The Top Ten of The Last Ten

10 - The Social Network (2010)

The protagonist of Fincher's Facebook film may have lost some of our respect over recent years, following criticism of his involvement with Cambridge Analytica and attitudes to ads, but whilst Mark Zuckerberg has fallen, The Social Network has soared. Its razor-sharp dialogue, powerful editing, and compelling acting never presents its characters as anything but flawed and broken trying to make it in a world that only cares about popularity. It's still a highly entertaining, and culturally damning, portrayal of the power of social media and the overwhelming desire to be liked. It could be argued that it is more meaningful now than ever.

9 - The Hurt Locker (2009)

Really, The Hurt Locker is what started everything for me. Not my love for films, that was well established, but my love for all things Oscars. The Hurt Locker was one of those rare films that took my breath away like nothing had done before. So why the love for the Oscars? In my mind, Avatar was going to win Best Picture; it was a two horse race. But Hurt Locker won. That was exciting - to see this superb piece of cinema topple the $2 billion behemoth. And every year there's a competition, a battle with a winner to predict. But that's not why The Hurt Locker is so high on this list. Yes it holds a special place in my heart, but it is also a gosh-darn great movie.

8 - Up In The Air (2009)

Some films get better the more you watch them, some get worse. My master's thesis focused on airports in American Cinema (fun, right?)*, looking at 2004's The Terminal and 2009's Up in the Air. I liked both films when starting but now I'd be happy to never see a single frame of The Terminal again. Up in the Air, however, got better with every viewing, despite excruciating analysis. Now that's the sign of a good film. A beautifully crafted movie with George Clooney's Ryan as a living embodiment of airport life - busy, impressive, free, but ultimately empty, devoid of any solid, concrete relationships, revelling only in temporary connections. It's as warm as it is heartbreaking, and much more grounded than its title lets on.

*Full title: Representation of the Airport in American Film: Exploring Marc Augé's Non-Place, its Effect on Relationships, and the Concept of Home in The Terminal and Up in the Air

7 - Django Unchained (2012)

Slavery may not seem like a natural topic for Tarantino, the wise-cracking, violence-loving, history-warping filmmaker that he is. In fact, slavery should surely be treated with the upmost sincerity? I mean, look at 12 Years a Slave - they won Best Picture with their very serious (and very good) representation of one of the darkest times in American History. But with Django, an organic pairing emerges. Tarantino does not treat slavery lightly, but never does he let his audience dwell in sorrow. While this is a victorious story, it still shows all the gruesome realities of slavery and doesn't hide the ugliness of revenge. Is it stylised, yes. Is it often tongue-in-cheek, yes. But does it ever downplay the suffering of those who were enslaved or make light of their plight? No. It could very easily be a disaster, but in Tarantino's hands, it is a major success.

6 - Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014) 

It's tempting to assign Birdman's success to a gimmick: the single long take in which the film is shot. And whilst it's stylistic properties are worth all the merit they're given, Birdman is so much more than clever camera work. As well as being the highest Best Picture winner on this list, it's a stunning piece of visual artistry and outstanding strong telling, contained within the parameters set by the single wandering viewpoint. It's immersive and subversive, funny and miserable, stacked with world-class performances and complimented by a strong rewatch value. Well, how could Birdman not make the top ten?

5 - The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

At three hours long, The Wolf of Wall Street is easily the longest film to break the top ten, but unlike other similar-length films, particularly those released around Oscar season, it never drags. It portrays the exhilarating appeal of Belfort's lifestyle, regardless of its condemnable morality, whilst not shying away from the ugly, crushing devastation that it brings. It is bold, brutal, breathtaking, and boasts a career-best performance from Leonardo DiCaprio (don't @ me). The picture it paints may be shades of moral and ethical grey, but grey has never dazzled so brightly.

4 - Black Swan (2010)

What happens when you combine the high art of ballet with spine-tingling unease and paranoid suspense of a horror film? The answer: you get one of the best films of the last ten years; an unnervingly dark dive into the human psyche as it pursues perfection. Black Swan is as scary as it is steamy, whilst never being insincere and we, as the viewer, share in Nina's swan dive into madness, experiencing every second of it through her as our unreliable guide with Aronofsky's directing perfectly positioning his audience to constantly surprise, scare, and shock us. As far as films go, this one is on pointe (sorry).

