Tag: Seagull(s)
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Leave the World Behind, Dir. Sam Esmail(Netflix, 2023)
What was up with the deer? Sam Esmail’s Leave the World Behind (2023) is an apocalyptic psychological thriller. Conventional American family, the Sandford’s, attempt to disconnect from the city with a family holiday. Presented with an opportunity engage with nature, the family remains obsessed with their gadgetry. When they are plunged into technological darkness, almost…
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An American Tail. Dir. Don Bluth. Universal Pictures.1986
An American Tail tracks the adventures of Fievel Mousekewitz a brave (and reckless) little mouse, his Russian-Jewish family, and their treacherous journey from Russia to New York in the search for the American Dream that will put some distance between them and cats… or so they thought. The film tells a story within a story,…
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Rio. Dir. by Carlos Saldanha. Blue Sky Studios and 20th Century Animation. 2011.
Opening with the vibrant celebration of colours and exotic sounds of the Brazilian rainforest, our focus is drawn to a nervous exotic baby macaw bird called Blu who plucks up the courage to attempt his maiden flight. Predictably he tumbles towards the ground, making a soft spongy safe landing, before commotion strikes and an attack…
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See Spot Run. Dir. John Whitesell. Village Roadshow Pictures. 2001.
Agent 11 is one of the most decorated agents in the FBI, but he doesn’t always play by the rules. This time, his vicious attack on mob boss Sonny Talia (Paul Sorvino) has made him the target of a hit. When internal corruption leads to his Witness Protection being compromised, he must…
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Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!. Dir. By. Peter Lord. Columbia Pictures. 2012.
Aardman never shy away from the ludicrous. So when a crew of incompetent pirates endeavour for protagonist The Pirate Captain to win the Pirate of the Year Award by relying on the commercial value of his prized dodo companion Polly (who should have been extinct for 150 years and is believed to be a parrot)…
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The Lighthouse. Dir. Robert Eggers. A24. 2019.
“𝑩𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒚’𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒖𝒍𝒍𝒔 𝒃𝒆. 𝑰𝒏 ’𝒆𝒎𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒍𝒐𝒓𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒎𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒓.” The Lighthouse is a film about madness and evil. The film uses the arrival and death of a seagull, at the hands of Thomas, to explore the threshold between sanity and madness, and our capacity for evil. Thomas’ sanity is questioned…
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Kiki’s Delivery Service. Dir. Hayao Miyazaki. Studio Ghibli. 1989.
In Kiki’s Delivery Service one of the representations of animals is Kiki’s cat and familiar, Jiji. A familiar is a supernatural entity that can aid a witch with her magic, often in the form of an animal, and in this film Kiki, the young witch, can communicate with Jiji, an adult male cat, but no one else…
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In the Heart of the Sea. Dir. Ron Howard. Warner Bros. Pictures. 2015.
Ron Howard´s In the Heart of the Sea (2015), based on Nathaniel Philbrick´s book (2000) of the same name, illustrates the sinking of the whaling ship Essex in 1820 and the crew´s struggle for survival. It is framed by a conversation between Herman Melville, who wanted to gather information to write a novel, and Thomas Nickerson, who himself served on the Essex as…