image courtesy of nytimes.com I recently caught up with HBO’s 2020 miniseries The Plot Against America, based on the Philip Roth novel of the same name (which I have read). I also just began reading It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis. Needless to say, I was already primed for a “tyranny can happen anywhere” movie. Enter Marjane Satrapi, her graphic novel (the source material for this film), and co-writer/director Vincent Paronnaud. Persepolis follows “Marji” from childhoo

image cortesy of animationisfilm.com First off, the Hungarian title of this film - Fehérlófia - is much cooler-looking than the English one, and it's a shame that's the version most people will never get the chance to mispronounce. It's tough to figure out where to start here, because there isn't really a frame of reference to lean on, no neat shelf in the video store of the mind where this one slots in next to something familiar. I would love to meet anyone who has heard of

Every year in the Best Animated Feature Oscar category, there are one or two movies from other countries that most American audiences have never seen. Alongside the Pixars, Disneys, and Aardmans (not American, but still English-language), you'll see a Ghibli (Japan), a Cartoon Saloon (Ireland), or a Folimage (France). Every so often, one of these foreign-language films takes the prize:

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image courtesy of www.willowandthatch.com As a James Ivory film, I went in predisposed to like this. Howard’s End, A Room with a View, and especially The Remains of the Day form an incredible triad of English period drama, powered by sharp characters and formidable performances. Maurice arrives right after A Room with a View, another E. M. Forster adaptation steeped in English manners and stifled passion. And society… OH, SOCIETY. At Cambridge, Maurice (James Wilby) falls for