Tag / 1997

by Jaime Rebanal

‘Princess Mononoke’ Review: Hayao Miyazaki’s Bloodiest is Among His Most Breathtaking and Humanistic

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Princess Mononoke is arguably Hayao Miyazaki’s largest film by scale since 1984’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, and it is also his second greatest achievement as a director. There aren’t many animators who bring so much life to their worlds quite like how Hayao Miyazaki does it, but for every bit as imaginative as these movies can get, the impressiveness of how immersive these films are is reflected beautifully through their real-world parallels. In Princess Mononoke, Miyazaki finds himself taking upon a very complex moral standing through a war being waged between nature and humanity – and every moment of it is as beautiful as one could ever hope for it to be.

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by Jaime Rebanal

‘Perfect Blue’ Review: Confronting False Idols in Satoshi Kon’s Debut Feature

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Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue is one of the most beautiful, yet disorienting animated films ever made. Although the film was originally conceived as a live action feature, an earthquake destroyed the studio which later resulted in the film’s budget being used to turn the same story into that for an animated film, and with the very vision that Kon creates for his directorial debut, it’s hard to see Perfect Blue any other way. With Perfect Blue, it’s astonishing how Kon utilizes the medium in order to create a deeply layered tale for what’s only his first feature, leaving behind one of the most harrowing thrillers of the 1990’s.

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by Jaime Rebanal

In the Company of Men and the Roots of Male Insecurity

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A darkly comedic film all about how unpleasant it is being in the working place, one that only reflects a harsher reality from showing the employees as they are. This is a film all about the evils present within a space that feels mandatory to the way we all move forward in life and how it breaks human spirit in the process. When you know that already about playwright Neil LaBute’s directorial debut, it already gives you an insight about what watching In the Company of Men will be like – for everything about it that we find so funny also reflects a darker reality that perhaps may be invisible to our own eyes because it is made to feel so normal. The commentary of a film like In the Company of Men would already be enough to set foot Neil LaBute to a promising start as a filmmaker but it’s a shame that ever since he has not managed to live up to something of this level ever since. It’s hard enough to imagine how someone can follow up something that is so rooted in cynicism almost like this, especially being a first film.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Starship Troopers – Review

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Perhaps it’s a tad snooty on my end to say, but I’m amazed that few people seem to really “get” Starship Troopers in this day and age. Although it’s a wonderful sight to see that it has acquired a cult following in more recent years, I would only have imagined that Paul Verhoeven’s name being attached to adapt a novel written by Robert Heinlein – an author I’ve disliked for the authoritarian and borderline fascistic readings into his own text was already in for yet another bite. And knowing where the satire present in RoboCop and Total Recall had leaned, the idea had only hit me as cheeky – and admittedly it was something that even went over my head the first time I saw Starship Troopers. Over repeated viewings, however, the cleverness of Starship Troopers became even clearer – working within the same in-your-face charm that made RoboCop so brilliant.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion – Review

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Among many things that I’m fairly certain of, this movie would have not been something that could grab my interest on the spot but Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion just came by and hit me in such an unexpected manner. In some way it brought back my own memories of Clueless and its self-awareness for the sorts of characters it features leading the way. But I never expected anything of this sort to come out from similar veins because upon outlook it would only seem just like a fun, if dated comedy – only to find that I was proven wrong as it moved along. I thought from its outlook it seemed like some buddy comedy aimed towards girls but a different sort of film was what Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion turned out to be, in the best sense at that.

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by Jaime Rebanal

L.A. Confidential – Review

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Another time capsule in a sense it goes through the glory of classic Hollywood film-noir, but if something else had come about in order to allow Curtis Hanson’s L.A. Confidential to stand apart not merely as a tribute, it takes one through an exhibit but understands its display at heart, lives in its glory – emulates a mood like the artifacts up for show it could merely have been one in itself. At its heart there is a great police procedural drama but its background is something that carries something all the more mesmerizing. It’s delightfully classical Hollywood in a 90’s manner, for a distinct blend of eras only gave away a timely feeling.

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