Posts tagged with “dakota fanning”
Totoro: Magical for Kids of All Ages
Waiting for the bus with Totoro
MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (1998/DVD) This DVD arrived in the mail for my little ones the other day as a gift from a very wise aunt. The next 86 minutes were spent in rapt delight by all of us as we took in this wonderful and unusual film. A creation of the Japanese anime master Hayao Miyazaki, it was originally released in Japan in 1998 and acquired by Disney and redubbed in English in 2006. It’s the story of two sisters (voiced by Elle and Dakota Fanning in the English version) who move with their dad into an old house in the countryside while their mother recovers from a long illness in a nearby hospital. The house and the woods around it are inhabited by spirits and magical creatures that only the girls can see. It sounds like a foreboding set up — sick mom, haunted house — but the movie is surprisingly lighthearted and charming. As Ebert sagely points out, part of this movie’s joy comes from the fact that it doesn’t hit you with the expected children’s movie scenarios. There are no villains. The adults don’t mistreat, misunderstand, or condescend to the children. A parent who is ill doesn’t have to die tragically. Giant fuzzy creatures lurking in the woods are friends, not foes. Plus, there’s a Cat Bus! Not a bus for cats, silly. A bus that IS A CAT. Case closed.
Grade: A+
This would make a wonderful gift for anyone you know with kids. Or anyone else who likes cats. Or buses. Or needs a reason to smile.
Foxes
THE RUNAWAYS (IN THEATERS/2010) In the opening moments of her debut feature, director Floria Sigismondi—known until now for unusually creepy music videos for acts like Marilyn Manson (“Beautiful People”), David Bowie (“Dead Man Walking”), and squeaky clean Sheryl Crow (“Anything But Down”)—wants you to know that The Runaways isn’t going to be your run-of-the-mill rock biopic. (For the first 90 minutes, anyway.) After a close-up slow-mo drop of blood splashes into the dirt, the shot widens to reveal its source: 15-year-old severely miniskirted Cherie Curry (played with sweet gravity by 15-year-old Dakota Fanning) just got her first period, standing on the side of the road somewhere in apparently very dusty 1975 Los Angeles. After her equally skirted older sister stuffs a pile of bathroom tissue down her panties (thanks, sis!), they meet up with her sister’s lecherous, way older boyfriend for an unpleasant and embarrassing “date” in his CreepMobile. After the sisters jab humiliations at each other—Sis telling this dude about Cherie’s period, Cherie exclaiming that her sister was currently panty-less, resulting in an obscene grope from this jerk—it’s obvious that these sisters have some issues to work out, mostly related to their broken family and alcoholic father. Cherie wants to be a star, that much is clear from her glammed-out (and mostly reviled) Ziggy Stardust-esque lip-sync performance at a school talent show. What she doesn’t know is how to become one, which leads her to the clubs, where she perfects her posing…and waits. Read more »
