A good deal of the critical reception for The Boy and the Heron, the latest from famed animation outfit Studio Ghibli, likens the film to a swan song. Hayao Miyazaki’s on-and-off-again relationship with retirement leaves the film feeling like an open-ended farewell. The perception is fitting for a film so freighted with existential anxieties about moving on and growing up. But the film is as interested in beginnings as it is in endings, and Miyazaki’s canny ability to elegantly complicate that otherwise simple dichotomy is what makes The Boy and the Heron such a striking experience.

However, it was well into the final act of the film before I was convinced that Continue reading The Boy and the Heron (2023) Movie Review →