It’s a biographical performance that Albert Finney, Richard Burton and Michael Gambon have all taken on. Here, in Churchill, Sir Winston, named in a 2002 poll as the Greatest Briton of all time, is played with aplomb by Brian Cox. This is however, from the directorial eye of The Railway Man’s Jonathan Teplitzky and the pen of historian Alex von Tunzelmann, a far more destabilising depiction of the icon and well represented caricature. Churchill has both the bull and black dogs of its protagonist’s life at heart but is unfortunately every bit as conflicted and flawed as the man himself.
Made in the US but financed by China, Rock Dog – the latest cheap and cheerful toon from the makers of Free Birds and The Book of Life – represents the worst of both worlds. An unharmonious mash up of cultures, the film might just have scraped by as passable kiddy fare were it better balanced in gender casting and less offensively blatant as an example of American globalisation. It’s based on, Chinese Rock Singer/Songwriter, Zheng Jun’s manga book: Tibetan Rock Dog but might as well be based in New York for all anyone cares. The film’s already bombed in China and, frankly, it deserved to.
Studio Ghibli, that powerhouse of Japanese animation, stirred panic among certain cineastes back in 2014 when they announced that When Marnie Was Here would mark a temporary hiatus in production to coincide with the retirement of co-founder Hayao Miyazaki. Three years on, Miyazaki has thankfully resumed his position to direct one more feature – hoorah! In the meantime, to whet our appetites, Michaël Dudok de Wit’s The Red Turtle marks a excitingly potent co-production between Ghibli and European distributor Wild Bunch.
The Film Blog 