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[riinmovies]

UP FROM POPPY HILL

dir: Goro Miyazaki

★★★★☆

This was overall an amazing film! Studio Ghibli has a great skill of just making the simplest things look gorgeous, especially the food when Umi is cooking. The plot surrounding the community house was really light-hearted and this seems like another Ghibli movie to watch and wind down, as there was little high stakes conflict. I think the secondary narrative of whether Umi and Shun were actually brother and sister was a little convoluted and unnecessary, but i have read that it was a real occurrence in post WW2 Japan to have to check you were not related to people, and so it may not be as uncommon as I would think. Either way, I was more concerned with the community house than the two protagonists, which the movie held more focus on. I liked that Umi seemed to have more of an initiative than other Ghibli protagonists, as sometimes it is quite frustrating to just wait for the shy girl to just ask someone what's going on or to take any action on her feelings (for example, Sophie in Howl’s Moving Castle didn't take much action in my eyes until the very end). I think they did a good job of reverting that, as Shun just avoids Umi and doesn't face the problem head on at first, forcing her to ask the questions regarding their ancestry. Either way, I’m glad they weren't brother and sister by the end. A highlight for me was the poem about the flags and the domestic scenes where Umi stepped up to care for her family- shopping, cooking, even cleaning the community house.

[riinmovies]

THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST - 

dir.: Desiree Akhavan

★★★★☆

TWs for this film: Mention of suicide, conversion therapy, transphobia and homophobia. 

I loved this film! the directive style was really refreshing and the story kept its pace with some intense scenes without an overwhelming or nonsensical amount of drama. It felt like someone really had a story to tell which they stuck with. There was an extreme close up when Cam was on the phone which really brought me in to her anxiety. I only wish they’d gone a bit deeper into the trauma these kids had suffered at the hands on the institution, including Adam’s disconnection from his native identity and beliefs. The ‘treatment’ is also only reacted to by a sort of withdrawal from Cameron and other people and the only aggressive response seen was the Corinthians scene - which was incredibly impactful - but I wish they had expanded on the mental toll this took other than the single case of attempted suicide.