3 - Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

There's no other film on this list quite like Mad Max: Fury Road. Firstly, it's a sequel. Not only that, it's a reboot-sequel. And not only that, but it's a reboot-sequel set in dystopian wasteland, ruled by a cult of radioactively decaying, kamikazing mad-men that drive spikey sand-buggies and swing flamethrower-guitar players from ropes whilst chasing the few females left in their world. Not your typical Oscar bait, but simply brilliant. A visual masterpiece, a joyous thrill-ride, an overwhelmingly unique piece of cinema; Fury Road is all these things and more. But what does Fury Road have that few others on this list have? Fun. It takes it's fun seriously, and as a result it is seriously fun. Whilst other films may make us well up or pull on our heartstrings, Fury Road begs us to watch again and again and again. It says 'hey, hop in. Enjoy the drive', and we can't not. It's just too good.

2 - The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

Auter is not a word thrown around much these days, and probably for good reason. Do many directors today really have a distinguishable style, something immediately recognisable? A few names spring to mind, but none more so than Wes Anderson; his style is uniquely crafted and The Grand Budapest Hotel is the jewel in his crown. A ridiculously comic, character driven caper featuring a dream cast, a non-linear narrative (complete with complementary aspect ratios) and signature cinematography. It is a meticulously detailed cinematic experience which never sacrifices its entertainment value or its beauty. In fact, it truly encompasses all that the medium of film has to offer in order to tell a fantastic and phenomenally funny story.

1 - Whiplash (2014)

It's not often I finish a film and want to re-watch it immediately, but that's what happened with Whiplash. I was rewatching it the very next day after thinking about it all night. Almost five years since its release, and I'm still thinking about it all the time. It is a reminder that films don't have to be box-office behemoths filled with cherished intellectual property to be brilliant, but great performances, a sharp edit, a contained narrative, and only personal stakes can do the job fine. Damien Chazelle has become a regular at the Oscars (with La La Land and First Man in the last few years) but not because his films are 'Oscar-bait', but because they are good films without appealing to the conventions of a typical winner. And sure, he hasn't gone home with a Best Picture gong yet but his best film to date gets the absolute privilege of sitting at the top of this completely pointless list, on this completely pointless blog with an author who will fight tooth and nail for it to stay there. 

Ranking 10 Years of Best Picture Nominees

So for the last ten years, since the Academy moved to ten spots for Best Picture nominations, I've committed to watching every Best Picture nominee. That's 89 films. Some of which I've seen many times since, some I've not watched again, and a couple I wished I'd never watched. The winners by year have been bolded and I've included some occasional thoughts. Do let me know your thoughts too! What should be higher, lower or am I spot on?

So here we go, with all objectivity out the window and only subjectivity left, this is Phil's rankings of the last ten years of Best Picture nominees:

89. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)

Taking a proud spot at the bottom of this crucial list, the only film nominated for Best Picture in the last ten years that I thought was simply bad. It was distasteful, badly made, and had an irritating lead (though Max von Sydow is a glimmer of excellence in an otherwise poor film). It stands at 46% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is about half of what most nominees get (for reference, the next 'worst' film is The Blind Side at 66%, a whopping 20% clear). I'm with Andrea Peyser who called it 'Extremely, incredibly exploitive' in her review. The handling of a subject such as the devestating effects of 9/11 deserves better, more thoughtful treatment and, less importantly, the Oscars deserve better films.

88. Bohemian Rhapsody  (2018)
89. The Kids Are All Right (2010)
90. Lion (2016)
91. The Post (2017)
92. The Blind Side (2009)
93. American Sniper (2014)
94. Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
95. Moneyball (2011)
96. War Horse (2011)
97. American Hustle (2013)
98. Hidden Figures (2016)
99. Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)
100. Selma (2014)
101. Hugo (2011)
102. Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
103. Les Misérables (2012)
104. The Theory of Everything (2014)
105. The Imitation Game (2014)
106. Phantom Thread (2017)
107. Her (2013)
108. Hell or High Water (2016)

67. Green Book (2018)

 

The lowest ranking of the Best Picture winners. This is not a bad film but it is forgettable (see also Argo at 62), and that is where it's success came from. A safe commentary on racism that appealed to everyone but dazzled no one. It falls at the better end of mostly forgettable films (see numbers 88-68) which suggests, whilst still one of the better films of the year, it's not going to survive in cinematic memory like those just a few further up the list. 

