Whisper of the Heart is a Miyazaki film from 1995 (and it shows, no cell phones, really old laptops... it's almost historical!) about an eighth grade Japanese girl named Shizuku who struggles to discover who she is and who she wants to be just as she's falling in love for the first time.
Well, when I write it out like that it seems so simple and trite, but it honestly is a really enjoyable little journey. Like all Miyazaki films, I really love the detail that goes into the world that's created in animation. It's not a huge thing, but it's like really great set dressing, it makes you feel as though there's a living world outside of the pictures you see on the screen. Flies and moths buzzing around a light at night or the papers and clothes strewn about the tiny bedroom Shizuku shares with her college-aged sister (sleeping in bunk beds, nonetheless!), the "lived in" touches around the kitchenette. It feels like a real family lives in that cramped apartment.
I also enjoyed the humorous, but honest portrayal of first crushes and the whole "boys are dumb!" and the cries from the class of "Shizuku has a boyfriend!" when a boy comes looking for Shizuku in her class and her utter embarrassment. It all seems like a game at that age, but everyone takes it so seriously. If we only knew then how serious it gets later on...
More important than the romantic elements, though, is the self-discovery that goes on. As Shizuku realizes her attraction to Seiji, she finds herself overwhelmed by the thought that Seiji has his life all worked out. He knows what he wants to do with himself and he'll probably be quite good at it and this leaves Shizuku feeling undeserving of his interest. Forget that she's only 13, she desperately wants to be good at something in order to make herself worthy of Seiji, and this drives her to write a story in a world of her own creation. While Shizuku found Seiji's drive to make violins inspiring, I can't help but feel inspired by Shizuku's drive to become a great writer.
While there isn't any particularly noteworthy action in this movie, it still feels like the audience is following Shizuku on a grand adventure as she strives to discover who she is and who she might become. I find myself drawn to the characters and I can't help but wonder how they turn out ten or twenty years down the road...
Of course, knowing we're talking about kids in their early teens, I'm sure this whole thing breaks up come next year as they progress into high school... right?
4/5
I first saw this show several years ago at the Kennedy Center with a large group of friends. At the time, I really enjoyed show. The music was good, the video presentation was good, even the on-stage bits, while kind of goofy, were still entertaining. Seeing it again, this time outdoors at Wolf Trap, was pretty much the same thing, only outdoors and surrounded by lots of intoxicated people who felt obligated to make their most inane thoughts known to everyone. The basic show was essentially the same, though I expect the games highlighted were different, the formula was unchanged. Actually, one of the most interesting segments was when they got a kid from the audience to go up on stage and play Guitar Hero. If he could play Sweet Emotion by Aerosmith on hard and clear 200,000 points he would win a laptop. He told them to set it to expert and then proceeded to get a 609 note streak and something like 317,000 points. I basically don't know anything about the game, but that was pretty damned impressive. Especially when you imagine that this kid had the pressure of thousands of people watching him very closely as well as the NSO playing backup to the song. Talk about being a guitar hero! So generally, not a bad evening, but I don't expect to be going again when it comes around in the future... not unless there's a friend who really wants to go. 
The movie opens by explaining that the Autobots have partnered with an American military unit to form "NEST" and together, they seek out and destroy Decepticons wherever they are found. So that's nice.
This is a fun little romantic comedy about an uptight wannabe history professor working as a tour guide in Greece. It relies on and plays heavily off of the classic tourist stereotypes including the tipsy Australians (who always have a can of Foster's in their hands), the old people, the divorcees who have sworn off men but are still looking, the overly nice Canadians, the rude Americans, and the "funny guy." It's funny because we've all seen them, it's less funny because we've all seen movies using these stereotypes before.
Seriously, I'm getting too old to be going to midnight screenings... Thankfully, Salvation had enough action (pretty much wall-to-wall) and very loud effects to keep me awake and engaged all the way through. In trying to explain this movie to my father, I came up with "it follows a very monochromatic spectrum." This has nothing to do with the color palette used, I am referring to the themes, events, and travel the story makes. It sticks very close to its guiding rail and plays it hard and fast. No unexpected messages in this story, no unnecessary scenes to take you out of the world. It's very focused. That's a good thing in a movie like Salvation as long as you aren't expecting anything like the also action-packed but comparatively colorful and broad spectrumed Star Trek. The reason I am only giving Salvation a 4 is because of its lack of thematic diversity. It certainly doesn't make it any less entertaining, just less colorful and doesn't give you as much to think about on your way out, so it might lack staying power when you think back on it in a few years.
Wow. I'm still trying to work out how to review this movie, which is hard because I really don't want to give anything away, but it's tough to explain my thoughts on it without detailing elements of the film. It's a challenge!
I got the impression the general assumption is that this movie would suck. In fact, it did not suck. We're not talking quality cinema, but it was sufficiently entertaining.