Tag Archives: Drama

Tender Mercies Review

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Tender Mercies is definitely a film that was better than I expected it to be. The drama isn’t overblown, the characters are realistic, and it’s a movie that doesn’t fumble the bag at the end. You’ll be treated to a complete picture here and that’s always good to see. The movie doesn’t make any big mistakes or anything like that and just makes for a consistent ride from start to finish.

The movie starts by introducing us to Rosa who is managing a gas station operation on her own. Her husband died a long time ago and so she raises her son, Sonny on her own. Well, one day a guy by the name of Mac shows up. He’s broke and has nowhere to go so she hires him on as an assistant. He gradually gives up his drinking problem and marries her. Things are going well but then she discovers that he used to be a really big song writer and now his ex-wife and daughter are nearby. Can Mac really stay away from his old career or is he about to get dragged back in?

At first you figure the movie will go through the usual motions. Mac will end up cheating on Rosa, he’ll fall back into his drinking habits, and then only by the end of the film will he realize that he did all of the wrong things. Well, none of that happens in the movie. It ends up being a much more wholesome experience than you might have suspected at first. The whole thing ends up being a lot more on the pleasant side so while it is fairly low key, you have a good time watching it.

That’s not to say Rosa and Mac don’t have their disagreements but things never get ugly. She takes the whole twist about him being a musician really well. Then you have the group of teenage fans who show up to ask Mac for advice. He doesn’t yell at them to go away, they don’t end up turning out to be crooks or anything like that. It’s just a normal exchange between the characters and then they head off. Everyone appears to be rather decent for the most part.

So in the end I liked Mac. I do think the whole romance angle is a bit weak though. Even with all of the quick time skips the whole thing feels too fast. It’s also always a tricky dynamic to marry your employer like that. It all worked out in the end of course but that was the weakest part of the film and you probably could have done without it. Then you have Rosa who did a good job in raising Sonny. She has a good work ethic and never really complains during the movie. She does her best at all times and while she may not care for Mac’s old family all that much, she still acts nice enough in the end when it counts.

As for Sonny, well I’m not a big fan of the kids in these films but he wasn’t too bad. He seemed a little more mature than most at the very least. He was also able to connect with Mac rather quickly which helped him transition into this lifestyle a lot easier than he could have otherwise. Sonny was also ready to take down the bullies when they got too aggressive. Sonny doesn’t play around with that kind of thing.

For Mac’s old family, well you’ve got his ex-wife Dixie who does not look very good here. The only allowance I’ll grant her here is that apparently Mac was pretty bad back in the day as well. Apparently he even tried to murder her once and so she completely despises him. It’s clear that she never ended up forgiving him. Since we don’t see too much into the past it’s hard to really gauge just how bad the whole situation is. So while I didn’t like Dixie, I cut her a bit of slack there.

Then there’s the daughter Sue Ann and she seems nice enough. She ultimately did set out to meet Mac after all these years had passed. Her judgment may not have been the greatest but she seemed like a nice enough person. Too bad things didn’t go very well for her. Finally you have Harry who used to be Mac’s agent but just isn’t super helpful anymore. He’s very dismissive of Mac’s song until he figures that he can get some money out of it. That’s when you see his true colors come out. He makes for an entertaining character but not someone you really want to have in your corner.

Then you have the young band who look to Mac for guidance. They weren’t bad either. I liked their determination here. Apparently they all work multiple jobs in order to have enough time and money to pursue their passion in music. They all give this 100% of their time and it has paid off to an extent. Things start to go well for them here too.

So the main reason why this movie is good is that it’s a rare look at how a lot of people are good. It seems like nowadays the movies always take a very jaded view on humanity where everyone has an angle or is a villain deep down. The characters here may not be saints but for the most part they’re all nice and doing their best to hang in there. Mac certainly had his issues but he overcame them and did the right thing. Rosa works hard in her job and keep a happy personality despite that. The gas station has a lot of visitors but none of them turn out to be thieves or crooks. It’s just a nice change of pace to have everything go fairly well.

The film isn’t without its drama and tragedies though. Bad things do happen to the cast here and they grieve appropriately. It’s not a sad film by any means but there are sad scenes. Still, you never get the feeling that the film is going to be very mean spirited after it’s been on for a while. At first you may suspect that bad things will happen because you’re just so used to it but when the film resists those urges you can’t help but feel like it really ended up being a whole lot better than it could have been.

Overall, Tender Mercies is a good film. You could say that a good reason for this is in what it doesn’t do as opposed to what it does accomplish. Either way, it’s a drama film with a lot of restraint and a film that will leave you feeling good after it’s all over. I certainly enjoyed the music as well. The lyrical songs may not be my thing but the background music is all very fitting the whole time. If you’re up for a rather low key film with a lot of emotional moments then this is the one to check out.

Overall 7/10

Henry Poole Is Here Review

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Henry Poole makes for a very unique film and it’ll take you on a fun journey. I found Henry himself to be super unreasonable for most of it but the rest of the characters were solid enough. It’s a good drama film in the end even if it can be a bit long at times.

The movie starts with Henry moving into a new house. It’s a rather beat up old place and he considerably overpaid for it but he doesn’t seem to care. His real estate agent even offers to knock down the price but he declines. He then meets his neighbors and everyone seems reasonable enough, if not a little over friendly. One day a water stain appears by his wall outside though and the neighbor Esperanza declares that it is the Face of God. Henry is incredibly doubtful of this since it just looks like a normal water stain but pretty soon she is inviting lots of people from her Church to check it out. Henry sees how his house is quickly becoming a public attraction and he wants to stop it, but doesn’t really know how to do so. Also, why is he so uncaring about everything?

The film answers that question soon enough although you can probably guess it fairly early in the film. I can say that I can see why he’s not sweating the small stuff anymore and isn’t even trying to have much in the way of conversation. In his situation he may as well just do his thing and not worry about the rest. He has a lot of snacks, pizza, and the works. I’d say I would probably do something similar. No reason to break off human contact but I would definitely be getting a lot of pizza and snacks. At that point you may was well, there’s no reason not too.

I also don’t blame him for doubting the stain initially. After all, the whole thing did seem bonkers so I probably wouldn’t even humor everyone by touching it. As mysterious miracles start to happen to people though, I would certainly have given it a shot. It’s not like you have to do anything crazy either, just reach out and grab it. I think there’s a line between being healthily skeptical and being unreasonably so. Henry crossed that point after the lady with glasses tried the wall.

See, there’s a super market cashier named Patience who has really poor eyesight and needs thick glasses in order to see. So one day she touches the wall and she can see now. I don’ blame him for being skeptical of the congregation since they could just be lying but it’s clear that Patience was being honest there. At that point you really don’t have anything to lose.

He also takes things really far in the other direction like when he starts to yell at the crowd or beat up on his house. At the very least if you’re not going to buy into it then you have to be careful not to panic. The whole group breaking into his own every time does sound invasive so he should be pushing back there. Keep on building gates or something but wrecking your own house probably wasn’t the play.

Instead of trying to cover the stain with paint I would have just put a poster or a picture over it though. I feel like that would have worked a whole lot better and I don’t think the group would be as active about removing it. If they tried you could always nail it down the next time. All I’m saying is Henry had a lot of other options but I felt like he gave up rather early on.

