Cli-Fi: The Breadwinner Patiently Arrives
An international collaboration directed by Cartoon Saloon’s Nora Twomey, and co-produced by Angelina Jolie, whom you may have heard of
reviews
Mulatu Astatke’s Eternal Return
Few have sequenced the genes of future music as much as Mulatu Astatke, whose dizzying sonic explorations have skillfully skipped across jazz, soul, funk and much more. Those new to Mulatu of Ethiopia seeking a launch window might as well start with a new reissue of … Mulatu of Ethiopia.
Cli-Fi: Tesla, Reanimated
The National Film Board of Canada is responsible for some of the finest animation the world has ever seen. It has also created world-changing documentaries exploring and analyzing how and why our world changes as it does, for better and worse.
Underwater Welder Goes Transmedia With Ryan Gosling
Jeff Lemire has been creating some of the most unique comics of the last decade. Just ask Ryan Gosling, whose interest in Lemire’s recent stunner, Underwater Welder, may bear cinematic fruit.
Shaun the Sheep Hits the Streets
A wordless wonder in the tradition of Chaplin, with an eye to rural labor and love, Aardman’s stop-motion masterpiece is for everyone, everywhere.
At Last, Samurai Jack Returns
Last year, I once again interviewed Samurai Jack creator and animation auteur, Genndy Tartakovsky, who told me the samurai’s arrival was imminent. Now here he is, in all of his glory and wonder, when we need him most.
Sleater-Kinney Brings Power, Life to Paris
There aren’t enough ways for me to thank Sleater-Kinney for returning from hiatus, even if it was to a sleepy hyperreality still needing to be shaken awake with punk power and poetics.
David Lynch Takes Center Stage In The Art Life
Although he is one of the most immediately recognizable directors in film history, David Lynch originally wanted to be an artist.
Neil Young Breaks Ground On Peace Trail
As lesser artists struggle today for meaning and inspiration, Young finds excesses of both in our increasingly turbulent and apocalyptic epoch.
Bjork Dives Deep Into Virtual Reality
Bjork’s stunning evolution continues with the interactive VR project, “Family” — which may also be one of the most dazzling cli-fi experiments yet created.
Rogue One: Star Wars’ Technocratic Takeover
You can’t get more cli-fi than a death machine pretending to be a planet.
Geek The Beatles: Lennon’s Last Years
John Lennon’s life-saving retreat into domesticity is legendary, most particularly because it was subsequently and violently stolen away from him by a fanatic passing as a Christian.
Cli-Fi: Director Remi Chaye Breaks Down Long Way North’s Arctic Animation
One of those rare films, especially in animation, that analyzes the dizzying complexity of life on Earth using what John Muir called the “glacial eye.”
Pixies Return, Carrying Heads
Black Francis and crew have a new full-length effort out called Head Carrier.
Happy 50th Birthday, Revolver!
The Beatles’ ambitious classic clocks five revolutionary decade, as futuristic as ever.
All Hail the Return of Autolux!
I’ve been writing about Autolux for years, and yet they always sound fresh to me
Geek The Beatles: LOVE’s Guitar Gently Weeps
The re-staging of George Harrison’s iconic Beatles song for the 10th anniversary of The Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Soleil.
Cli-Fi: Angelina Jolie Joins Cartoon Saloon’s The Breadwinner
GKIDS teamed up with Song of the Sea‘s Cartoon Saloon — and Angelina Jolie — to bring Afghanistan’s terrorized tale of the Anthropocene to our poor kids.
Are We Finished With Elon Musk Being Finished
Definitely.
We Nailed It: An Interview With Shaun the Sheep‘s Richard Starzak and Paul Kewley
I spoke with Starzak and Kewley about how and why Aardman’s low-budget, big-picture animation continues to compete in our blockbuster marketplace, and why stop-motion can be even more real than hyperreal CGI.
Poe, Reanimated
Extraordinary Tales brings Poe’s harrowing stories to the screen for newer generations raised on boundless technologies and influences.
Happy Anniversary, Takahata’s Only Yesterday
Led by women and empowered by the natural world, Only Yesterday may not be as well-known as Takahata’s masterpieces like Grave of the Fireflies and The Tale of Princess Kaguya, but its revelatory journey through the rural countryside still covers familiar territory.
When Will We Strive Again For the Heights of Avatar and Legend of Korra?
Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra are two of the most ambitious and moving animated series of this still-new millennium. Indeed, pound for pound, they can stand alongside most non-animated series and still hold their own.
MorphToons: September 2015
My continuing bow to The Iron Giant, Brad Bird’s timeless masterpiece of war and peace.
Brad Bird Confirms The Iron Giant’s Signature
http://The studio’s reticence on the matter is understandable, given Bird’s well-documented love of cinema’s theatrical experience. “See it in the movie theater the way it’s meant to be seen,” Bird counsels