Category: Year: 2020
-
Earwig and The Witch. Dir. by Gorō Miyazaki. Studio Ghibli. 2020
EARWIG AND THE WITCH : Black Cats in Witchcraft Earwig and the Witch tells the story of Aya, an orphan girl adopted by a witch called Yaga and a demon called Mandrake. All along this adventure, Aya only has one friend, the cat of the house, Thomas. Through making potions, drawing and developing plans to…
-
My Octopus Teacher. Dir. Pippa Ehrlich & James Reed. Netflix. 2020
‘A lot of people say an octopus is like an alien. But the strange thing is, as you get closer to them, you realize that we’re very similar in a lot of ways.’ There is a popular saying among marine biologists that ‘we know more about the surface of the moon than we do about…
-
Nomadland. Chloe Zhao. Searchlight Pictures. 2020.
Chloe Zhao’s 2021 feature film Nomadland explores the conditions of the American landscape, nomadic experiences and estranged relationships of belonging amidst continuously unstable socio-political and economic conditions of the 21st century. Zhao blends a naturalist style of filmmaking with observational realism to explore the stories of nomads living in rural America, employing non-actors to play…
-
My Octopus Teacher. Dir. Pippa Ehrlich & James Reed. Netflix. 2020
“She was teaching me to become sensitized to the other.” The biographical documentary ‘My Octopus Teacher’ follows the unique relationship between wildlife filmmaker Craig Foster and an octopus living on the Western Cape of South Africa. As the film unfolds, the octopus becomes accustomed to Foster’s presence and what starts as curiosity blossoms into an…
-
Earwig and The Witch. Goro Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli & NHK. 2020
The making of the potion scene Earwig and the Witch tells the story of Aya, a girl adopted by a witch and a demon. With a blend of CGI animation and Russian folktales, this film gives us a child story tangled with a witchy vibe—a mix too scary for kids, according to some. Thomas, the…
-
I’m Thinking of Ending Things. Dir. Charlie Kaufman. Netflix. 2020.
“There’s just something… ineffable. Profoundly, unutterably, unfixably wrong here.”
-
Wolfwalkers. Dir Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart. Apple TV+. 2020.
The woods are getting smaller every day. At the core of 2020’s Wolfwalkers is a fable about environmental degradation: the mounting destruction of the natural world, and the subjugation of those who live in tune with it. From its very beginning, the film seeks to examine and even disrupt the human/animal boundary in a unique…
-
The One and Only Ivan. Dir. Thea Sharrock. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. 2020.
As the name of the film suggests, The One and Only Ivan showcases the individuality of animals and their much-like human personas, highlighting the injustice of their captivity. Standing out from Disney’s animated catalogue, the use of CGI (computer-generated) animals encourages the audience to interpret the unexaggerated personality of the animal protagonist by presenting them…