As for Esperanza, while she meant well you do think she could have respected boundaries a bit more. She was always sneaking around and the fact that she had to “sneak” means that she knew she was doing something wrong. You would think that would be going against her faith since that’s something Henry didn’t want her to do. So in a way she’s not being quite as virtuous and honest as you would be expecting. Then you have the whole congregation getting in on this too so I guess they were all cool with this? I get that it was a big deal that doesn’t happen very often but I still don’t think that’s an excuse for breaking and entering.

The film does a good job with the humor and a lot of this is meant to be in good fun but of course you still have to think about it. It’s pretty fun to see Henry avoiding contact with everyone the whole time. The supermarket discussion with Patience for example definitely feels very one sided as she tries to make a friend. I can’t say I that I do much talking while at the check out line myself though. Definitely not really my speed. Patience means well though and is a solid character.

Then we get to the next door neighbor Dawn and her daughter Millie. Millie doesn’t talk anymore after a traumatic event from her past so now she just walks around and records people. Naturally this may be another case for the wall as well. Dawn and Millie are probably the only two characters that Henry is nice to from the start. Millie has a rough time of things but gets better as the film goes on. As for Dawn, she’s definitely very compassionate and does her best to welcome Henry into the neighborhood as well.

I would say Esperanza was best at this by bringing her empanadas over and everything. She really tried hard even when Henry was rather rude the whole time. Now the film does have a romance going with Henry and Dawn that I don’t think needed to be here. At one point Henry wonders if it’s selfish of him to be starting a relationship now and of course my answer would be an absolute yes. Look, you know the score here if you’re Henry and this is really something that will mainly help himself. I don’t see any way that this would be good for Dawn. This just puts her in a rough spot.

Now if Henry was in a different situation then fine, shoot your shot and try to have a good relationship. I don’t think this was the right time and place though. The romance is also a rather quick one and ultimately doesn’t change a whole lot in the film so I think it could have been skipped and wouldn’t have really created any issues. In the end you certainly won’t forget this film though. It’s a rather low key title through and through but the premise is just so unique that it works.

The movie portrays the wall as the real deal here but I’m definitely glad that it likely wouldn’t work out that way in real life. God can of course create miracles like this, but I don’t like the idea of applying it to a specific place or object. Some religions differ on this but in Christianity, we know that you can pray at any point, anywhere and God will hear you. You don’t need any intermediaries or anything like that to get the message across. The idea of the miracles only happening when you place your hand on the wall does introduce an intermediary though.

It would quickly become easy to start worshipping the wall if such a thing were to happen. That would become an idol of sorts and sure enough, people were leaving offerings under the wall. Of course it is meant to be left for God in this instance but I just don’t like the idea of this all being limited to one spot. Of course it can happen but this is why I don’t think it ever would. When God performs a miracle, it will be at a time and place we cannot guess. Not a specific location each time. Miracles happen every day too and we just can’t ever notice/know all of them.

Which if you don’t know the plot of the movie before watching, it’s fun to follow the scenes along and try to guess what genre this even is. At first when Henry kept on hearing flashbacks in his head, I figured he had some kind of supernatural power which is why he kept to himself. Like he is forced to keep on living all of his old experiences. Then I thought this was going to turn into some cult type film with Esperanza and her gang heading in. It takes a while to really know what kind of film this is.

You never think it’ll suddenly turn super dark or anything though. The film has a lot of solid comedic moments from the start so it doesn’t have a sinister flavor. I’d still say that the film was quite fun even through to the end. Some of the jokes can end up feeling more painful than funny like the nurse messing up on the shots a lot but the script was solid for each of those moments. A lot of the scenes are quietly funny too so it never feels like the film is really trying to make you laugh. It’s just witty and easy to follow along with.

As a final note, the film had a pretty solid soundtrack. There were quite a lot of songs in the movie and I thought they fit the tone rather well. The beat was very catchy and while I didn’t always catch a lot of the lyrics, they all seemed to represent Henry’s state of mind in the scene that he was in. I haven’t seen this many songs in a movie for quite some time and it was executed quite well here.

Overall, Henry Poole Is Here is a solid movie with some pretty good themes. The movie can be a bit long but ultimately it gets to accomplish quite a lot in that period of time. Henry is put in a tough situation so you can understand why he is so upset even if you don’t always agree with it. Of course it’s easy to say that you would handle the situation differently but it’s hard to say until it happens to you. Knowing that you will be safe after death plays a big role in being okay in this kind of situation though. Personally I would just try to maximize my enjoyment in the last days and have lots of junk food and pizza while trying not to think about it too hard. That’s only if I had definite knowledge of what was going to happen though. Most likely I wouldn’t be too convinced and would mostly still be living in a normal way, albeit with maybe a few more goodies than usual. Definitely check this out if you want to watch a more off beat kind of film.

Overall 7/10

Fireproof

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It’s been many years since I saw Fireproof and the last time was before the blog days. It’s definitely an emotional film about two characters needing to fireproof their relationship before it’s all over. By finally turning himself over to the Lord, Caleb is able to make great strides here and so you can expect a fairly uplifting movie here.

The movie starts with Caleb performing more heroics as a firefighter. The guy is pretty much a hero to everyone within the town. His life is seemingly perfect when it comes to his occupation but the trouble starts when he gets home. His wife Catherine won’t talk to him all that much and tends to always be in a bad mood or have something sarcastic to say at the ready. Caleb tends to let his anger get out of control and so the two of them finally agree to have a divorce. Caleb’s father hears about this and tells Caleb to wait 90 days. He gives Caleb a challenge book with a different task each day and if their marriage isn’t back to being strong within that time limit, only then can Caleb walk away.

Caleb agrees to do it although he doesn’t think this will change anything. Meanwhile Catherine’s not buying into these nice things Caleb is doing all of a sudden as it feels fake and automatic. Instead she is unfortunately on the rebound with Dr. Gavin and the two are starting to get close. With poor advice from her friends, Catherine is convinced that this is the right way to go. Can Caleb win her over before it’s too late?

Whenever you have a drama film like this with a marriage on the rocks it can get a bit dicey because you have to get some big disagreements in there but you also have to make sure that neither character is too unlikable or you’ll find yourself rooting against them the entire time. Of course if that happens then it’s really all over. In this case I have to say that both characters were very unlikable so in most cases you probably won’t mind them getting knocked out of the running so you could root for other characters.

It would weaken/destroy the whole message of the film though so it’s good that didn’t happen. Ultimately Caleb’s father is able to use this experience to turn him into a Christian and ultimately help Caleb see the light about his mother as well. Caleb was always very rude to her throughout the film as he thought she was to blame for his parents almost having a divorce. He finally changes his tune once he finds out the truth but it was another reason not to like him for most of the film.

The best character here would be Michael though. He was Caleb’s best friend and gave a lot of good advice the whole time he was having these issues. Michael was always in his corner and it’s definitely good to have a friend like that. The rest of the firefighters were nice enough as well even if their roles weren’t quite as big. One guy certainly had a lot of confidence in himself and really did quite well in the hot sauce competition considering that he was using the real deal.

