![]() In the film’s view, only one human institution is strong enough to stand steadfast when our innate barbarism rears its ugly head: the condo board. From there on out, he devotes every subsequent frame of his film to explaining why humans are apparently incapable of doing anything good for each other. It’s a lovely sentiment, but writer/director Tae-hwa Eom appears to take his protagonist’s rhetorical question as a personal attack. ![]() “Can’t people just be humane, peace-loving citizens?,” Min-sung (Park Seo-joon) asks at the beginning of “Concrete Utopia,” wondering aloud why the hundreds of apocalypse survivors using his apartment building as makeshift shelter can’t simply share resources and work together. ![]() “Concrete Utopia” (directed by Tae-hwa Eom) Plus: Read IndieWire’s feature on how the English-language dub of the film came together, with lots of input from the stars our interview with composer Joe Hisaishi and much more. And while this dream-like warble of a swan song may be too pitchy and scattered to hit with the gale-force power that made “The Wind Rises” feel like such a definitive farewell, “The Boy and the Heron” finds Miyazaki so nakedly bidding adieu - to us, and to the crumbling kingdom of dreams and madness that he’ll soon leave behind - that it somehow resolves into an even more fitting goodbye, one graced with the divine awe and heart-stopping wistfulness of watching a true immortal make peace with their own death. It lacks the full kineticism of “The Castle of Cagliostro,” the fury of “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind,” the adventure of “Castle in the Sky,” the Totoro of “My Neighbor Totoro,” the effervescence of “Kiki’s Delivery Service,” the romance of “Porco Rosso,” the grandeur of “Princess Mononoke,” the beguilement of “Spirited Away,” the floridness of “Howl’s Moving Castle,” the hamminess of “Ponyo,” or the emotional mega-wattage of “The Wind Rises.”Ĭrucially, however, “The Boy and the Heron” contains aspects of all of those things (in addition to more overt references to the anime godhead’s previous work). It’s true that “How Do You Live?” - which tells an original story that borrows its title from Genzaburo Yoshino’s 1937 novel of the same name, and has been inexplicably rechristened “The Boy and the Heron” for its international release at Studio Ghibli’s behest… despite the fact that Yoshino’s book acts as a crucial plot point in a film whose climax hinges upon an obvious stand-in for its writer-director literally asking the audience “How do you live?” - isn’t Miyazaki’s best film. “The Boy and the Heron” (directed by Hayao Miyazaki) - IndieWire Critic’s Pick The empty spaces where corpses once were are impressed upon otherwise traditional landscapes, and his sculptures and paintings are often made of literally burnt raw materials, rubble, and molten steel to evoke the ravages of World War II. Wim Wenders’ psychologically scant but visually immersive documentary argues that Anselm Kiefer is among the very few German artists, living or dead, to take such an uncompromising gaze at his nation’s own dark histories and complicity in evil. Week of November 27 – December 3 New Films in Theaters We’re talking the latest Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone joint, the brazen and totally original period sex comedy “Poor Thing” Hayao Miyazaki’s alleged final film “The Boy and the Heron” and the stirring animated entry “The Peasants.”Įach film is now available in a theater near you or in the comfort of your own home (or, in some cases, both, the convenience of it all). It’s a heavy-hitting weekend at the box office, as no less than three of the year’s best films (all IndieWire Critic’s Picks, naturally) arrive in theaters, and they could not be more different.
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