66. The Fighter (2010)
67. Philomena (2013)
68. Winter's Bone (2010)
69. Life of Pi (2012)
70. Argo (2012)
71. Precious (2009)
72. Vice (2018)
73. A Serious Man (2009)
74. The Help (2011)
75. Room (2015)

56. Avatar (2009)

 

Despite being pipped to the post for Oscar glory by small-budget The Hurt Locker, Avatar has left its mark on cinema history, developing groundbreaking technology, and taking more money in its box office than any film that came before it. Only in uniting 11 years worth of superhero films in the MCU's Avengers: Endgame has anyone even come close to beating that record, and they only managed it with a re-release.  Before that, the record was held by Avatar director, James Cameron with Titanic. Was Avatar the best movie of the last ten years? Evidently not. But it was one of the most spectacular cinematic experiences I've had (and I saw it three times in the cinema). It's worth taking a moment to remember the magic that it brought to the big screen, particularly in a world of CGI lions singing Hakuna Matata and endless streams of superheroes. 

55. 127 Hours (2010)
56. Boyhood (2014)
57. Lincoln (2012)
58. Black Panther (2018)
59. An Education (2009)
60. The Martian (2015)
61. Darkest Hour (2017)

48. The Tree of Life (2011)

 

Of all the films on this list, why would I pull out The Tree of Life for a brief comment? It falls somewhere around the middle of this list (despite my own five-star review) and it's not a film we talk about a lot. But it is, and I say this reservedly, the best looking, most beautiful film on the list. Terrence Malik guides us, in a dream-like state, through an exploration of life - its purposes, its meanings and its relationships, not just with one another, but with the world we live in. It's safe to say, there's no other film like it on this list.  

47. Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
48. Dunkirk (2017)
49. The Big Short (2015)
50. Roma (2018)
51. Up (2009)
52. The Revenant (2015)
53. The Descendants (2011)
54. Midnight in Paris (2011)
55. Bridge of Spies (2015)
56. BlacKkKlansman (2018)
57. The Shape of Water (2017)
58. Spotlight (2015)
59. The King's Speech (2010)
60. Gravity (2013)
61. True Grit (2010)

32. Amour (2012)

One of two films on this list that have actually made it into my academic study* (the other falls at number 8), Amour is a beautiful and painful film about love and life. It may be one you haven't seen - thus me highlighting it here - and if that's the case, you should correct that. Six years after the previous foreign-language film made it to the Best Picture race (Babel - 2006) and six years before last year's Roma, Amour was tragically under appreciated. It was a small, heartbreaking movie that wrongly passed under many radars. J'adore Amour.

*Full title: The Shocking Nature of Violence in Films; Film Violence, Aesthetics and Context: An In-Depth Analysis of Audience Reception of Representations of Violence

31. Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
32. Arrival (2016)
33. A Star Is Born (2018)
34. Captain Phillips (2013)
35. Nebraska (2013)
36. 12 Years a Slave (2013)
37. Moonlight (2016)
38. The Favourite (2018)
39. Fences (2016)
40. Manchester by the Sea (2016)
41. Toy Story 3 (2010)
42. The Artist (2011)
43. District 9 (2009)

18. Inception (2010)

 

Christopher Nolan's boggling masterpiece left everything spinning back in 2010: tops, corridors, and our minds. Its stunning set pieces, action paced plot, and ensemble cast have solidified their place in cinematic history. Who can forget the first time they saw Paris fold in on itself, or how they felt after the corridor fight sequence, or the tension in that final shot; did it wobble? Will it fall?! We may never know but what we do know is this was something unique, hugely creative, with jaw-dropping visuals, from one of the best, most influential directors of the current age.

17. Get Out (2017)
18. Inglorious Basterds (2009)
19. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
20. Lady Bird (2017)
21. Brooklyn (2015)
22. La La Land (2016)

11. Call Me by Your Name (2017)

 

Just falling shy of the top ten is a beautiful piece of cinema. Gentle, loving film-making; the type of film-making we just don't see much of these days. Director Luca Guadagnino lets his camera wander in a day-dream-like manner through the stunning landscapes of rural Italy, watching his characters as they go about exploring relationships, sexuality, faith and much more. They're not in a rush, and neither is the viewer, allowing the audience time to understand Oliver and Elio as they begin to understand one another. We're not just a witness to their relationship, but participants in it, feeling what they feel, experiencing what they experience. It makes the long shot over the credits of Elio all the more heartfelt and real. Pitch perfect performances combined with a genuine artist behind the camera - this is fine fine film-making and a true rarity. 