Of course Gavin would definitely be one of the worst characters here as he is just trying to get Catherine to be with him the whole time. Gavin comes across as a very desperate character and also one who is easily intimidated. He knows that what he is doing is not good but keeps on at it anyway. Definitely not a character you would expect to ever like.

Catherine does deserve a lot of blame here too though. You definitely shouldn’t be flirting or anything like that until the divorce is actually official. Moving on when this hasn’t happened is still cheating. She also does seem to come in with a bad attitude constantly although of course there were a lot of events that happen prior to the movie actually starting. So the implication is that she has been bottling this all up for a very long time and only now has it started to come out.

Then Caleb is always trying to act super innocent like he has done absolutely nothing wrong. As the film goes on this becomes more and more untrue to the point where it is laughable that he is telling everyone what a saint he is. The guy’s not even close and his neighbor even gets to see a lot of his outbursts. The opening outburst in the film where he drove Catherine to tears was a scene that it’s hard to really come back from though. There was no real way to root for the guy in the film after that and Caleb doesn’t really change until the final minutes of the film.

As you can tell I wasn’t big on the romance here but the overall message is still good. You shouldn’t take each day for granted when in a relationship and should always be trying to do something nice. Ideally both parties will be doing this but as long as you take care of your side then it should all balance out in the end. Then of course with Caleb becoming a Christian he’ll no longer be heading off to Hell in the end and presumably Catherine and the others will be joining in too. So it definitely makes for a very wholesome ending here.

Overall, Fireproof serves as a good reminder to always do your best and to be considerate of others. Even if you seem to be doing a great job at everything, it’s possible that you’re missing something. Caleb thought that saving lives and doing great on the job meant that he was automatically doing great at home as well but this wasn’t the case. You can’t miss out on the small things for the bigger picture. You want to have a good balance like Michael did in this film. He always had time to do well on the job and have fun at home with a nice dinner and companionship.

The Secret Garden Review

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Time for the next film about a group of kids. In this case it’s just 3 of them as opposed to a whole classroom but I would say the movie still works well enough. The mystery angle even plays out like a horror movie initially although of course you have to assume it’s not something quite so sinister as it would initially appear to be. I also remembered a secret garden from Secret Window which was really bad so I got concerned but fortunately this film’s on point.

The movie starts with some guys heading into an abandoned village where everyone either died of a plague or fled the scene. The only survivor is a little girl named Mary who didn’t even realize what was going on. She was quite rich and so this will be a big adjustment to her since she will no longer have maids and the like. Fortunately she has one living relative in her uncle and he is rich. The change is that he’s not really a people person and won’t even see her when she first joins the manor. Mary also hears these awful shrieking noises throughout the night. What’s wrong with this manor and is she really safe in here?

While the mystery angle doesn’t last for too long, it is a good way to kick things off. After all, she doesn’t know her uncle and he has a pretty bad reputation to start with. It’s entirely reasonable for her to assume that something isn’t quite right here. Also, she is quite spoiled initially and the staff here won’t coddle her as much as the old ones would. For example she mentioned that they would dress her and do whatever she asked. This staff is nice enough but they do expect her to be self sufficient to an extent.

The maid even asks with a laugh how Mary doesn’t now how to do basic things like picking up after herself. The maid won me over early on with how she would laugh at everything. The maid has a good sense of humor and was always having fun doing her job. That’s the best way to approach any task as it’ll make the whole thing really fly by. The maid kept this same energy up throughout and the rest of the staff was good too. This really helped to get Mary to realize what the world was really like and to stop being so spoiled. After all, she is still very well off being in a rich place with everything that she could possibly need.

Her uncle never really gets away from his aloof kind of persona but he is certainly important to the plot as well. It takes him a while to change though so it’s fair to consider him an antagonist for most of the movie. He may think he’s doing everything for the best but it’s certainly not the right approach. I did find him to be sympathetic though, characters like this who end up going on the wrong path will at least get to me if they didn’t do anything crazy and they were at least trying to help.

Dickon would likely be the best character here. He’s the first character to really treat Mary like a totally normal person. No special treatment or anything like that, he would just hang out with her and do his best. You couldn’t ask for much more out of the kid and he even introduced her to the wildlife in the area. Dickon didn’t take anything personally and was someone who could always be counted on.

Then you have Colin who also has a big role here. He can’t walk anymore and has been in bed for a long time. He’s told that he might even die soon so the kid doesn’t have a whole lot of hope left. He’s also quite lonely so he spends his days just throwing tantrums all the time. As you can probably guess he isn’t my kind of character for those reasons alone. Fortunately he also gets a character arc here and by the end he has definitely improved.

Definitely with no help from the family doctor though. In the end that’s why you would always want to get an independent, third party opinion for these kind of things. Relying on one doctor exclusively will rarely end up being a good idea in the long run. It limits the options at your disposal and definitely increases the odds of being scammed. Suing for malpractice would probably be a very good idea here.

The movie certainly changes genres midway through once we find out about the garden and the mystery is over but I would say that it still worked out pretty well in the long run. The writing is good which is the important thing. I feel like a movie with this plot would only really work back in the day. The writing has to be very good otherwise a film about a secret garden and kids realizing that the world is such a big place could end up being a little dull. If the writing wasn’t on point then the kids could easily cross the line from being annoying to just being downright awful.

The movie is mainly able to avoid things ever going too far for either of them. The Uncle probably comes the closest with how unreasonable he is. I also think the maids could have easily been less memorable in most movies but with the way the main one was laughing, it left a great impression on me right from the jump. That’s absolutely the way to make a supporting character memorable and it also added to the atmosphere initially. Does the uncle rule with such an iron fist that everyone has to be laughing at all times? These things all have normal answers by the end of the adventure but at first it gives you things to think about.

Overall, The Secret Garden is a film that I can definitely recommend. Of course, I do think you should watch this for the plot and story rather than for the mystery. The mystery just doesn’t last so if you’re watching for that then you may end up being disappointed. The garden itself isn’t fantastic or mystical in any way but it’s a good way to really get the plots together. There’s also a very nice visual trick the movie uses whenever they enter the garden. It’s something I’ve only seen very rarely but it’s a powerful technique. It helps to really make the garden stand out and in the end that is what the film is named after so that was critical.

Overall 7/10

The Happy Years Review

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The Happy Years is a fairly happy film about a kid who starts off as a troublemaker but gradually learns what it means to be a respectable person in society. It’s a solid character arc that is paced well so you aren’t bored here. The main character himself may not be very likable but the film itself was good enough where you can get past that. The writing is on point and the story is good so you can’t go wrong there.

The story starts with Stover causing more trouble for his family as he messes with the horse and town property. He’s always been a bit of a wild child but this is getting to the point of being a really huge deal. So his family decides to send him to a strict school to see if they can finally knock some sense into him. Stover is determined to go in there and conquer the place, only the kids here are quite tough. Will Stover become a nice guy or will he be beaten up by the competition?

Now, as I mentioned I didn’t like Stover much. His whole thing is that he’s always rebellious and causing a lot of trouble which naturally means that he isn’t exactly helping to make the situation any better. On the contrary, he is often making things worse just by being around. He starts trouble on the ride to the school so he didn’t even wait until he was there to act up. He always talks tough to the teachers but most of the time you really feel like he starts the fights.

