This week my friends and I all decided to watch short films.  

With Taylor Swift releasing her own version of the hit album Red came the short film accompanying the song All Too Well. With her short film of the same name came the anguish of many fans, me included because it is so damn good. I have always enjoyed Taylor’s music but never gave it much thought. Two of my friends on the other hand have said, “I am a part-time person, full-time Swifty.” Thank you, Kate and Rosemary, for sending me down this spiral. This “music video” was the perfect addition to the main song of the album. The storytelling conveyed the plotline in the song beat for beat. The song itself did make me sob so hard I was heaving but that’s for a different kind of blog. The casting of Sadie Sink, 19, and Dylan O’Brien, 30, was meant to make watchers uncomfortable. It definitely made me uncomfortable, Sadie Sink has been cast in roles where she is a child for years, and on the other hand, Dylan O’Brien has been a heartthrob for the latter part of a decade. The age gap between them is the backbone of the film, as well as Dylan’s character being emotionally manipulative. Taylor did an amazing job on this film, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys the mix of film and music. 

 

 

Another great release this week was the short film Ciao Alberto, an addition to the Disney movie Luca. Luca has a big portion of my heart, and I have seen it many more times than I’d like to admit. When I heard they would be releasing this short film I marked it down on my calendar to make sure I watched it. Let me tell you, it was six minutes I didn’t know I needed. The lesson in the film is so important, and they conveyed it so well with the short time frame they had. Sorry, I’m trying not to spoil it as it came out only a few days ago… Seeing Portorosso again was something I needed after this week.  I am always wowed by the animation in Disney movies, especially Luca and this short and how they animated the water. If you don’t know, hair and water have been the hardest things to animate over the decades. New technology has made it easier, but talent is still needed. There are cool documentaries on this and I can send you them if you want! 

Taylor’s Short Film- 8/10 

Ciao Alberto- 9.5/10 

Link to the first picture

Link for the second picture

These last two movies have been more sentimental movies for my friends and I. This time I watched Cars 3 with some friends from my club, TKD. I grew up with the Cars movies as weird as it seems. These movies grew up with me. And this movie made me realize that I am growing up. Not to get super sappy about sentient cars…

As the title says, this was an end of an era, and this movie handled it very well for a children’s movie. It did make me tear up, but it seems that is an easy feat if you’ve read my other reviews. This movie came out in 2017, a little over a decade after the first installment, and I only really watched it until recently(as well as the last time to write this review). When it first came out I felt too old to watch a “kids” movie, which is so stupid kids movies are great, watch more kids movies. Rant done, but this is something a lot of us deal with when growing up. Looking back to the things we enjoyed as kids is so important, looking at it from a new perspective can make you appreciate the media more.

In the movie Lightning McQueen becomes an old model compared to the newer, faster rookies that are starting to race in the Piston Cup. He no longer is at the top, and this scares him, leading to him getting in a severe crash. His journey throughout the movie is about finding his grove again. He trains with his trainer Cruz Ramirez and they both teach each other important lessons along the way. This movie was very sentimental because Lightning visits all the old tracks his mentor Hudson raced on when he was in his prime. The Derby that Cruz and Lightning find themselves in towards the middle of the movie was both hilarious as well as an adrenaline rush. Fritz the school bus is the funniest character in the whole movie. Sorry, not sorry Mater. Spoiler for the end of the movie, Lightning becomes Cruz’s mentor like Hudson was for him. It was a great ending that brought the story full circle. It was nice to see McQueen embrace his past as well as the change that came with the future. It made me a little less scared about my future.

7/10 It was sad 🙁 like the nostalgic sad…

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This week Kate recommended I take it easy and watch one of my favorites, Howl’s Moving Castle. Now if you’ve ever met me or talked to me for more than thirty minutes I will bring up this movie. So, I will now go on for many sentences about how wonderful this movie is.

I love this movie so much. I’m so glad that I found this movie and decided to watch it. It is a cinematic masterpiece. Beautiful scenes, wonderful characterization, and amazing world-building. I love all the detail that when into the creation of this film. Every time I watch it there is something new I see in the background or a new line of dialogue if you listen hard enough in the city scenes. Watching it the second time around all the cute little foreshadowing elements finally made sense and I did sob. This movie makes me cry every time I watch it. It’s not even because it’s a sad movie, it’s just so damn beautiful.

Now that the rambling is over, a review of the movie. Ghibli movies have always impressed me with how complex they can make such simple things. The main theme/lesson of the movie is that Sophie learns to love herself just the way she is. Very cute premise. The way they translate that Sophie doesn’t have high esteem for herself is shown through her interactions with the people in her life, like her sister. Her sister is very popular, many of the background characters go out of their way to say hello to her in passing and even disregard Sophie. However, we see the first shift in her demeanor when she meets Howl for the “first” time (the quotes make more sense if you’ve seen the movie multiple times). Because of this interaction, the Witch of the Waste is introduced. She is a jealous woman who is after Howl’s heart and is threatened by Sophie, so she casts a spell on Sophie turning her into an old woman. This is how we see Sophie for most of the movie, she begins to grow out of her shell and take charge of herself finding her passions and interests. It’s an interesting thing, most movies for children or young adults don’t have an elderly protagonist. Howl’s Moving Castle takes this narrative flip and uses it well to convey the story of loving one’s self.

I can never recommend this movie enough, I might be “mainstream” or “overhyped”, but it’s one of my favorite movies. This is one of the movies I love rewatching with friends and family.

10/10 <3

Link for picture