Tag: peace

Holy Days

Director – Nat Boltt – 2026 – New Zealand, Canada – Cert. 12a – 101m

***1/2

Three ageing nuns must save their ramshackle convent from property developers and help a local Maori boy come to terms with his mum’s death and his dad’s new partner – out in UK and Ireland cinemas on Friday, Aug 14th

In a wondrously tacky stop-frame parody, giant-sized Brian rides his giant-sized bicycle through the village (cut to live action Brian played by Elijah Tomati) to explain to Sister Agnes (Judy Davis) at the door of his destination building that he’s committed blasphemery. It turns out his exact words were, “Jesus Jumping Christ”. Taking it good humouredly in her stride, she tells him to come in. And, as a penance, assigns him to clean all the upstairs floors.

As a title informs us, it’s New Zealand. 1974.

Upstairs, Sister Mary Clare (Jacki Weaver) explains that the reason for all the baby photos is that the nuns used to take them in. And shows him, thorough the window, Sister Luke’s garden. Which has seen better days. Brian says his mum loved it here. The feeling was reciprocal, apparently. Nun and boy turn floor polishing chores into improvised sports exercise gliding along the floor.… Read the rest

Tags 1974, 30 mph, afterlife, animation, apology, baby photos, beach, Bible, bicycle, bike, bishop, blasphemery. penance, blasphemy, bribe, bribery, broth, Canada, care home, ceiling plaster, chores, Chris Reddington, Christian, church, cigarette, clean the floor, convent, dancing, dashboard, dementia, dentures, developer, do a runner, done up, driving, Elijah Tomati, false teeth, ferry, flashback, fruit cake, garden, grand opening, grave, Heaven, Holy Days, Jesus, John Bach, Jonny Brugh, Joy Cowley, landscape, luggage, Maori, mean driver, memory, Miriam Margolyes, mothers and sons, mountain, Nat Boltt, New Zealand, partner, peace, Plum Duff Pudding, property, reconciliation, revelation, role model, security of tenure, smoking, snow, snow globe, South Island, spirit, stepmother, stepmothers and sons, stop-frame, stop-frame animation, stop-motion, stop-motion animation, surrogate mother, Tanea Heke, title deeds, traffic cop, Ty Jepsen, udy Davis, village, Winter

Animation Features Movies

The Inventor

Directors – Jim Capobianco, Pierre-Luc Granjon – 2023 – US, France, Ireland – Cert. PG – 100m

****

Towards the end of his life, inventor Leonardo da Vinci goes to live in France under the patronage of the King – stop frame / drawn animation composite is out in the UK’s Vue cinemas on Friday, March 8th

Rome, Italy, 1516. Leonardo da Vinci (voice: Stephen Fry) happily shows off a giant optical system of magnifying glasses for observing the heavens to his assistant Francesco Melzi (voice: Angelino Sandri). Francesco retorts that Leonardo ought to be worried about the Pope who has spies everywhere (and sure enough, there are eyes watching from nearby peepholes). Leonardo’s other assistant, the hulking, mute Zoroastro sources corpses for him, on which the curious Leonardo performs dissections and studies what he finds through making drawings in his quest for find the animated spirit of man, a search which, in dreams and visions, often leads him into confrontation with a mysterious, gargantuan, dark-hooded figure.

The inventor is summoned to Pope Leo X (voice: Matt Berry) who wants to know, why can’t Leonardo just make pretty things? The arrival of a messenger whose helmet is half crushed by a cannonball leads Leo to suggest Leonardo fashion him machines of war.… Read the rest

Tags 2D animation, 3D animation, Angelino Sandri, animation, body, cannonball, capture, castle, character design Cardinal De Beatis, Charles V, city, corpse, Daisy Ridley, Daniel Swan, dissection, drawing, drawn animation, dreams, enemy, flying rigs, forces, France, Francis I, French, Gauthier Battoue, Giuliano de Medici, gravedigger, Henry VIII, hooded, human body, ideal city, Inventor, Ireland, Italy, Jane Osborn, Jim Capobianco, John Gilkey, king, Leonardo da Vinci, lion, Louise de Savoy, magnifying glasses, Marion Cotillard, Matt Berry, Max Baumgarten, Meaning Of Life, mechanical, mechanical lion, Natalie Palamides, observation, obsession, optics, painting, pastel shade, peace, peepholes, Pierre-Luc Granjon, pontiff, Pope, Pope Leo X, power, Princess Marguerite de Navarre, puppet, Queen Mother, Renaissance, Rome, royal court, spirit, spirit of man, statue, Stephen Fry, stop-frame, stop-frame animation, stop-motion, stop-motion animation, study, suns, The Garden Of Earthly Delights, US, visions, war, war machines, wire work

Features Live Action Movies Music

Bob Marley
One Love

Director – Reinaldo Marcus Green – 2023 – US – Cert. 12a – 104m

***1/2

From his childhood in poverty in Jamaica, Bob Marley rises to stardom and international fame as the bast known proponent of reggae music – out in UK cinemas on Friday, February 16th

All this movie has to do to succeed is give us lots of Bob Marley’s recordings and show us lots of images of him doing things in the process. That’s what the movie says on the tin and that’s what you find inside. It fundamentally delivers what its audience expects and will probably do very well. Although I wouldn’t describe myself as a particular fan, over the years Marley’s music has seeped inescapably into both the popular and my own consciousness: it’s good, positive stuff which genuinely hits a tangible musical groove. I watched the movie and had the good time I was expecting. And Kingsley Ben-Adir is watchable enough as Marley.

However.

Anyone who comes to this wanting to know more about Bob Marley will find this a frustrating experience. Director Green, who co-wrote the script, fails to introduce a number of characters properly. Among Marley’s entourage of musicians and friends, for instance, I couldn’t tell you which one in the film is Peter Tosh (Alex-A Game), who is something of a lesser legend in the world of reggae.… Read the rest