The only time he didn’t start it is when he got to the school and started being picked on by the other kids. I didn’t like Stover here either though because he was talking so tough but as soon as he got off of the wagon then he became timid. The other kids intimidated him almost immediately and it would take a while for Stover to really start fighting back. I would have liked to have seen some energy a little earlier than that tbh.

Stover also gets tricked easily and doesn’t even realize that one of the teachers is looking out for him. Even right through to the end he messes up on tests and doesn’t study. I know he’s a nicer kid at the end of it all but the character arc takes a while and so by then I wasn’t really rooting for him. He just never came around for me and should have picked his battles a little more carefully.

There are quite a few kids here but one of the most important ones is McCarty. He was one of the tough kids hazing Stove initially and then after the first semester he was willing to let the kid back into the group. He doesn’t seem to hold a big grudge the way that some kids would and meant well although you can’t really defend the hazing. I liked him more than Stover though, he seemed more mature and wasn’t just picking fights all of the time. None of the kids there are perfect but most of them are at least trying somewhat.

McCarty is really the one who has to do most of the work in getting Stover on their side and he does a good job of that. He’s someone you can certainly root for. By the end of the film the kids are all united and working as a team so it all ends on a wholesome note at least. The school deserves a lot of credit here as their good reputation is evidently quite deserved. No kid stays running on the wrong track while they’re at the school.

The bulk of the credit goes to Hopkins as the teacher who never gives up on Stover. He constantly gives him chances to try and do the right thing. He’s far more patient with him than most teachers would be and it shows why he is suited to the profession. He has a sense of humor and doesn’t really take things personally. I would easily put Hopkins as the best character in the film. Without him I don’t think the film would have had nearly the same impact. Certainly it wouldn’t have been able to have been as much of an enjoyable ride as it was.

For a slice of life film like this you need quality writing and good characters. Thanks to Hopkins these two areas were successful by a wide margin. The film has a satisfying conclusion and it really goes by quickly. I would have liked to have seen more of his family since it was fun to see how his father would react in the opening scenes. They don’t get a whole lot to do in the movie though and really just have a quick role in the middle and ending as they see his progress.

Maybe have them show up for one of the Football games. That would have been fun and a good chance to have seen Stover at his best. The football subplot was a fun one and I was glad that it was in the film. What better way to build up friendship and comradery right? It’s a game where you have to trust your teammates after all and played no small part in helping Stover make the right decisions. The scenes of replaying the final plays may have been a bit cheesy and I would have cut them out but that wasn’t during a Football game so it’s a bit different. In general the only negative for the film would be that some scenes can be very cheesy with the kids so you’re just wanting the story to move on. It’s almost unavoidable for films with kids as the lead though so in light of that the film did a good job in not letting this become overwhelming.

Overall, The Happy Years is a fun enough film. With the main characters all being kids you may not find any standout characters there but the teacher is a lot of fun. The movie also does a good job of showing you the day to day adventures like being in class or on the Football field. It’s not just blasting through the story here and takes its time. So if you’re up for a cheerful adventure then this is a good title to check out.

Overall 7/10

Picnic at Hanging Rock Review

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Picnic at Hanging Rock takes the term “Slow Burner” to a whole new level. It feels like nothing is happening for the majority of the movie which does end up hurting the experience. Ultimately the biggest issue here is that the movie is quite boring for most of its run which is too bad since if it leaned more into the supernatural angle then this could have been a little more exciting. It doesn’t quite go in that direction though and the odd vibes the film gives off is not enough to keep it afloat.

The film starts off with the girls at a private school getting ready for their field trip. They are going to Hanging Rock this time and are instructed not to get too close or wander off from the group. Naturally they decide to go up there anyway or at least a group of them do. At first they make it fairly far up the mountain without an issue and are even dominating the mazes. One of them is complaining the whole time but the others pay no heed. Just as it’s almost time to go back, they appear to get brainwashed by some kind of supernatural entity which forces them up while one of the girls ends up running back home. There is no trace of the girls except for one who is found later on. What happened to them and how will the school stay running?

The film is definitely going for one of those unsolvable mystery type angles. Even as a concept I don’t think that will usually work out well for a film though. It pretty much guarantees that the film won’t have much of an ending which is concerning. It’s also going to rarely be very satisfying as is the case here. I wouldn’t say you’re necessarily too invested in the film as it is but it makes the whole thing feel even emptier. A huge part of the film is in trying to locate the missing girls and find out what happened but at the end of the day there were really no answers to be found here.

Of course I would say it was definitely supernatural and the mountain itself based on how it’s presented here. We get a lot of ominous shots with the mountain glaring at everyone and it explains why the girls suddenly got so dazed. There’s always a lot of ominous music as well which works well for the scenes. One thing I will say for the film is that it does a good job of making a lot of the scenes feel odd and sinister. That’s definitely pretty impressive of the film. The problem is that it’s hard to hold this kind of atmosphere for very long without something happening. The film pulls it off for the opening segments of the film but then that’s it. The rest of the film goes back into slice of life territory that just isn’t entertaining.

While it’s always debatable whether it’s worse to be boring or to be bad, everyone can agree that a film wants to avoid both of those options. If this movie had just been more entertaining that could have helped a lot. Mrs. Applewood is probably the most entertaining character because of how she is so transparent in how she only cares for the school. If there is any human antagonist in the film, it would have to be her. She’s even saddened when they find one of the girls because she thinks this will mean even more bad publicity. You don’t get a villain more obvious than that here but she really goes all in on the role. There’s never any doubt.

A lot of the characters here are the main kids who are hardly that entertaining. Albert is a kid who’s a bad influence to Michael and is just around to cause trouble. He just lazes about and doesn’t do anything except watch the girls. Michael may not do much for a while but at least once they disappear he does his best to find them. He even has a trippy dream of sorts and never loses hope that he will find them someday. I’ll give him credit there since that’s more effort than most of the characters were putting into this.

In general the town did their best though. We get quite a few scenes of the townsfolk all launching searches and investigations into what is happening and to find the girls. While none of them is successful you can’t fault those guys for a lack of trying. There were quite a few investigations but when the supernatural is at work it’s not like any of that ever could succeed. Even the girls who do return are hardly much help since they don’t seem to remember much of anything.

Edith for example is still complaining when the grownups bring her back up the mountain to try and describe what’s happening. It’s why Edith has to be my least favorite character here. Lives are at stake and she’s complaining about being tired and sleepy. That’s just super selfish on her part. She doesn’t seem to have any sympathy towards the other kids who are missing which is a shame.

Then you have Irma is found and she really seems to be in a daze the whole time too. She doesn’t know much of what happened and is really quiet even during her goodbye scene until the class tackle her. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s traumatized after the events on the mountain and has a much better reason to be stunned than Edith that’s for sure. Still, it would have been nice if she could have remembered more and clued the characters in. That would have at least given us something to go on.

Miss. Lumley is probably the only really nice character around. She does her best to instruct the kids and manage everyone’s sorrow. There’s only so much she can do in such a place though. With everyone being shifty and kids vanishing, it’s not exactly an easy environment to make the kids feel welcome in. I applaud her for her efforts but don’t blame her at all for leaving. There’s just no reason to stay in a place like this.

