Convinced the three chalk pieces she received from her teacher grant her magical wishes, Estrella tries to survive her harrowing new circumstances on the streets, which are further complicated by two adult thugs intent on reclaiming their stolen property from Shine. Beginning, portentously, with interviews seen on a television set surrounded by the director’s favorite VHS horror films, the French auteur’s latest is arguably his least provocative to date. And watching the film, directed by series creator Rebecca Sugar (alongside Kat Morris and Joe Johnston), it would have been a fitting goodbye, neatly positioned as a rewarding, emotionally resonant send-off for die-hard fans and a welcome entry point for those new to the series (that will hopefully inspire a watch from the beginning). Plumbing American and Chinese expectations and attitudes regarding labor, as well as the compatibility of the two countries’ ways of doing things, it’s an intimate on-the-ground look at 21st-century globalization in practice. 2019 2019 $ 29.95. ... the movie retains an ethereal quality that unsettles the imagination. From family-friendly blockbusters to indie darlings, these were the best animated movies the past year had to offer. Abominable. Regardless, it’s still an escalating freak-out scored to thumping electronica and populated by a raft of potential monsters. It casts a spell through malevolent horror imagery as well as its moving portrait of kids banding together to form a makeshift clan – and, in the process, to courageously face a world intent on destroying them, physically and psychically, at every turn. Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon. As conveyed by Esi’s encounter with an old blind man – who says he’s from an upside-down purgatory, and tells her to protect a bird from an evil crow – and the sibling rivalry-centric soap opera that Esi watches with her grandmother (Joyce Anima Misa Amoah), The Burial of Kojo is a story about reunion, loss and reconciliation that exists somewhere between reality and fantasy. In his debut, the critic-turned-writer/director cuts efficiently, so that no gesture or expression is wasted, and yet he also tends to linger – on a notepad’s to-do list, or a face trying to hide the reality behind a recent utterance – in order to evoke greater unspoken truths. A trifurcated tale split between the hand’s journey, Naoufel’s pre-accident life as a pizza delivery boy, and his early adolescence, Clapin’s two-dimensional gem is an arresting aesthetic experience, its daring visuals married to a soundscape of buzzing, barking and screeching that lends the action an immersive immediacy. Romance and court intrigue are also part of this stunning package, yet far more exhilarating than the stock story is the director’s precisely choreographed wuxia combat, highlighted by Zhang’s signature slow-mo shot – in which his camera trails behind a running fighter’s blade as it scrapes against the ground, casting water skyward – and often carried out with the most badass umbrellas ever committed to film. ... October 16, 2019. Nonetheless, in any format, it’s a curatorial effort of thrilling enormity, presenting this pioneering triumph as the byproduct of myriad individuals, immense ingenuity, and the colossal bravery of three men who dared to venture to the stars. With Dan Levy’s score melding electronic and orchestral arrangements to intoxicating effect, it’s a sensory feast into which one tumbles. Imagination Movers website. The first LEGO Movie was an unexpected delight, full of inventive designs and a conceit that only revealed itself towards the end of the film - that everything we had just watched took place in the imagination of a young boy with daddy issues. Eggers eventually drowns his material in slithering sexualized imagery of a crazed sort, and caps things off in a manner that’s all the more cautionary-tale haunting for remaining so unforgettably oblique. The 75 Best Movies on Amazon Prime Right Now (January 2021) By Paste Movies Staff January 5, 2021 Aaron Sorkin’s Got Some 'Splaining to Do, … Buoyed by a script attuned to the sorrowful rhythms of older age (and New England), Jones’ film rests on the shoulders of Place’s stellar, lived-in performance as Diane, a fallible woman whose selflessness is colored by anger and regret. Danica said, “I’ve admired Dolly Parton since childhood, and even more so upon learning of her Imagination Library. In a Europe that simultaneously resembles today and 1940, German expat Georg (Franz Rogowski) endeavors to escape Paris before the arrival of encroaching Nazi-esque fascists. While Moss doesn’t hold back in depicting Becky’s ugliness, she taps into the underlying hurt and vulnerability fueling her firestorm heart, peaking with a heart-rending single-take piano rendition of Bryan Adams’ “Heaven.”