Argument
‘Children of Men’ Was Rewritten by the People Cast in It
Lucinda Syson, who cast Alfonso Cuarón’s film, was in Stockholm last week. Twenty years later, the cast still shows how much of a movie gets written before anyone says ‘action’.
Revival
Hasbro Is Still Apologising for Killing Optimus Prime 40 Years Later
‘The Transformers: The Movie’ was supposed to clear space for the next toy line. Children, inconveniently, had become attached to the inventory.
Revival
‘Whisper of the Heart’ Returns in 4K, and It Still Belongs to Yoshifumi Kondō
Studio Ghibli has restored one of its loveliest films. It is also the only feature its director ever got to make.
Argument
‘Wildwood’ Took 231 Weeks to Animate. You’re Supposed to Forget That.
Laika’s puppets now move so beautifully that the handwork can disappear inside the image. Good thing the studio keeps showing us the tiny lungs.
Revival
Spaceballs Found the Money
Rick Moranis came back, Mel Brooks found the money, and 'Spaceballs' arrived at Comic-Con with an eleven-phase cinematic universe. The flamethrower now looks restrained.
Argument
The Big Bang Theory Shows Up at Comic-Con Dressed as You
The Stuart spinoff premiered at San Diego Comic-Con in July, and the laughter was gone at last. The return gets a fair hearing here. The old show has run out of appeals.
Revival
Moana, Again, Already
The Disney film that opened at my local cinema in July is called 'Vaiana'. Sweden has only ever known her by that name, and so has Germany, where the remake arrived a day ahead of the United States. Seen from a country where no film called 'Moana' has ever existed, the ten-year turnaround looks even stranger.
Ledger
The Amazing Digital Circus Beat Hollywood in Cinemas, Then Posted the Finale for Free
A free Australian YouTube cartoon topped cinema charts across Europe, then posted its finale online for nothing. How a Sydney studio beat the studios at their own game.
Handover
Pixar Built the Screen, Then Cast It as the Villain
The villain of 'Toy Story 5' is a tablet. The studio warning your kids off screens is the one that taught a generation to sit still and watch.
Handover
What Scorsese's Name Is For
Martin Scorsese has become an adviser to the German AI firm Black Forest Labs, and the film unions are furious. A note on what a famous name actually buys.
Argument
Fjord-Sitting: Europe Can Both-Sides Too
Last Tuesday at the press conference for 'Fjord', Sebastian Stan refused to laugh at a Trump question. Four days later, his director Cristian Mungiu took home the Palme d'Or for what he calls a meditation on "left-wing fundamentalism." Notes on what Cannes chose to crown.
Review
'Send Help' Is Sam Raimi's First Real Raimi Movie Since 'Spider-Man 2'
'Darkman' aired on German TV one night in the early nineties. I was thirteen, maybe fourteen, already keeping mental lists of directors, watching a man in bandages set things on fire with a kind of glee I didn't know movies were allowed to have. The name in the credits was Sam Raimi.