Overall, Picnic at Hanging Rock is a very dreary kind of film. It’s never really sunny over there and at all times the film feels rather grim. Even the ending is super dark and without a conclusion to the case the characters never had much hope. If the film had any hope, the ending would have destroyed it but it was already doomed by then. Nothing really happens for the whole middle act of the film which holds it back further. Throwing in some light hearted scenes or something would have helped a great deal. Instead the film just doesn’t move forward and the weirdness of it all isn’t enough to recommend it. This is one mystery you’ll want to stay far away from.

Overall 3/10

Regarding Henry Review

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Regarding Henry is one of those amnesia films where you can’t help but wish that we could have seen more of him from before the injury. I liked his confidence and it seems like he was doing quite well for himself. After the injury he really has to change and come to terms with his life and how he can turn things around. The movie is suitably emotional but one that has a few too many twists within it that end up hurting the film as a whole.

The movie starts with Henry dominating in the court room as per usual. He is able to help defeat one guy who was suing the hospital because the guy couldn’t find the proof. Henry uses every tactic in the book including an emotional appeal and wins without a hitch. His life seems perfect even if his kid Rachel isn’t great with boundaries yet and seemingly broke something again. His family relationships aren’t great but at least he’s rich. Well, things take a turn for the worse when he walks into a store and gets shot by someone during a hold-up. He has now lost his memories and can barely function to the point where he will have to learn how to walk again. Will he be able to do this and can he be close to his family again?

It always seems to be tough to be rich and be a family man in these films. It’s only once the guy gets amnesia and is stuck home for a while that he is able to reconnect with everyone. That’s certainly the case with Henry here at least. Well, it’s always a good message to reconnect with family but I do wish that he would end up getting his confidence back. Even by the end of the film it doesn’t seem like he will be as confident as he used to be which is a shame. He’s a lot more timid now. Of course Henry is also a much better person so the change is worth it. Maybe he’ll develop that confidence again later on.

The movie really has two halves which is the recuperation period at the hospital and then getting back into his normal life again. The first half goes by pretty quickly and he has a really great therapist in Bradley. I’m not sure what Bradley’s official title is but he makes that that Henry is rehabilitating well and that everything proceeds without issue. Bradley was there for Henry during the tough times and gave good advice throughout. He’s definitely the kind of guy you want to have taking care of you since he puts his heart into it and it’s not just a job.

In the second half is where you have more of the drama. Sarah is having a particularly tough time of things with trying to keep them from losing their house or going bankrupt. She’s a bit stressed out about everything and Rachel has her school she is supposed to be heading off for and isn’t exactly thrilled about that. I’d say the second half is where the the film starts to show its flaws. It just has 1-2 too many plot twists by the end which severely hurt the characters. It adds a little more drama but I’d say these scenes just should have never happened.

First we can talk about Henry. Like I said, his original version is definitely a jerk and not someone who’s very nice to be around. Well okay, that’s pretty common but at least it’s not awful right? Well, we find out that he was also cheating on Sarah and that’s when things went a bit too far for Henry. You can’t root for him after that and it makes him a complete sleazeball. It reminds me of when Tohma got amnesia in Index and thought his old self was a jerk due to some miscommunications. Well, in Henry’s case he really is that bad and it’s a bad look for him.

Then we’ve also got Sarah who has been doing some cheating as well. Now both characters are completely morally compromised so that none of them are likable. The film should have left well enough alone and they could have been a good pair of characters. Now it’s just too tough to go back and root for them. The film should have avoided the extra drama here. Rachel’s okay at best and since she’s a kid it’s not like you have to worry about much of anything with drama for her but she wasn’t always the nicest character so I wouldn’t say that I liked her much either.

All in all that means there weren’t very many characters that I did like here. Henry’s best friend at work is the guy who Sarah was cheating on him with so that makes that guy a complete phony. The only other reasonable character beyond Bradley would be Henry’s boss. The film kept hinting that this guy couldn’t be trusted but he actually seemed rather decent the whole time. At the very least he did keep Henry employed even when the guy couldn’t really help much at all. The boss is corrupt but apparently everyone in the business was.

I do question how Henry would be brought back into his old position so quickly though. After the amnesia there is no way he could have possibly performed any of the work at the job. Especially not a position where you’re reading through law and have to make snap decisions. I think it would have made more sense if Henry was brought back on paid sick leave or something so he was still at home. Of course it’s nice that he was brought back in right away but he could barely even talk at that point in time. So it just didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.

The most memorable scene in the film has to be the moment when Henry is shot though. He walks into the store while it’s being robbed and I would say Henry made a lot of the right moves at first. He was calm and tried to act normal but his big mistake was insisting on finishing his purchase instead of just walking out. Leaving is absolutely what he should have done instead of pleading his case. Seriously if a guy with a gun tells you to leave your best bet is to do just that and then you can call the cops or hide behind the door and jump him as he leaves. Either way, there’s not much benefit to trying to debate with the criminal at that point. There’s no way he’s going to listen to you, especially while he’s amped up like this.

Overall, Regarding Henry is an emotional title but I really think the film should have kept Henry and Sarah as being more likable characters. Having them both be compromised by really bad decisions which will impact their lives forever was not a good idea. At least Henry doesn’t remember this happening so it’ll feel like a different person, but Sarah always will. It just feels like this moment had no real point in the story except to add a little more drama that is wrapped up very quickly as it is. The romance wasn’t very good here already and this didn’t help. You can do better if you’re looking for an emotional kind of experience but all in all the ending is fairly happy so you won’t end off on a low note.

Overall 4/10

The Omega Man Review

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The Omega Man is another film in the classic story where humanity is seemingly wiped out so one guy has to survive on his own. That said, the premise is quite different here so you find out that other humans are alive quite early on. I have to say that most of the changes in this film were for the worst though. Ultimately it’s about on the level of your classic zombie film which isn’t really a complement.

The movie starts off with World War III and the human population is effectively destroyed by the chemical warfare. Fortunately Robert was able to survive due to a quick vaccine he had at the ready. As the last sane man alive he gathers supplies during the day and then keeps to himself at night. Those who have been infected can’t move freely in the day so that at least gives him a chance. See, the infected are led by a man named Mathias and they’ve created a cult of sorts where they want to hunt down anyone who still uses technology and isn’t cursed. Naturally Robert would fall into that category.

He’s held them off for a long time but when they finally capture him he is fortunately saved by a lady named Lisa. She explains that there is a whole resistance force that has escaped infection so far. Robert realizes this may finally give him a chance to recreate the vaccine and give it to everyone. Can he pull this off before Mathias and his troops take the heroes out? Additionally, will the rest of the humans only serve to slow Robert down and get him into trouble? That tends to be how things go in these films anyway.

The movie starts off well enough. It’s pretty interesting to see the deserted town and you feel how ominous the whole thing is. We see a shadow early on and you’re wondering what that is. Is it a zombie, enemy soldier? If you don’t know the plot before going into the film then there’s definitely a lot of suspense here as you wonder what exactly is going on here. It takes a little while before the film really lets you know what the score is in that respect. The beginning is just the best part of the film to be honest.