Well then - only ten left to go. Click here for the top ten!

Best Picture 2019: Part II

Green Book

Racism is bad, buddy road movies are good, and few show that better than Green Book. In many senses, it's too formulaic and adheres to too many stereotypical scenarios and characters but the chemistry onscreen is electric. Mortensen and Ali are both on brilliant form and it is the way they work together that really lends Green Book its success.

Green Book manages to be powerful in the issues it portrays but also funny and heartwarming. That may seem like it would undermine the severity of racism but it actually emphasises the contrast in the way successful African Americans were (and are) treated. The film has been riddled with some scandals - some more scandalous than others - but that shouldn't detract you from the fact that this is a good, mostly well crafted, film. That being said, its biggest weakness is not anything that happens on screen, but rather that none of that is hugely memorable. There's nothing bold here and it causes Green Book to slowly fade into a cinematic mist of similarly well-intentioned but safe film-making.

Roma

A cinematic love letter, in part to Cuarón's home country of Mexico, and in part to the language of film making. An emotive, powerful piece of cinema that never drifts through life, but purposefully captures the unfolding events of a young maid's life.

Roma has everything one could ask for (except colour, I suppose). Its shot in beautifully crisp black and white (rivalled only by this year's Cold War), holding its gaze and refusing to cut away. The camera pans with characters as they navigate relationships with one another, balancing employment and class. Cuarón isn't afraid to let things sit for a moment, allowing the audience to fully absorb everything in front of them. Similarly, he introduces details that seem small or insignificant and grows them into a full and powerful climax without the need for constant action, CGI magic, or big names to make it captivating. This love letter is written to ask its lover, the viewers, to come home and remember what made them fall in love with cinema to begin with.

The Favourite

What happens when you take a director known for a film about single people being turned into animals and have them direct a period piece about a 1700s queen and the ladies in her court? You get The Favourite; a daring and dizzying display of regal ridiculousness captured with whip pans and a fish-eye lens.

The Favourite boasts stunning performance from its three leading ladies, Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz, and Olivia Coleman. They are all devilish and controlling but also weak at times which opens up opportunities for power struggles to emerge, and these struggles are the backbone of the narrative. This is a weird world of duck and lobster racing, of sapphic love-making, and of rotten fruit throwing Torys but its absurdity never feels out of place or unneeded. This is the world Lanthimos has created in order to tell this story, this foul-mouthed reality is not so different from our own and it is the best reality to tell this story.

Blackklansman

Blacksploitation films may have faded out of popular culture (and probably for good reasons) but if there were one man to play with the genre, it would be Spike Lee. The veteran director is back with a fun recreation of a completely bizarre police case.

The concept alone, a black man infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan, seems ridiculous but there is a reality here Lee wants to present. From the moment the screen flicks into life, you can feel Lee's purposeful hand guiding the viewer, using cinema as a point of focus. Scenes from Gone With The Wind and Birth of a Nation grace the screen before anything happens, putting the slave-driving South (particularly that glorified in celluloid) in the audience's mind immediately. The rest of the story is fun, dramatic, and well performed but don't let the light tone and historic setting fool you. Lee closes as purposefully as he opens, jumping forward to the present and showing the viewer cars ploughing through crowds of black protestors, reminding us that racism is not dead and in fact, racism still kills.

Animated Shorts

Bao

Pixar's obligatory nomination in the short category is arguably one of their weaker. It ticks a lot of boxes, is pertinent to a particular culture, and is poetic in some of it's storytelling, but it's a little confusing and underwhelming. It's cute, but the emotional core of it just doesn't quite hit home. 

Animal Behaviour

The weakest of the nominated shorts (and of those shortlisted, in all honesty). It's a mildly entertaining skit with animals seeking therapy for their animalistic behaviour (haha), but the entire first half is too safe. The jokes are too obvious and the dialogue is strained. It picks up in its second half, but it's still too simplistic with it's real focus only appearing at the very end - too late.

