Category Archives: Movie Review

There’s a moment near the beginning of Klaus, a 2019 animated film about the origins of Santa Claus, that I can’t stop thinking about. Here’s the scene: Jesper, a skinny and anxious post officer, is standing in the snow with a package in hand, peering through a foreboding iron gate at an even more foreboding house, andContinue reading “Breaking and Entering: Santa Claus and the Perilous Adventure of Christmas”

It’s 1985 in Dublin, Ireland. For fifteen-year-old Conor Lawlor, life is falling apart at the seams. The country is in the midst of a recession. Unemployment is rampant, prompting many young people to flee across the sea to England in search of work. Conor’s parents are separating, and their constant shouting matches reverberate through theContinue reading ““Happy-Sad”: Sing Street and the Magic of Music”

“If you must blink, do it now. Pay careful attention to everything you see and hear, no matter how unusual it may seem. And please be warned: if you fidget, if you look away, if you forget any part of what I tell you, even for an instant, then our hero will surely perish.” TheseContinue reading “Movie Review – Kubo and the Two Strings”

On the island of Berk, vikings and dragons had been enemies for as long as anyone could remember. Dragons were a scourge on the villagers’ livelihoods, torching houses and gobbling up livestock. In response, vikings feared dragons and hunted them mercilessly. For generations, no one dared to question the logic of this war. No one,Continue reading “Movie Review – How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World”