Space Oddities

New! My review of Rutu Modan's brilliant graphic novel "Tunnels" is now up at Tablet Magazine.

The Subterranean Brilliance of Rutu Modan’s ‘Tunnels’ Israel’s leading graphic novelist excavates the conflict-ridden landscape of her country, with a hat tip to Indiana Jones

Weathering With You - the visuals are, as expected, stunning, and the film, as expected, carries a considerable emotional punch, but compared to the director's previous film, "Your Name", the narrative here has some problems doing the heavy lifting. The film tries very hard to generate a sense of urgency, and is only partly successful. The film's attempts to build an appropriate atmosphere are also not 100% successful (mostly due to the presence of way to many pop songs in the soundtrack) and the moral subtext is, how shall we say, weird.
Good film, but not the masterpiece it could have been, or the masterpiece that "Your Name" was. A detailed review may follow.