The Girl Without Hands (2017; Sébastien Laudenbach) GRADE: C+ By Daniel Barnes *Opens Friday, September 15, at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. In this woozy adaptation of the Grimm Brothers fairy tale, a young girl is sold to the devil by her poor father in exchange for a […]
When Marnie Was There (2015; Hiromasa Yonebayashi) GRADE: B+ By Daniel Barnes Hand-drawn animation stalwarts Studio Ghibli shut down production late August following the retirement of guiding light Hiyao Miyazaki. Therefore, When Marnie Was There may be the last feature film we see under the Ghibli label in […]
Cheatin’ (2015; Bill Plympton) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes In a genre overwhelmingly dominated by major studios, nine-digit budgets, digital animation, wisecracking animals, A-list voice casts, and costly pop song licensing rights, animator Bill Plympton remains an iconoclast. Cheatin’, which premiered at Slamdance 2014 but is only now […]