. Good luck maintaining a dry eye through its wrenching present-day coda. (My apologies to Incredibles 2.) The first Frozen was a true phenomenon, capturing the zeitgeist so completely it was impossible to escape. Sure, Primal might have aired in five installments on the Cartoon Network, but it is also up for the Best Animated Feature Oscar and I saw it in a (sparsely attended) movie theater in downtown Los Angeles earlier this year so it's going on the list -- and straight to the tippity top, no less. At nearly four hours, the film imparts an overpowering sense of its characters’ despair, and the misfortune that befalls them whether they remain alone or try to engage with others – a despondency only amplified by its empathy. Elevating its conventional storytelling through mega-watt personality and fast, screeching track action, Mangold’s based-on-real-events film rides alongside former champ Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and his rough-around-the-edges driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale) as they attempt to build a car for Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts) capable of besting Ferrari’s legendary vehicles in 1966’s 24-hour Le Mans contest. Borders to cross and barriers impeding passage are omnipresent in Transit, which like so much of writer/director Christian Petzold’s transition-fixated oeuvre, is a forlorn romantic reverie about identity, regret, trauma and rebirth. No franchise dispenses more crazily choreographed violence than John Wick, in which savagery is carried out with both concussive force and dancer-like grace. James Mangold’s Ford v Ferrari may not redefine its field in the way that the Ford GT40 revolutionized auto racing, but it’s nonetheless a muscular example of big-budget, star-driven Hollywood entertainment. It's impossible to watch Primal and to not be totally blown away by the command of the craft, technical artistry, emotional contours and storytelling prowess. (which was a comedic spin-off of the other series). Kaili Blues director Bi Gan concludes his sophomore feature with a 56-minute single-take sequence shot in 3D, his camera trailing alongside (and above, and behind) his protagonist, Luo Hongwu (Huang Jue), as he navigates a rural dreamscape that he’s travelled to while sitting in a movie theater. (Seriously, it's good.) Despite the Saturday-morning set-up of a caveman (dubbed Spear) and dinosaur (called Fang) teaming up to traverse the prehistoric wasteland, this is some of the most visceral, mature work Tartakovsky has ever produced, full of shattered bones and buckets of blood. Harold Ratner (Sandler) is a Manhattan diamond district wheeler-dealer who thinks he’s hit it big with a rare opal smuggled out of Ethiopia thanks to some African Jews. From start to finish, Crawl is the sort of edge-of-your-seat, cringing-with-delight thriller that Hollywood rarely makes these days. Mangold’s story is about the might of American ingenuity and daring (versus sleek Italian arrogance), and a celebration of non-conformity in the face of (unbeatable) corporate pressure. “I hate autofiction,” says the elderly mother of filmmaker Salvador Mallo (Antonio Banderas), a sly nod to the rooted-in-reality nature of writer/director Pedro Almodóvar’s somber, yet joyfully cathartic, latest. Strickland recounts his wacko tale with explosions of lurid color, black-and-white photo montages, and a mesmerizing Cavern of Anti-Matter score, as well as via compositions that have a tendency to cut off his characters’ heads (thus emphasizing their crotch-ety midsections). Aided by unnervingly stoic, expressive turns from his leads, Alverson dramatizes this off-kilter madness via compositions of figures trapped in cramped, confining architectural spaces, set to ominous audio tones and blowing wind. The story of a magnificent amusement park where the imagination of a wildly creative girl named June comes alive. Sold at a department store by a saleswoman (Fatma Mohamed) with a nefarious true identity, the satanically erotic garment preys upon the sexually repressed and/or unfulfilled, all while fluttering and hovering about like a sinister specter. 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