I also thought Robert does a good job of having fun here. When you’re the last man on Earth or seemingly so, you definitely better have a good sense of humor or you’re going to end up getting bored. So he talks to himself, plays games, and just has a good ole time. Of course he is lonely but he does a good job of hiding it and keeping himself active. I think that’s really the best thing to do in this situation. He can handle himself well and has good gun skills too. He even has that science background which comes in handy later on.

Where the film starts to buckle is when we meet the villains. The group is led by Mathias as I mentioned and he’s a very annoying main villain. He’s turned the whole situation into a cult where they attack the survivors but without a cure that means his gorup is slowly dying as it is. So there’s no end game here or any possible future where they are okay. His struggle seems meaningless. The film goes out of its way to show how they are all plagued by this disease and so it’s hard to even look at the characters. They’re all badly disfigured and have a lot of issues going on. It’s a shame that they are all brainwashed so thoroughly here.

Even though they’re sentient, for once I have to say that mindless zombies would be preferable here. These villains just seem so irrational that they may as well be mindless so it’s almost worse. Then you have their designs which hold them back as well. Yeah I could have done without these guys. Unfortunately the human characters aren’t very good either. First off you have the main heroine Lisa. At first she seems reasonable, a tough fighter who has survived in this cruel world for so long.

Yet, it feels like she doesn’t remember her survival skills when it counts. Near the end she decides to go and get some groceries, but Robert wisely points out that this isn’t the time for that. Villains can be anywhere and they can make it another day or so before it’s time to leave down. Well, she leaves anyway and things don’t go very well. In theory it should be tough for these guys to catch anyone with how slow they are but unfortunately she ended up being easy pickings for these guys.

Then you have Richie….oh nooooooo! You sort of know exactly when he’s going to make a bad move here. He tells Robert that he should either murder all of the cult members or try to cure them. Robert doesn’t want to mess with these guys since he was already captured once and refuses….so Richie figures he should go over there. Richie may have had connections before but this is really just a bad idea from the jump. You really should not be putting yourself in harm’s way like this. It causes a whole ripple effect across the story. The whole climax isn’t entirely Richie’s fault but he plays a big role in it.

Dutch is mainly safe because he doesn’t do anything although you will wonder where he is. He vanishes for large chunks of the movie and the resistance doesn’t appear until the end. It’s probably for the best that he wasn’t around or things would have gotten dicey for him too I suppose. By the end of the film you just feel like everyone ended up getting in Robert’s way. Perhaps he would have died eventually by himself anyway, you could say there’s a good chance of that. You still just wish things could have gone differently for him by the end.

The writing’s not bad here even if the characters are annoying most of the time. The romance is really rushed though and definitely could have been cut out of the film. Removing those scenes would help the film and in the middle of an apocalypse who is going to be distracted by romance anyway? There’s bigger things to worry about and that can wait until after the situation is resolved. At least that’s the way I see it.

Overall, The Omega Man is held back by the characters and is held back big time by the villains. It’s rare to say that zombies would be an improvement which shows just how bad these guys are. The climax isn’t very good and the movie does not end on a satisfying note. The romance doesn’t help matters either and so you’re left with a film that has a lot of weak points. All the best scenes in the film are from the very beginning and there’s a sharp decline once the other characters come into the mix. It’s almost inevitable that some humans appear but it would have been best to have kept that to a later point in the movie. The action’s good at least so if you can get past everything else then that’s always a fun sliver lining.

Overall 3/10

The Phantom Tollbooth Review

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The Phantom Tollbooth is an old story that has aged exceptionally well. You’ll absolutely be having a good time with this movie because it’s really just a wholesome adventure all the way around. The movie goes by quickly and the fantasy world is constructed well. We may not be there for a super long period of time since there’s only so much you can do in one movie but the film did a good job of making it all memorable.

The film starts by introducing us to a kid named Milo. He’s bored because he doesn’t care much for school and there isn’t anything to do at home either. Milo doesn’t see the point in an education since he feels like he will never get to use any of this stuff anyway. Well, one day a box arrives complete with a car to a whole new world. Milo decides to enter it and is now accompanied by a talking dog named Tock. The world is currently at odds because the numbers and letters have had a disagreement so rhyme and reason were banished from the kingdoms. Milo needs to try to find a way to establish world peace or that could be game over for the planet.

One thing you’ll notice right away is that the film does a good job of playing with words. almost every word has another meaning here. For example, the “Watchdog” is a dog with an actual watch inside of him. The names are all quite clever and the world seems insane but at the same time it does run on a kind of system. Milo also ends up taking some of this in stride quicker than I would have expected. He isn’t spending half of the film asking what’s going on or anything like that which is always a good thing. It’s always a shame when a character isn’t able to adapt to the fantasy world.

Milo’s not a standout character or anything but he works well enough as the lead. He does his best to help the planet out. Milo does get into trouble at times to be sure but he always ends up bouncing back and doing what he can. In the end isn’t that all you can really ask for? Of course he definitely did mess up with trying to get the sun to rise and that was probably his biggest mistake. Even if he had the skills it would have certainly messed up everyone’s routine since not enough time had passed.

As for Tock, he’s a good sidekick to have around. He knows quite a lot and is pretty good about getting Milo up to speed in a simple way. He doesn’t overcomplicate the issues and just tells it all to Milo direct. You’ve got the two kings who are both suitably petty. I did much prefer the words guy over the numbers king though. Mainly because I think he has the better point. I don’t care how good you are at numbers, you definitely need letters if you want to do anything. Meanwhile you could make a strong case for numbers not being quite as necessary. Of course you do need both in the end but letters are absolutely the winner here.

From the various villains, the best had to be the Terrible Trivium. This guy really stole the show the instant he appeared. He suckered the characters into doing meaningless tasks almost immediately and his design is even rather fierce. You do not want to get on his bad side, that’s for sure. I would have liked more of a final fight for him of course but this isn’t really that kind of movie. He still did well to slow the heroes down and remained a memorable part of the film.

The Humbug was another fun character. I think just from his name you can probably guess a few things about his personality right? Well, you’d be right on the money there and he’s a nice contrast to Milo and Tock who are just having a good time being heroes from start to finish. So we’ve got quite the solid cast in this film and the writing is really on point. There’s no point where you feel like the film is dragging on or that the scene isn’t engaging. When creating a crazy world it’s certainly possible to make things too crazy so that it all feels forced but that’s not an issue here. The crazy logic makes sense in its own way and it makes for a fun world.

The movie is really low key when you think about it. It’s an adventure without a whole lot of danger and excitement but the quality writing and characters are what keeps this one on solid ground from start to finish. The movie’s ending leaves room for a sequel should Milo ever have any doubts again. I do think it was rather rude of him to hang up on his friend though. Keep in mind that his friend stayed on the line when Milo vanished which was apparently only a few minutes at best. Surely Milo could have waited so they could have both talked about their adventure right? It shows that the friend was more loyal than Milo was.

Overall, The Phantom Tollbooth is a fun film. It isn’t particularly dynamic or anything but it’s really a fundamentally sound film. If you ever have someone ask you what’s a good movie that just stands on its own without any huge gimmicks, this one’s a good example. No big action scenes, special effects, or anything like that. It’s just a good story and a fun watch. I’m not sure a modern remake would be able to do it justice but I would be interested to see how that all pans out. Also, while this film succeeded without fight scenes, I certainly wouldn’t turn them down if a modern remake wanted to add those. That could be rather fun.

