Isle of Dogs (2018)

[Olivia Bauer]

Until today I had never watched a Wes Anderson film. Not because I was avoiding him but really just by circumstance.
I've heard really good things about him as a director and I recently ordered Fantastic Mr. Fox to check out more of his work.
After watching his most recent film I love dogs... Err. I mean, Isle of Dogs I'm even more excited to see Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Isle of Dogs is a fantastic stop-motion film about a little boy looking for his lost dog "Spots". Basically a sickness called "Snout Fever" broke out
among the canine population and out of fear of it affecting humans the government of Japan deported all of the dogs to Trash Island.
Most of the humans speak Japanese and the film has text at the beginning joking about how they aren't going to translate Japanese to English but
they will translate the dogs barks.
Personally I think it's more of an advantage to the film since you can speculate context from facial expressions and the tone of people's voices. Even though I couldn't understand
what they were saying I could at least tell what they were talking about.

The movie is very dark but is surprisingly heart warming in parts and I find myself genuinely invested in the main character's plights.
It especially appeals to a dog lover like myself. Seeing dogs being abandoned, lonely, sick, and frightened makes me both very sad and sick to my stomach with rage towards the villain, Mayor Kobayashi. The idea of my dogs being torn from me, being alone and afraid on an island actually does make me very emotional.

The animation is very impressive and perfectly compliments the tone of the film with an art style that seems very bizarre and alien, yet drenched in Japanse culture.
All of the characters are represented by little figurines, however on TV it switches to traditional animation. The movement does seem stiff but I feel like it's to
the film's benefit, giving it a strange charm. When characters get into a fight it's represented by their limbs sticking out of cotton balls, emulating the well known cloud of dust used in classic cartoons. That alone endeared the film to me seeing the creative ways it handles the animation.

This has already become one of my favorite movies if just for the art style, music, and the fact that it plays towards my affection for "man's best friend".
I can't recommend this movie enough and you bet your left ass cheek I'm getting it on Blu-Ray the day it comes out. Assuming of course that Fox Searchlight doesn't drop the ball when it comes to distribution again.
But I refuse to turn this into a twelve paragraph long rant against Fox Searchlight and their asinine business practices. The movie's great. Go watch it. Now.

9/10


...and a 1/10 for Fox Searchlight as a business.

[Rev. Powell]

I'm seeing it Wednesday. With a lady. 

[Rev. Powell]

Had to punt those plans for a week. Finally saw it yesterday.

Capsule review: A dictatorial mayor exiles all dogs from the city of Megasaki to the Isle of Trash after an outbreak of snout fever; one boy travels to the island after his very special pooch. Impeccably designed, exotic stop-motion animation drives an imaginatively plotted whimsical/dark fantasy with a whisper of dry humor. Everything---the sentimentality, the comedy, the adventure, the eye-candy---is in near perfect balance.

I'm giving it a 9/10, but I may revise it upwards to a 10/10. My second favorite movie of 2018 so far (after THE DEATH OF STALIN).

[Dr. Whom]

I didn't like it as much as thought I would. In his live action movies, the ostensibly realistic setting provides a counterpoint to the whimsy and the extreme stylisation. Without that contrast, the result is a bit blander, I feel. Still a very good movie, though.