8 years ago
All posts by Christopher Runyon
The Studio Ghibli Retrospective: ‘Grave of the Fireflies’
'Grave of the Fireflies' is one of the most harrowing anti-war films ever made and the most emotionally devastating from Studio Ghibli.
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The Studio Ghibli Retrospective: ‘My Neighbor Totoro’
Christopher Runyon explores Studio Ghibli's most iconic and joyous film, Miyazaki's 'My Neighbor Totoro.'
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AFI Fest Review: ‘The Congress’
There's a moment in Ari Folman's previous film, the animated Invasion of Lebanon documentary Waltz With Bashir, that pulls you back to reality in an emotionally devastating fashion. After experiencing the entirety of the film's disturbing events through Folman...
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The Studio Ghibli Retrospective: ‘Castle in the Sky’
Studio Ghibli was officially formed in 1985 after proving themselves with Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind a year earlier. Believe it or not, the name “Ghibli” actually comes not from the Japanese language, but from a mispronounced Arabic word referring to a...
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The Studio Ghibli Retrospective: ‘Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind’
In 1985, veteran Japanese animators Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata co-founded the little animation company that could, Studio Ghibli, alongside Toshio Suzuki and Yasuyoshi Tokuma. Like most upstarting anime companies, the team at Ghibli were unaware of how t...
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Infinite Possibilities Bring Meager Results in Jaco Van Dormael’s ‘Mr. Nobody’
Mr. Nobody is a film about the infinite possibilities that a life could take depending on our choices. Think Sliding Doors, but with a limitless amount of possibilities Gwyneth Paltrow could've gone through instead of just two, as the complexity of its hero's ...
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‘Blue is the Warmest Color’ is Completely Engrossing and Surprisingly Conventional
The latest Palme d'Or winner is impeccably acted and dramatically engrossing, but is it missing a certain kick?
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‘Escape From Tomorrow’: A Hellish Descent Through the Happiest Nightmare on Earth
In 2003, the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad rollercoaster at Disneyland, California derailed and killed a man. I know this because I was there, during one of my countless visits to the park, around the time the ride was closed as a result. I must've been around...
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The Very World You Wished For: On Cinema As Authorial Therapy, Part 3
Here's part 1 and part 2 of cinema as authorial therapy.
Many films that act as self-therapy tend to work on a certain level. Documentaries like Waltz With Bashir are literal therapeutic workings, with the author directly interacting with their own strife. ...
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Luc Besson’s ‘The Family’ Amounts to Nada
A grumpy Robert De Niro walks into a movie theater with an even grumpier Tommy Lee Jones. They each take their reserved seating on the front row, only to be informed that the film they were originally gonna watch, Vincente Minnelli's Some Came Running, was mis...
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