Yes, I’ll be the first to admit it, and I’m not the only one to say it, but “Akira” stands as one of my favorite anime films of all time. Bar none. When it comes to my favorite “Vampire Hunter D” holds the top spot, but if you want quality, you just have to go to “Akira”. Rarely has a film been able to hold up against time. Katsuhiro Otomo’s film experienced many alterations that kept it from becoming a true classic, and I’m willing to get past all that because “Steamboy” ends up being a quality piece of filmmaking from Otomo. Though it’s not a masterpiece, it’s still a very good watch that deserves the benefit of the doubt in the end.
Dear Frankie (2004)
What would you do to protect your child? Now, before you view what the mom in “Dear Frankie” does, keep asking yourself. What would you do to protect your child? What lengths are you willing to go to to see that they’re not emotionally shattered, or ruined by reality? The answer is always the same. While not original, and bound to give you a cavity afterwards, “Dear Frankie” is a simple and dreamy family flick about a single mom named Lizzie who lives with her young deaf son Frankie in their flat.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
Director Garth Jennings mimics Ivan Reitman’s style, and sick humor down to every particular inch, and until I read up on this film, I’d convinced myself Reitman directed this. For a film that starts off with a musical number involving fleeing Dolphins singing “So long and thanks for all the fish!”, it’s obvious you’re going to get something new. I thought the dolphins would be CGI and animated, but having the song play while stock footage of Dolphins run on a loop is further proof of that not taking itself too seriously hypotheses. And its hard to hate something that sports a cast like John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel, and Alan Rickman, it’s hard to go wrong, and I had fun.
What the #$*! Do We (K)now!? (2004)
It’s funny how a film like this can really be deciphered as. Certainly, the religious will view this as a secularist documentary on quantum physics, and the others will simply view it as an examination in to the human mind. With films like “Waking Life”, so often do we ever see films that actually challenge us to re-think our surroundings and our current settings. “What the…” ultimately explores radical ideas of repressed memories, the immense power of our mind, and alternate universes. And it also questions god, the existence of god, and the existence of god who gave man the ability to think. If we can not question religion, why were we given the ability to reason and wonder, and examine? If a god exists and does not want us to discover the riddles of the universe, why were we given the tools to do so? And “What the…” does indeed humble us calling us “Observers”.
Evelyn: The Cutest Evil Dead Girl (2002)
Imagine if Dr. Seuss combined genius with Edgar Allan Poe, with Tim Burton bouncing ideas off of them, and what do you get? Well, if you’re lucky you’d get Evelyn, the cutest evil dead girl, a demented fairytale with the mood and color you never get in films anymore, the mood and color that’s missing from the horror genre today. Many call this basically a rip from “Lenore the Living Dead Girl” comic book, and perhaps that’s true, but “Evelyn” is such a sick and demented short film I had so much fun watching that I didn’t really care.
Ultraviolet (2006)
I thought “Equilibrium” was a great action science fiction film that really showed that Kurt Wimmer had the possibility to create intelligent action films, but then he created “Ultraviolet”. Rule one of being in the art field, Kurt, never create copies of your previous work. People will know. “Ultraviolet” is one part Calvin Klein models gone psycho, one part music video, and one part tired genre fodder that takes basically any and every chance to keep from being original.
The Squid and the Whale (2005)
Yet another Oscar contender I’ve been aching to see before it was even an Oscar contender, “The Squid and the Whale” presents and upper middle class family of intellectuals and prominent athletes at war with one another. At the beginning of the film, I was rather worried this would become yet another “Ice Storm” rip-off except set in New York, but “The Squid and the Whale” is a simple but engrossing parable of a family set in half, and their children having to choose sides. “The Squid and the Whale” is a basic tale of two parents so at odds with one another that it follows down to their children whom are also at war and don’t even seem to realize it. Noah Baumbach’s writing is very enlightening with this simple slice of life of a family at war, and really doesn’t depict anyone as a villain, though the story does veer to certain directions here and there.