Reviews of the Bosch

There are few names in the history of American film animation. The biggest undoubtedly has and forever will be Walt Disney -and he didn’t even do that much animation himself. But did he ever know how to brand his products! There were no auteurs at Disney, much as there have been numerous exceptionally talented animators who have worked on and helmed some of the great classics of the form. Bambi is one of my favourite animated movies, yet I had to look up that it was directed by David D. Hand. It’s gotten better in the modern era, with animation directors taking on more personal ownership of their projects, like Brad Bird and Domee Shi, but it is still a rarity in the American industry to have an animation director so independently distinguished. But there was one notable exception, an animation director who for a time was the only force in the medium capable of genuinely challenging Disney, arguably pushing them to be better. And his name was Don Bluth. Maybe you’ve heard of Don Bluth

It’s still just a little astonishing how invested Tom Hardy has been in his Venom  series. Certainly it’s not on par with Ryan Reynolds and Deadpool, but it is a level of involvement in both producing and creatively in the story department that feels so strange given both Hardy’s acumen as an actor and the series’ largely standard studio superhero movie identity. Even with the distinct body-sharing concept, the Venom  movies have been largely run-of-the-mill in style, narrative, and execution; formless, like Venom himself, latching on to what it perceives to be the prevailing winds in the genre. The second movie made more of a case off exploring the particular comedy dynamic of its Eddie Brock/Venom double-act, but that could only go so far within the bogged down superhero movie mandate. It feels like a fairly soulless project for Hardy to put all his weight behind, where most other actors of his calibre would merely use it as launching pad for something else more personal. My theory

As if we didn’t have enough elections to worry about. The premise for Conclave is something I would expect to see as a limited series drama more than a feature film in this day and age. And that’s not entirely a bad thing -indeed I think it could make for a very compelling show. But I am glad that Peter Straughan chose to adapt this novel by Robert Harris as a movie, because it is the less likely route for a (mostly) serious adult drama about the politics that shape the Vatican. It’s a world and a subject that isn’t often depicted, even within media largely about the Catholic Church. The relative novelty alone makes it intriguing, the commitment to its mystery and conspiracy downright gripping. It is the first film directed by Edward Berger after the surprise runaway Oscar-winning success that was his All Quiet on the Western Front , and it marks his English-language debut. Berger largely defers to the strengths of the script, which cultivates a cast of shrewd and fascinating charact