Overall 7/10

Black Rock Shooter Review

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Black Rock Shooter is one of those shows that I knew nothing about except the design of the main fighter. One of the oldest music themes in my favorites list is “Battle of BRS” which may be from this show but I was listening for it during the show and didn’t notice it so maybe it’s from the OVA or something else. Either way it’s cool to be entering into this adventure now and it’s definitely a great show. It’s a fun divide between the human world and the other place where fights rage on forever. It’s short but makes the most of the length.

The show starts off by introducing us to Mato who has had a very fun life up to now. She really enjoys reading a book about the bird who saw a million colors and has lives her life modeled after that. Mato enjoys everything and sees life as being something amazing. When she sees her classmate Yomi is really by herself and not having a good time, Mato tries being her friend. This will be tough though as Yomi is shackled by her sick friend Kagari. Mato will have to learn what it means to go through both emotional and physical pain on this journey of hers but she doesn’t want to stop trying to get Yomi to a better place.

The plot changes over the course of the 8 episodes but a large chunk of this is really about Mato learning that there’s more to life than just pure joy even if it would be cool if that was the case. So by trying to help Yomi she ends up throwing her own life off of the clear path it was on. That’s why throughout the show Mato is just great. She doesn’t get down easy and she’s always going out of her way to help out the other characters. She helps out quite a few characters before this is over.

Now I should talk about the other world. It’s a very interesting concept and one that the show dives into quite a bit by the end. So in this show, every character has an inner self which is quite literal. This self is born to fight on your behalf in the other world. Mato’s counterpart is Black Rock Shooter. So BRS’s objective is to protect Mato’s soul and get rid of anyone who endangers it. It is quite literally a life built for nonstop fighting. There is never an end to the battles and there are always more fighters to battle.

As a result it can be a depressing existence for these beings. Fortunately they are built to have no emotions by default but as we see in the show, it is possible to develop them. So all these years BRS has been fighting off enemies and protecting Mato. I’d say she has done an excellent job of it considering that Mato’s had a near perfect life. It’s important to note that the humans don’t know about their inner selves or at least most don’t. Mato has dreams about BRS on occasion but that’s really the extent of it.

When your inner self is destroyed, you lose all memory of whatever had been causing you pain. So, lets say someone bullied you at school and stole your lunch. Your inner self absorbs that pain and if the despair is too much then it will cause your real self to also be empty inside. If someone destroys your inner self containing the despair, your real self will completely forget it. It’ll be like that deed never happened to you so you now have peace but it’s a false peace since you’ve lost your memory. So one of the trials here is deciding if what BRS is doing is right. After all, aside from protecting Mato she is going around and destroying all of the negative inner selves.

This is helping these other people by conquering their despair. It takes Yomi and Kagari from each being near suicidal to being able to be happy again. So it does seem like a really positive thing but it completely erases all of their bad memories which does have a big impact. There’s a whole debate to be there for sure. My short answer though is that BRS is doing good. She is protecting Mato and if she didn’t destroy those inner selves then they would have possibly destroyed the human hosts as well. It’s hard to say for sure but it definitely seemed to be going that way.

BRS seems like one of the only positive inner selves though. So I wonder if you have to have despair in order to generate one of these or if we just don’t see the positive ones. I am going to assume it’s the latter for now and BRS is intentionally only going after the evil ones. If so, it speaks even better of BRS even if by the end some characters are convinced that she may destroy the entire world. BRS is very determined and gets the job done, that’s definitely very impressive. She is easily my favorite character as well. She takes some really heavy blows and always manages to get back up. Additionally, just imagine what it’s like to be locked into a never ending conflict for years and years at a time. You have to have strong mental fortitude to keep up with that and we see that BRS really is a strong soul.

That’s about all I need to say on the Other World so you get the gist of it. We see several other inner selves of course as each main girl has one and they all try their best to fight off BRS. Aside from Strength none of the others get any real character but the designs are all fun. Of course they do give us a ton of great action scenes as well. It’s all very styalized and is using a noticeably different animation style than in the human world. It helps to make the fights stand out and I definitely liked it quite a lot.

The fights are great throughout and you really feel the blows. If handled wrong this could have been excessively violent but it’s all styalized so it never actually feels that way. The characters are almost like machines fighting and I’d say this is intentional to show how they have been containing the despair for so long and nothing phases them. BRS will be getting pummeled over and over only to jump up and land a powerful combo. The other world scenes are definitely the best part of the show.

Not to say the human stuff is bad, I’ll get onto that shortly. The human stuff is really good too but it’s nice to have a literal battlefield where we see how the emotions are affecting these fighters. It also adds the action genre to the show which is never a bad thing. The fights remind me of Madoka a bit with how everyone has an absolutely massive arsenal where they can spam their attacks at will. These fighters never run out of attacks to use and will fight until one of them is completely destroyed.

So now lets get to the human part which is almost like a different show. Maybe that’s part of what makes the show so effective, it’s like two shows for the price of one as we switch into worlds. For an emotional story like this where Mato is helping everyone out, I’d say a crucial part of whether it succeeds or not depends on how dark each person’s story is. It’s very easy for a show to write everyone going through absolutely horrible tragedies where the scars will be with them forever. Fortunately the show has a lot of restraint and while all of the characters are in bad situations, it never crosses that line.

The darkest situation is the first friend for sure which is Yomi. So here’s the situation. When they were kids, Yomi was best friends with Kagari. Unfortunately Kagari got injured and blames Yomi for this. Yomi must now play with her and her alone at all times. If she tries to play with anyone else Yomi will guilt trip her further. Unfortunately Yomi’s mother is also in on this and doesn’t notice how Kagari completely terrorizes her the whole time. Yomi is now too scared to do much of anything and even allows Kagari to physically injure her. This is where Mato steps in to save the day.

This is the kind of situation though where I have to blame Yomi quite a lot though. I get why she feels guilt here but at the end of the day the injury was actually more on Kagari when you think about it. Additionally, guilt can only go too far. Yomi has already given Kagari many years but when it comes to letting your friend stab you and scare everyone away that’s just going way too far. I wanted to see Yomi stick up for herself a bit here. It’s a character arc I’ve seen before definitely and each time I think it just goes way too far.

Yomi ended up being my least favorite character in the series as she just keeps sinking even after the arc. You’d think that the experience of having a possessive, abusive friend would help Yomi learn what not to do in friendship. Instead she becomes unreasonably jealous of Mato’s other friend Kotari. It would have been so easy for the 3 of them to be friends. Mato and Kotari were both all for it but Yomi of course had to make sure this couldn’t happen. It takes forever for Yomi to finally turn into a decent character. In a sequel I’m sure she would look better but in this show she was really annoying with how this all ended up. I still think there was no reason for her to go off the deep end. (Not gonna blame the inner self for any of this)

Kagari was of course an awful bully in the first half but fortunately after BRS saved the day she was able to become a good character. I mean she still has some moments that seem off like when she yells Yomi not to be too clingy but I guess she was trying to be nice about how she framed it and just didn’t know how to do it. It’s hard to just forget about the first half so I wouldn’t say Kagari is a good character. She is on a good track to be a better person going forward though.

