And this week's Friday night movie has been... Suzume!
I've never been a fan of anime director Makoto Shinkai. Honestly I find a lot of his stuff hit or miss with some good ideas let down by laborious execution. Matter aren't helped with a lot of people venerating this guy for reasons I find baffling. And yet, I did enjoy Your Name so maybe he finally got his act together?
There's one scene from Suzume that stands out for me: It involves a car journey that features music I could recognise from other anime - namely, Kiki's Delivery Service and His & Her Circumstances. At first I was chuffed to hear something familiar but then I realised: If this anime is reminding me of other anime then something has gone seriously wrong.
Okay seriously, there are some good ideas at work here, some extraordinary visuals and I acknowledge Shinkai as someone with a vision. But at the same time, this is a chase movie and it's pace is relentless. It can be exhausting to keep up and it makes some of the slower moments stand out less as a breather and more as aimless. Also standing out is the weirder stuff that seems to exist solely for the sake of it.
So yeah, a decent movie some admirable elements but somehow it left me cold
