Out of the Cast - Porco Rosso

G'day folks!

We've got a brand new episode of Out of the Cast - the Film Noir Podcast for you to check out. Tom welcomes back Frankie from Jimdustries to talk about Porco Rosso (1992), Hayao Miyazaki's most underrated movie.

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How A Silent Voice changed my life - a salute to Kyoto Animation

Written by The Curmudgeon I n 2017 I watched a film for the first time which perfectly embodied my experience with depression. The story and themes captured not just the symptoms of my personal depression, but also a cause. It so succinctly sliced through the confusing bullshit of my mind. It cracked a code. I’m talking about A Silent Voice (2016) . I feel indebted to this movie because it somehow found a way to explain my depression better than I ever could. It gave me words when there were none. It made depression feel like a less lonely place, perhaps just because I had something to compare myself to. I’d like to delve into how the film affected me and how I read into it personally. This is not a review, nor is it an exhaustive essay claiming to understand what the film is ‘about’, per se. This is simply my own take on a film which affected me in a totally idiosyncratic way. And, as always…spoilers ahead. A Silent Voice revolves around two kids: a...

A Crash Course in Writing a Great Detective Movie

Image courtesy of Green Ornstein Words by Curmudgeon Film Talk . SETTLE DOWN CLASS. …ehem… Sorry, I’ve always wanted to say that. In either case, welcome to Detective Writing 101 . Today, we’re going to be taking a peruse through a few trademarks of a great detective story . I’ll be your professor, Dr. Curmudgeon . Except I don’t have a Master’s Degree yet, so I’m not a professor. Nor do I have a doctorate, so the proper title would be Mr. Curmudgeon. But I have a blog, and I complain about movies on the internet. That’s basically the same as having a PhD, right? If you’re familiar with my writing – which might be unlikely , since Curmudgeon Media’s collective following consists of an old man who lives in my crawl space, my dog, and a boiled egg – you may have noticed that I’m big on film noir . When I say “big on film noir,” I of course mean that I will shoehorn it into any conversation, and if I could materialise its essence and inject it directly int...

Porco Rosso - DISTANCE

Words by Curmudgeon Film Talk There’s this scene in Porco Rosso (1992) wherein the protagonist, Marco, dines in solitude with his childhood friend, Gina. She relays a recently-acquired anecdote: a boisterous yet conceited seaplane pilot named Curtis - whom she’d just met - asked to marry her. “I’ve married three pilots,” she tells him, “one died in the war, one in the Atlantic, and the third in Asia.” I recall, upon watching Porco Rosso for the first time, this line irked me. “Here are two people who’ve been friends for many years. Why would she tell him this? Surely, he would already know,” I thought to myself. An excuse for exposition, I imagined. My criticism came too soon, though. As Marco hesitates, his face gone blank, it becomes clear – in the most indirect manner possible, Gina discloses her husband’s death. The solemn words follow: “they found him?” Their subdued manner keeps them composed. And yet, something in director Hayao Miyazaki’s detailed ey...

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