Another character who needed help was Arata. Her situation isn’t nearly as bad though. Basically she likes a guy but he’s a wimp who lets his friends make fun of her for that and does nothing to stop them. Now that Arata had her heart trampled on like this she has retreated within herself. She has always internalized all of her issues and believes that anything bad that happens is her own fault. It’s a rationale she uses to make sure that she never gets sad but of course this is catching up to her. It doesn’t help that Saya is always making some little comments about this but I’ll talk more about her shortly. I liked Arata quite a lot though.

Internalizing like that isn’t healthy but it is certainly better than blowing up at the other characters and causing a scene. Arata never does that and does ultimately stand by her ideals of rising or falling on her own merits. You’re rooting for her to have a happy ending by the end of all this. Her inner self is probably the weakest one as she doesn’t really fight but it makes sense. Her inner self has no despair to absorb since Arata keeps it to herself and the inner self probably doesn’t even know what to do at this point.

Now lets talk about Saya. So for most of the series Saya was my favorite villain. She’s the counselor at the school but her actual role is the opposite. She will call in a student who is having a bad time and will intentionally give them bad advice. For example Yomi arrives in a very bad mental state and Saya tells her that nobody needs her. Arata mentions how things went badly for her and Saya basically says that’s a good thing. Mato goes in for help and Saya literally starts choking her before saying that she lost control for a sec.

It’s how not subtle Saya is that really sells the character for me. It’s also just surreal because I’ve never seen a character like this. Everyone is caught up in their feels so nobody ever complains about her to the administration so Saya’s really in the clear. The comments are always obvious but when the character questions this Saya will say that she misspoke or just do the classic “Huh?”. It’s very twisted of course since this is a villain who only targets you when you’re already down and in a delicate headspace. It’s why this makes her so unique as a villain though. She doesn’t do anything over the top, she’s not using swear words, beating people up, or doing anything crazy. She’s just using mild comments but ones that are specifically tailored to each character to maximize how hard they will take the comment. Now there are some twists about this that make you think about her character some more. It’s an interesting twist but whether it truly helps her or not can be debatable.

Finally we have Mato’s best friend Kotari and from the start you probably figured that something would happen to her eventually. She’s always happy and cheering Mato on so clearly something is wrong here right? Well, she gets quite a lot of development such as a burning house and growing up in an awful household. It’s certainly not a good situation for her and like Arata she seems to internalize this. At least..that seems to be the case at first. So the next 5 paragraphs are pretty big spoilers so avoid them if you haven’t seen the show yet. This will also tie into Saya as I untangle this a bit. Get ready to skip nowwwwwwwww.

Begin Spoilers. So Kotari actually switched places with her inner self “Strength”. How is this possible? Anything is possible in these things if you believe hard enough. So now Kotari is the one who receives all of the despair and it’s sort of driven her crazy. She has a whole speech about this at the end where she’s screaming about how it hurts but how she’s also still here and she won’t let the pain beat her. The speech itself could be rather inspirational if she wasn’t so crazy by this point trying to murder BRS. The message is good how Kotari has been through a lot but won’t let the pain define her. At the same time, Kotari has completely abandoned the human world so is she really dealing with the pain or avoiding it? She’s clearly been through a lot and was a really good character.

Then of course the character we thought was Kotari for most of the series was actually Strength. As a result I can safely say that Strength is a great character as well. She takes a lot of risks to help Mato throughout the series and was really a nice person to everyone. It seems like she takes her life very seriously since she knows first hand how any sadness would affect the real Kotari in her world. So the setup they have is pretty good and it’s a credit to both characters. Ultimately this can’t last though and the real Kotari will need to go back and hang out with everyone. Hopefully she still has all the memories of Strength and knows what is going on or school’s gonna feel crazy.

Now lets talk about Saya’s plan. It turns out that there was a method to her madness. So she was intentionally breaking each student down to expose their true selves so BRS could destroy them. This would grant the students their inner peace. Then once BRS had absorbed all of that negativity, Saya would destroy her so then Mato would be free and everyone would be free of despair. It’s one of those plans that doesn’t sound crazy at first glance. If Saya succeeds then everyone will be happy so isn’t that good?

Well, it would be except how can she beat BRS? We see how powerful BRS is in every fight and she seems to get stronger after each adventure. Saya’s inner self is powerful as well but definitely not on the same level. Maybe the fact that Saya seems to pretty much be able to control her inner self would make her stronger but I still see no way to close the gap. Saya is also tempted to murder Mato at one point which would have really not solved anything and would have made everything worse. I don’t think BRS ever needed to die though as she only happened to go crazy because of the failed fusion with Mato. Otherwise I think she would have stopped once the threats were gone. So Saya’s plan was very convoluted and was no good.

Here’s another huge flaw in the plan. What if she broke down Yomi and the others too well and they ended up doing something they’d regret? If they died then her plan would have been completely off the rails since she would have indirectly murdered the people she was trying to help. That’s why I think they should have played it straight and kept Saya as a villain. Make her the final boss and that would have been more satisfying. This plan just doesn’t make much sense to me even if it was well intentioned. Reminds me of Athena’s plans in that sense. Plus Saya was just so much fun as a villain. Ah well.

End spoilers. As mentioned, Mato is a great main character so that wraps up what I would consider to be a very impressive lineup here. You really won’t have any issues with Mato because she does her best to protect everyone at all times. She is willing to put her physical and emotional selves in jeopardy to help out as well. Mato really doesn’t hesitate to put herself in harm’s way and while it ends up hurting her, she’s okay if she has helped someone. You can’t ask for much more out of a hero.

The animation for the human world is good too. It may not stand out as much as the inner world but of course that’s because we don’t have big action scenes in the real world. Either way it works well as the animations and designs are on point. The soundtrack is also good. I wouldn’t say there are any really standout themes but the battle theme is good. The opening and ending are okay but I wouldn’t say they are too memorable. I don’t think you’ll be humming these tunes after the show ends or anything like that.

Black Rock Shooter works in large part because of the writing. Of course the fights are good as well but this is really a show that could have gone sideways. Writing an emotional show will always be tougher than a standard action one because you have to be sad without being too tragic. It’s a tight line that you have to walk and this show did a great job with it. It’s why it ended up surpassing expectations for me and is definitely a top notch show that I would recommend checking out. At only 8 episodes you’ll be done with this one in a flash. The story breezes by and the pacing is always quick so you can’t go wrong here.

Overall, Black Rock Shooter is a great show that is emotional by day and action packed by night. The contrast between both worlds is really handled excellently. I would be cool with a whole show for either world but by merging it like this you really get a complete adventure. From the two though, a full show for BRS in her world would be a lot of fun. Since nobody there talks though I can see why this would have to be more of a sub plot though. I mean, not that they can’t talk but as emotionless fighters they don’t tend to talk much. Only BRS and Strength really show any kind of emotion here. Well, it’s nice to know the story behind the fun battle song “Battle of BRS” now. I’d recommend looking up that tune if you haven’t yet and of course you should check this show out if you’re up for a solid adventure.

Overall 8/10