Ne Zha 2 is a strikingly ambitious follow-up to the 2019 phenomenon, and it’s easy to see why it shattered box office records on home soil and even became the highest-grossing animated film of all time.  Yet despite its dazzling commercial success and technical bravura, I came away feeling both impressed and oddly unfulfilled. The film picks up where the original left off: Ne Zha and his friend Ao Bing are reborn as spirits and soon embark on a…

Ne Zha is a striking and ambitious entry in global animation: a mythological fantasy from China that marries folkloric roots with blockbuster spectacle. On paper, its success is undeniable — it smashed box office records in its home market and became the highest-grossing non-English animated feature of all time, proving that Chinese studios can compete on a grand scale with the likes of Disney and Pixar. At its best, Ne Zha is visually gorgeous. The animation often dazzles, with fluid…

So it's finally here, the reshot and retooled alternate version of the 2017 box office bomb Justice League. Now admittedly, Zack Snyder's films, along with those of Michael Bay, have never been able to fill me with joyous anticipation. Still, I've had protracted intentions of watching this after all the ridiculous and childish absurdities of the years of online campaigning of #ReleasetheSnyderCut. This campaign saw a loud and primarily obnoxious community insisting they were being denied access to a secret…

Being John Malkovich lays hold to Andy Warhol's famous quote "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes", and elevates it to enterprising and ambitious levels. Directed by Spike Jonze and scripted by Charlie Kaufman, it turns that abstract idea into a catalyst for exploration about issues of identity, voyeurism and personal responsibility. It’s an intensely creative comedy in which a puppeteer (John Cusack) discovers a portal that leads into the mind of John Malkovich and is crammed…