Tag: Kirsten Dunst

Kiki’s Delivery Service
(Majo no Takkyubin,
魔女の宅急便)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date August 28 2026
No Comments on Kiki’s Delivery Service
(Majo no Takkyubin,
魔女の宅急便)

Kiki’s Delivery Service (Majo no Takkyubin, 魔女の宅急便)

Director – Hayao Miyazaki – 1989 – Japan – Cert. U – 103m

*****

A young witch sets up her own small business and must learn to make her way in the world – out in a 4K remaster in regular UK and Ireland cinemas from Friday, August 28th following last week’s exclusive presentation in IMAX cinemas

Having reached the age of 13, young Kiki (voice/1989 Japanese dub: Minami Takiyama; 1998 Disney dub: Kirsten Dunst) must leave home to do a year’s apprenticeship as a witch in a location where there isn’t one already. Loaned at the insistence of her mother (voice/1989 Japanese dub: Mieko Nobusawa; 1998 Disney dub: Cath Soucie) the latter’s tried and tested broomstick, and accompanied by her talking black cat Jiji (voice/1989 Japanese dub: Rei Sakuma; 1998 Disney dub: Phil Hartman), she flies out on a night of the full moon. An encounter with a somewhat snooty witch who has just completed her year out reminds Kiki that she needs to develop her own special skill: at this stage, she has no idea as to exactly what this skill might be.

Resting overnight in an in transit railway cattle truck, she takes off again and arrives in Koriko, a bustling city much bigger than the tiny, provincial town where she grew up.… Read the rest

Tags 13 year old, 4K, aerodynamics, airship, apprenticeship, artist, attic room, aviation, baker, bakery, bicycle, black cat, broomstick, cabin, Cath Souci, cattle truck, children of all ages, city and provincial town, crash, crow, delivery, Eiko Kodono, fading ability, feminine intuition, flight trial, flying machine, from girlhood into adulthood, full moon, geese flying in formation, Hayao Miyazaki, IMAX, industrial component, Janeane Garofalo, Japan, Joe Hisaishi, Julia Fletcher, Kappei Yamaguchi; Matthew Lawrence, Keiko Toda; Tress MacNeille, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Kikuo Inoue, Kirsten Dunst, landscape, losing her powers, make her way in the world, miaow, Mieko Nobusawa, Minami Takayama, Minami Takiyama, motivation, near-accident, neighbour, nerd, orders, Pamela Adlon, Phil Hartman), powers of flight, propeller, railway, recovery, Rei Sakuma, rescue, responsibility, romance, sky, small business, soul mates, special skill, Studio Ghibli, stuffed cat, technology, time out, traffic, traffic cop, vertical take off, wind current, witch, Yuriko Fuchizaki

Features Live Action Movies

Civil War

Director – Alex Garland – 2024 – US – Cert. 15 – 109m

*****

Four journalists travel across the war-torn US to interview the President before he resigns or flees the country – out in both UK and US cinemas on Friday, April 12th

The US President (Nick Offerman) is rehearsing a speech, But he can’t seem to work out how to deliver the words.

Seasoned photojournalist Lee Miller (Kirsten Dunst) and journalist colleague Joel (Wagner Moura) are on the front line in the war-torn US. She is in the thick of it, taking photographs, when she spots a twentysomething woman Jessie Colin (CaIlee Spaeny from Priscilla, Sofia Coppola, 2023) doing the same thing, and gives the young woman her hi-vis jacket to help her chances of staying alive.

The girl is so preoccupied with taking pictures that she cradles the jacket in an arm while shooting images with her stills camera. Later, she runs into Lee in their hotel where all the journalists are staying, among them the grizzled veteran Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson from Dune, Denis Villeneuve, 2021) who, despite mobility issues which require him to walk with a cane, insists on being in the thick of it as far as possible.… Read the rest

Tags ’copter, addiction, administration, Alex Garland, being shot at, Biden, bloody, bodies, bulldozer, burnout, CaIlee Spaeny, cane, capital, career, civil war, clothes shop, combatant, corpses, cross-country, Democrat, dress, factions, fighting, fill the tank, filling station, front line, gas, gunfire, hanging, helicopter, hi-vis jacket, hiding, hotel, idealism, incumbent, initials, insurgent, interview the President, Jesse Plemons, journalist, judgement, kill or be killed, Kirsten Dunst, leaves the country, Lee Miller, mass grave, mobility issues, overthrow, petrol, photography, photojournalist, press car, record, red-tinted spectacles, Republican, resign, road movie, ruler, ruling, sniper, Stephen McKinley Henderson, stills camera, taking pictures, the thick of it, trauma, trigger-happy, Trump, US, vehicles, veteran, Wagner Moura, war, war correspondents, war zone, war-torn, Washington DC

Features Live Action Movies

Melancholia
(2011)

Director – Lars von Trier – 2011 – Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden – Cert. 15 – 135m

*****

End of the world drama concerns two sisters who must confront unspeakable disaster – original UK release date Friday, September 9th 2011 and back out again on Friday, September 1st 2023 as part of the season: Enduring Provocations: The Films Of Lars Von Trier.

There have been end of the world movies before, but this one, by Danish enfant terrible Lars von Trier, breaks the mould. It comes in three parts: a prelude of apocalyptic imagery including a view of the planet Melancholia crashing into and obliterating the planet Earth, followed by two lengthy sections concerning two sisters.

The first section has the newly-wed Justine (Kirsten Dunst) making a mess of her lavishly planned, obscenely expensive wedding party at the house of her sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and Claire’s wealthy husband John (Kiefer Sutherland).

The second has Claire, John, their pre-teen son Leo (Cameron Spurr) and Justine awaiting what may turn out to be either the close passing by of Melancholia to the Earth or the fatal collision of the larger planet with the smaller. Depending on whether the prelude’s pictured events are actually going to happen or merely an imagined worst case scenario.… Read the rest

Features Live Action Movies

Mother Night

Director – Keith Gordon – 1996 – US – Cert. 15 – 114m

*****

In this adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, a former Nazi propagandist awaits trial in Israel for war crimes – retail VHS review from Home Entertainment, 1997

From his Israeli prison cell where he must compose his memoirs while awaiting trial for his war crimes in black and white, Howard W. Campbell, Jr. (Nick Nolte in a career-defining performance) recalls in colour flashback his rise to fame in wartime Berlin as a radio propaganda writer / broadcaster for the Third Reich, surviving that regime’s madness by devoting himself to actress wife Helga (Sheryl Lee) and their self-contained Nation Of Two.

Recruited from a park as an undercover American spy by raincoat‑wearing American top brass John Goodman (a small part, but likewise impressive), Campbell has to incorporate coded messages to the Allies in his broadcasts. In 1944, Helga dies. After the War, Campbell winds up alone in a seedy New York apartment where neighbours include fellow widower Alan Arkin and Auschwitz survivor‑turned‑doctor Ayre Gross.

When admiring right wing activists arrive at Campbell’s door, the tale (based on Kurt Vonnegut’s novel) lurches even further into surrealism. Gordon’s direction is flawless throughout.… Read the rest