[Cali Panthers Fan]

Catching up on some Oscar films over the last week. Two more that I heartily recommend:

Spiderman-Into the Spiderverse: First and foremost, I loved the artistic style of this film. There was an intentional comic-book style to it most notably with the pixelated shading used throughout and also the text boxes, but there were a wide variety of styles including some very precise work on the characters. The background/foreground being slightly out of focus was a nice subtle touch. The story seemed to have significant gravitas and yet still maintained a light comic-book style story. The action sequences were fun and exciting. There was just enough comedy to keep me chuckling throughout. A thoroughly interesting and well rounded film, good enough to keep my wife (who is thoroughly burnt out on superhero films) happy and entertained. 9/10

Free Solo: I don't want to give too much away, but this was more interesting for me as a study of an extreme personality than it was about the climb itself, which should be enough for any film. I found Alex to be highly articulate and intelligent, but also illogical and foolish. It's clear that his brain simply doesn't work like the rest of ours, and I'm sure that his parents did plenty to turn him into the obsessive person that he is today. I don't want to say too much about his relationship with his girlfriend, but I'm pretty sure he's doomed to live a solitary and relatively short life. I highly recommend it for the interesting subject and subject matter, the death-defying physical feats, but also simply for the camera work. The crew deserved their Oscar for the ability to shoot it alone. A thoroughly enthralling piece of work. 9/10