Saturday, May 30, 2009

What you should be reading

(before this starts, let me just say: these aren't reviews but just short reccomendations. Full reviews will be posted later, if at all)
Pluto
by Naoki Urasawa: One of the best comic books I've ever read and I'm not a real reader of Manga or Science fition. With great charecterazation, Pluto is exciting, well written, beautifully drawn and just getting better with each volume.
A Drifting Life by Yoshihiro Tatsumi: I liked this book a lot and would recommend it highly for anyone interested in writing in any form.
Cecil And Jordan In New York by Gabrielle Bell: I enjoyed how this book distilled stories that could have filled full books of there own into short beutiful suggestions.
The Eternal Smile by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim: Three interesting (and well done) stories about fantasy and reality.

The Brothers Bloom

It is becoming increasingly often that I go to the movies and see something thoroughly different from what I'd expected. Case in point: today I went to see The Brothers Bloom expecting a comedy and got one of the most serious and surprising films I've seen all year. Its about two old fashioned (they even wear suits!) con men who have since childhood been pulling off cons but the brother named Bloom (played down beat by Adrian Brody) is tired of it. He leaves to go to an island until his brother comes and convinces him to pull off one final con. Now, before you start thinking this is Ocean's Twelve, we get introduced to the girl who they are pulling the con on, Penelope (played by Rachel Wiez) who collects hobbies and has lived alone for years. From there, in addition to being a great and exciting adventure film, fittingly for a film about con men, the movie twists and turns in ways the audience would never expect and also out to be a great romance film.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Watch This Now: Sita Sings The Blues

I was bored one day and decided to watch Sita Sings The Blues after reading a few good things about it and also it being free. I thought it was one of, if not the best, animated film I have seen in how it shows, through a versatile amount of forms such as watercolor, collage and others, the artistic power of animation. Also the story is interesting and the music is greatly synched to the story and animation. After watching it, I was so inspired that I tried to animate something myself and quickly saw that it was not as easy as it looked. Nina Paley did an admirably great job making this.

Now watch it.