Late Afternoon

A moving little short about how precious our memories really are, especially when the mind starts failing. Its abstract animation drifts through loose memories in swirls of colour, diving into a cup of tea and out into happier days gone by. Its gloriously animated and powerfully emotive.

One Small Step

Simple stories are sometimes the best, and One Small Step is no exception. Beautifully animated and brilliantly paced. It builds you up, knocks you down, but like its protagonist, you get right on back up and keep going. It will tug at your heartstrings and may even send chills down your spine. It may be simple, but it's proof that you don't need dialogue to say something great.

Weekends

The boldest of the shorts. It's daring in its animation, examining the difficulties of a child spreading their lives across their parents separate homes. through dreamlike (read: nightmare) sequences that embody the fear and isolation the kid feels. It feels like the freshest, most original of the shorts that has the most unique voice. It may seem a little jarring, but it's compelling.

Special Mention

My ultimate 'snub' this year was the astonishing Lost & Found. A stunning seven minute stop motion animation that you can watch now on Youtube. It was on the shortlist for the Oscar nomination, but failed to make the final five. It is a powerful, emotive story, and despite not a single word, it builds suspense like that of a Hitchcock film. It will tug on a loose thread from your heart and make it unravel. Brilliantly produced, beautifully shot; this was an oversight by the Academy and it's a shame that the short won't get the recognition it deserves.

Best Pictures 2019: Part I

A Star is Born

A dazzling directorial debut from Bradley Cooper, breathing new life into a classic Hollywood narrative. As the fourth re-imagination of of the same story, there's a danger of being stale and tired, falling victim to over-used tropes and clichés. Cooper, however, fearlessly presses on like a veteran and creates one of the year's biggest and boldest hits.

A Star is Born requires one thing to succeed: a real star. Fortunately, it has two. Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper are astonishing, with Cooper particularly turning in the performance of his life and Gaga's mesmerising voice will blow you away; the leads make this story real. There's an overwhelming feeling of truth hidden behind the artifice of cinema, helped in no small part by having a pop star reenact the climb to fame with dialogue that feels pulled directly from Gaga's backstory. It's a beautifully shot, masterful piece of work, that seamlessly overcomes its weaknesses such as pacing in its third act. Like the songs it contains, the film hardly misses a note. It's enthralling, moving, and musically outstanding.

Black Panther

Marvel films dominate today's cinematic landscape and appear in, and regularly on top of, lists of the best movies of the year. Whether you believe they're that good or not, no one can deny their cultural impact and certainly not that of Black Panther. The eighteenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe caused a worldwide stir at the beginning of 2018 when it was released and those ripples are still apparent now, a year on. It's clear to see why; in a cinematic universe, and more widely a cinematic landscape, featuring predominately white male heroes, the lack of representation for people of colour in cinema's biggest franchise was painfully apparent.

But Black Panther is not just a check box for the MCU's diversity quota; it's a political commentary, a thrill ride of power struggles, and one of the MCU's best movies. In many practical elements, it is flawless. Its production design and costume design are inspired, drawing inspiration from African tribal wear - the image of which contrasts with the valuable knowledge and resources the Wakandans have to offer. It feels more timely, more pertinent today than Marvel's other films, but even its visually impressive and strong design, fresh take on the superhero genre, and brilliant performances can't save it from feeling too neat, too restrained by the bigger picture that the MCU has in sight. With a bit more freedom, it's exciting to imagine what Black Panther could have been.

Bohemian Rhapsody

The controversies surrounding new allegations of sexual misconduct by director Bryan Singer may be an external factor affecting how (and if) one watches Bohemian Rhapsody but on on it's own merits, it still struggles. It's not a bad film, but it's not great. It's all spectacle and no depth and it feels like a cheap imitation of a creative genius. It's not just air-brushing to compress the narrative, it's unnecessarily manipulating Mercury's life to evoke an emotional response and tell a more compelling story. But it feels dishonest; Mercury was a legend, so why adjust key aspects of his life? In order to tell a 'better' story?

