“‘The Summit Of The Gods’ Review: In Patrick Imbert’s Breathtaking Animated Film, Everest Is The True Star”

Sorta like the nectar of the gods and manna from heaven, but with more near-death experiences. Continue reading →

“The Most Enchanting Sci-Fi Movie Of 2021 Reveals A Lasting Scientific Debate”

Important journalism is interviewing cryptozoologists about whether or not putting cryptids in a zoo is a good idea or a bad one. Continue reading →

“Pixar’s Adorable ‘Luca’ Flounders and Gasps”

Pixar’s made movies for over two decades, and by now I’m really start to sea the difference between their older material and their new material. Continue reading →

SXSW: Postscript Coverage

Well, THAT wasn’t as exciting as I hoped it would be. Continue reading →

“Take a Trippy Ride with ‘Son of the White Mare'”

You’d figure he’d be a horse, but no: He’s a MAN. Continue reading →

“‘Onward’: Pixar Takes A Step Backward In A Film Rife With Fantasy Clichés”

Onward, but not upward, or forward, just mostly backward. Continue reading →

Review: Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles, 2019, dir. Salvador Simó

Annnnnd months later I still couldn’t tell you exactly what turtles have to do with this movie. Still good, though! Continue reading →

Review: Funan, 2019, dir. Denis Do

A stunning, low key bit of animation from a descendant of unspeakable atrocity. Amazingly, he’s up to speaking about it. Continue reading →

“How ‘Lego Movie 2’ Pokes Fun At The Evolution Of Chris Pratt”

You might like your Chris Pratt beefy or made of Lego bricks, but he’s at his best when he’s just playing huggy, lovable, cream puff doofuses. Continue reading →

“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Shows That Anyone Can Be Spider-Man”

True story: On first hearing of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, I wrote it off and put it out of my memory, thinking, “this sounds like a pretty naked excuse to put a bunch of different Spider-Man variations into a single movie for the purpose of moving lots of ancillary product, and also most Marvel movies aren’t … Continue reading →

Review: Lu Over the Wall, 2018, dir. Masaaki Yuasa

I struggled to put my thoughts about Masaaki Yuasa’s Lu Over the Wall into words, which is really bad, because putting thoughts into words is sort of my thing. It’s not that I don’t like Lu Over the Wall, but rather that Lu Over the Wall is what I imagine your run of the mill psychedelic drug trip looks like … Continue reading →

“How Wes Anderson Sneaks Stop-Motion Animation Into Every Film He Makes”

I’ve written some stuff about Wes Anderson and stop-motion animation in the past, tied to Fantastic Mr. Fox back in 2009, so I guess it’s only right that I wrote some stuff today, in 2018, about Wes Anderson and stop-motion animation tied to Isle of Dogs, his new and super complicated movie about an island populated by dogs. … Continue reading →

“The Trouble With ‘Ready Player One’ and Its Easter Eggs”

Any of my readers out there who call themselves bettin’ types, you’re probably about to rake in a ton of cash: I didn’t care for Ready Player One. Shocker. A movie warped around 80s nostalgia – and around 90s nostalgia, and also random references to cool things from the last ten years – rubbed me the … Continue reading →

Review: Have a Nice Day, 2018, dir. Liu Jian

File Have a Nice Day under the “movies that I wish I liked more” tab in the file cabinet containing every review I’ve ever written. (Note: I don’t actually have a file cabinet. It’s a metaphor. Work with me here.) Honestly, if this film’s animation scheme actually embraced movement and didn’t feel so fucking stiff, I’d … Continue reading →

Review: Mary and the Witch’s Flower, 2018, dir. Hiromasa Yonebayashi

I’m sort of a career goof, and so I have a natural inclination toward characters who are also career goofs. Meaning, there’s more than one reason why I compare Hiromasa Yonebayashi’s Mary and the Witch’s Flower to Harry Potter. There’s the obvious reason – they’re both about schools for young witches! – and there’s the secondary reason, which … Continue reading →

Why ‘Coco’ Feels Like an Act of Defiance

  There is a part of me that loves Coco, the new Pixar film, for Coco, and a part of me that loves it for essentially being a big ol’ “eff you” to our president and his openly xenophobic, anti-immigrant ideology, which isn’t really an “ideology,” because let’s face it, Donald is not an ideological kind of … Continue reading →

Review: The Breadwinner, 2017, dir. Nora Twomey

I could do with a new Cartoon Saloon film every couple of years or so, ideally more often than that, but it’s animation, what are you gonna do; besides, the movies this studio knocks out are always worth the wait. Back in 2014, I reviewed Song of the Sea. This year, I reviewed The Breadwinner, a very … Continue reading →

Review: The Emoji Movie, 2017, dir. Tony Leondis

I really don’t even know how to account for this movie, guys. I wish I knew who in their right mind thought making a movie about fucking goddamn emojis was a sound idea, though “right mind” is likely being generous; whoever came up with this pitch was probably coked out of their minds and on … Continue reading →

Review: The Lego Batman Movie, 2017 dir. Chris McKay

I guess I’m not surprised, per se, that I enjoyed The Lego Batman Movie as much as I did; I liked The Lego Movie quite a lot, after all, and found Will Arnett’s Batman riff utterly hilarious. When The Lego Batman Movie was first announced, though, I wondered whether that riff could sustain a whole movie, and there it … Continue reading →

Review: The Red Turtle, 2017, dir. Michaël Dudok de Wit

Surprise: Studio Ghibli made a beautiful movie. Once you’re done collecting your jaw from the floor, you can click this link and zip over to The Playlist and read the review I wrote about Michaël Dudok de Wit’s The Red Turtle, a movie so lovely, minimalist, and thoughtful that it may assuage whatever sociopolitical anxieties you’re wrestling … Continue reading →