THE BOY AND THE BEAST, which we’ll open March 4 at the Playhouse, Town Center and Fine Arts and March 11 at the Monica Film Center and Claremont 5, is the latest feature film from award-winning Japanese director Mamoru Hosoda (Summer Wars, Wolf Children, both of which we will soon be screening at the Fine Arts): When Kyuta, a young orphan living on the streets of Shibuya, stumbles into a fantastic world of beasts, he’s taken in by Kumatetsu, a gruff, rough-around-the-edges warrior beast who’s been searching for the perfect apprentice. Despite their constant bickering, Kyuta and Kumatetsu begin training together and slowly form a bond as surrogate father and son. But when a deep darkness threatens to throw the human and beast worlds into chaos, the strong bond between this unlikely family will be put to the ultimate test—a final showdown that will only be won if the two can finally work together using all of their combined strength and courage.
Writing in the L.A. Times, animation expert Charles Solomon called the film “a dazzling blend of drawn and CG animation” and Hosada “one of the most interesting writer-directors working in Japanese animation.” In Variety Peter Debruge declared the film “an action-packed buddy movie that strategically combines several of Japanese fans’ favorite ingredients: conflicted teens, supernatural creatures and epic battles.”
It’s that time again! The person who most accurately predicts the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science’s choices in all 24 categories, from the shorts to Best Motion Picture, will win fabulous prizes (free movies and concessions at Laemmle)!
The Academy Awards are many things: entertaining, infuriating, moving, boring. For foreign films, our bread and butter, the Oscars can be quite effective at bringing attention to worthy movies from abroad. That done, the next challenge for cinephiles in the general public is to find a way to see them as they were meant to be seen: on a big screen with an audience in a movie theater. In a typical year, the five nominees for the Foreign Language Film Oscar include one or two that hit theaters months earlier, one or two that are currently in theaters, and one or two that may come out after the big night. This year, that night is February 28 and as luck would have it all five films have or will have Laemmle engagements between now and the Academy Awards ceremony.