And despite being an entertaining romp through Queen's greatest hits, it's often emotively flat. The supporting cast are one dimensional at best which elevates a brilliant performance by Rami Malek by contrast. But there's no character development beyond Mercury, which is strained anyway and mostly hinges on a literal descent into a gay underworld. Maybe there was something worse here, salvaged into something watchable and mostly enjoyable by veteran editor John Ottman, but it's not inventive, innovative, and inspiring like its subject. And really, isn't that what Freddie deserves?

Vice

Featuring a powerhouse politician embodied in a powerhouse performance by Christian Bale, Vice tells the story of Dick Cheney; his subtle rise to a position of power and how he wielded that power. Adam McKay’s energetic follow up to The Big Short is angled in a way designed to make Thanos look like a puppy dog. It’s partisan and biased but it’s completely compelling film making, playing with narrative story structures and using its cinematic medium to full effect. There’s a restaurant scene where the menu offers tasty travesties from the invasion of Iraq, a false ending, archival footage, a Shakespearean soliloquy, and much more. It’s a storytelling marvel.

That being said, it sometimes rushes and sometimes drags and occasionally becomes confusing as we jump between self-aware meta-scenes, safari footage, and the main narrative. There’s a lot to digest which will no doubt require multiple viewings and it’s exciting enough to not make that a chore. It's funny, which only highlights the severity of its subject matter. It's a well aimed satire and, for the most part, it hits its mark dead on.

Oscars 2019: Part II

Free Solo

You may think someone climbing El Capitan without ropes would be the most compelling aspect of Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin's documentary but it is the climber rather than the climb that makes Free Solo what it is. Alex Honnold is risking life and limb when he solos, so what makes him attempt the insane? Looking closely at both Honnold and those closest to him, we get a glimpse into the mind of a major thrill seeker and it is exhilarating. By the time we get to the climb, you’ve already sweat a bucket and bitten all your nails off.

It’s a fascinating journey of one man trying to do the impossible and we’re along with him for all the very literal, and all too terrifying, highs and lows. It only really scratches the surface of man vs nature and why someone may want to do this, but it's beautifully shot, somewhat disturbing, and all-together captivating.

If Beale Street Could Talk

Barry Jenkins follows his best picture winning Moonlight with another close-up of life in the black community. He carefully dissects the institutional racism inherit in America, without ever abandoning the love story at the centre of his film. His camera paints poetry with a delicate and deliberate colour palette, capturing and commanding the eye. It glides through scenes like a dream, showing the joy and optimism amongst the pain and the suffering. Beale Street simply doesn’t need to talk when it looks this good.

Powerful performances ground Jenkins’ transcendent style, bringing human heart with strong but flawed characters. The chemistry and tensions on-screen are palpable, drawing the audience into the scene, seating them in the middle of the crossfire and forcing them into the conversation. Occasionally it may drag when indulging its vision too much, but it’s forgivable; ultimately, it’s powerful and emotive film making.

Christopher Robin

For many of us, Winnie the Pooh played a big part in our childhoods but none as big as the part he played in the childhood of his pal Christopher Robin. Also like many of us, Christopher grew up and forgot Pooh, filling his time with other things - work and family - until they reach breaking point with one another. It is at this crisis point that Pooh reappears to help his old friend once again. 

It's a charming film, though very familiar. The plot is ancient, though typically Disney, with some CGI Pooh Bears and Tiggers thrown in, and a goofily archetypal antagonist in Christopher's boss (Mark Gatiss) for good measure. And despite it's somewhat dark and dismal start for an excellent Ewan McGregor's Christopher, the film drips with joy and love for its source material. Pooh, who gets vastly more screen-time than the other critters of Hundred Acre Wood, is a delight, helped in no small part by Jim Cummings returning to voice the beloved bear. At it's worst, Christopher Robin is too plain and simple. At it's best, it's fun; plain and simple. 

Mirai

The true cosmic magic of family, the connections that transcend time, are on full display in Hosoda's Mirai. It's an adventure that plays with linear narrative storytelling, the best method to capture the jealousies, insecurities, need for love, and imagination of a young child whose space is invaded by a newborn sibling.

It's a touching exploration into memory and family, investigating the invisible links that hold the fabric of our lives together but it can be clunky at times. Mirai struggles to maintain its tempo, often too neatly tying up threads before they're suddenly unravelled again for the next mystical encounter. If nothing else, it's a refreshing reminder that animation is still alive and well if not flourishing, without feeling the need to adhere to the formats presented by the big western studios.