addition to the relatively recent spate of animal-titled films: The Lobster , The Crow , The Whale , Pig , Lamb , First Cow , Black Dog , Red Dog ,  Dog Man ,  Monkey Man ,  Wolf Man , Cuckoo , Cocaine Bear , and Hundreds of Beavers . Whatever the reason for its existence, this Stephen King adaptation is a curious beast. Osgood Perkins (son of old Norman Bates himself, Anthony Perkins) writes and directs here. He also has a pretty funny cameo. The story starts with a bloke in a pilot's uniform (Adam Scott) trying to sell a windup drumming monkey toy (DON'T CALL IT A TOY!!). A bloody event occurs, not for the last time in the movie. Cut to 1999 where we meet Hal Shelburn and his twin, Bill (both played by Christian Convery), who live with their mother, Lois (an in-form Tatiana Maslany). The pilot of the opening scene is the dad/hubby who has done a runner, leaving the cursed monkey for the lads to find (though, to b...

Here's a nice surprise. I find Japanese anime to be hit and miss, and the first look at this boof-headed feline didn't promise too much, but Ghost Cat Anzu knocked the bails off. It riffs on the Ghibli theme of children being forced to grow up quicker than they should, with 11 year-old Karin (Noa Gotô) as our focus. Her dad's a bit of a scally and he does a runner while visiting his father at his temple home in a sleepy town, leaving Karin alone with kindly grandad and huge, anthropomorphic cat, Anzu, voiced by Mirai Moriyama. Karin wanders the town, waiting for dad to return and meeting various locals, while being casually monitored by Anzu. The pace is a little pedestrian but the shenanigans make up for this. Anzu is pulled over by the police and told he needs a license to ride a scooter, though he protests that he's not actually a human, so surely these rules don't apply. He works as a masseur but also takes a gig to scare birds away from the river, roping Karin...

I'll begin this write-up with a little peek behind my waffle curtain. Sometimes I find it tricky to unearth the theme or underlying meaning of certain films, which often leads to a straight-up documentation of the movie and my feelings on it. Occasionally, it might lead to unfocussed word vomit, where I'm madly clutching at straws (or apples - I remember that blind alley). Sometimes it's just pointless to search. Then there are films like Thomas Cailley's The Animal Kingdom , where there are clearly perceptible nuggets in the loam. So as not to be confused with David Michod's seminal Animal Kingdom , maybe we need to go with the French title, Le Règne Animal . Whatever the language, this is a wonderful little film. The topics touched on here include otherisation, palliative care, and kicking against the political system. There's so much going on here but it's mostly about the pain of letting someone go. At least, that's what I got from it. That's not...