Waking Life is a very unusual animation movie created in a unique style and full of almost random philosophical dialogues that leave you with a lasting impression which is hard to describe. I can say with a high degree of certainty that most of you’ll feel dizzy while watching it, and I don’t have the slightest idea whether you’ll like it or not. Nevertheless, I highly recommend it to you because it’s not just a movie — it’s an experience worth its while. The film captivates you, and if you want to experience it to the fullest, I would recommend you watch it on a large screen, or better, in a cinema, a projector, or VR. Give it a try and let me know how you feel about it.

I don’t want to write a lot to not spoil it for you; therefore, I’ll end with a quote from the movie: “So you have these serotonic neurons that inhibit hallucinations that they themselves are inhibited during REM sleep. See this allows dreams to appear real, while preventing competition from other perceptual processes. This is why dreams are mistaken for reality. To the functional system of neural activity that creates our world, there is no difference between dreaming a perception and an action, and actually the waking perception and action.”

TL;DR: 7/10. Alita is an OK movie. Stunning visual, a few good actors, and a fine story.

Being familiar with some live-action anime adaptations (awful Netflix’s Death Note comes to mind immediately), I haven’t been expecting much from this one. And, perhaps, my lowered expectations are the reason that I’ve enjoyed the movie.

If you are expecting deepness and rich story, this movie will leave you disappointed. The film is your typical action-centered show, with good visuals, and almost only enough of the plot to move the action forward.
The characters are likable, but there is a feeling that some of them haven’t received enough screen time for us to understand them and the changes in them properly.

Christopher Waltz is an awesome Gepetto Dr. Ido. Rosa Salazar is a nice Alita. Big anime-like eyes is a controversial decision, but they do not spoil the impression at all. If anything, they help you to accept the artificial essence of the drama we are being presented with and to forgive some plot issues. The details and quality of the CGI in this movie is impressive. It definitely creates most of the attractiveness of this movie. All the techie stuff looks smooth and impressive too.

Summing up, I recommend the movie. It is pretty binge-worthy, it will look perfect on a big screen (this is what it was filmed for! - to be watched on a big screen), and it is a great party movie.

TL;DR: 10/10. Unique and captivating, visually stunning, beautiful wordless story about the existential loneliness, relationships, family, generations, life, love, aspirations, desires, understanding, - people.

The movie “The Red Turtle” is neither your average cartoon nor anime. It is not your typical Studio Ghibli movie either and not even a Studio Ghibli movie per se. Instead, it’s a collaborative work between multiple production companies. Co-written by French and Dutch writers, and produced by Japanese Studio Ghibli, German studio Wild Bunch, and French studio Why Not Productions. Which on its own, makes it a unique piece of art.

The movie has no dialog and relies entirely on visuals and sound to tell the story. They both are beautiful on their own, but they are simply amazing when contributing to such a story.

The story itself starts simple. Still, it becomes richly absorbing as the plot progresses and has a few controversial and ambiguous moments, which, among other things, makes it so good. You’ll be presented with one view on the matters of human relationships, life, love, the importance of opening up, being actively understanding and helping. There are a lot of separate, often small, scenes that can be discussed independently, each bringing up a new matter, adding up to an overall impression of the movie. It’s also notorious how your perception of the movie shifts with the plot progressing when you are watching it the first time.

Overall, I highly recommend the movie for the beautifully told captivating and kind story about often unseen things everyone can use a reminder about from time to time.

TL;DR: 9/10. Nice science fiction movie about the importance of clear communication and mutual understanding in the context of learning a language. Drama & love substory included.

The movie tells the aliens’ arrival story, but it’s not your typical “aliens” invasion. Twelve extraterrestrial spaceships arrive at a set of distant locations across the globe and are just sitting hovering there. Of course, the government agencies of the “host” countries are closing territories for an investigation. The story centered around an expert linguist researcher Louise Banks who is invited to establish meaningful contact with the newcomers. And it turns out to be a life-changing, perception-shuttering, moving-to-the-new-step-of-evolution contact for both humankind and our heroine. There is a love substory (of course!), it doesn’t take too much attention on itself and feels reasonably natural.

On the other hand, I haven’t been able to help but notice a few cliches and was sometimes feeling that something is missing or going wrong. It can be a candidate for a CinemaSins episode (actually, there is one). But there is nothing you (I :-)) can’t forgive.

I like the mood of the movie.

Being a person captivated by the vastness of space, I like that it’s a story about aliens.

I like that it’s a story about languages, how they affect how you think and perceive the world. After all, this is one of the reasons I’m learning foreign languages and writing this blog - to expand my horizons by improving my English.

I like that it’s a story about a terminological misunderstanding, which is often the reason for disagreement between humans — an important and valuable question to remind yourself about.

Overall, I recommend the movie. At the very beginning, it creates a very distinctive atmosphere and properly develops it during the following hours.