Comfy Cozy Cinema – Page 2 – Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs..

Hello all! Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I love to buddy watch movies together – even though I am in Michigan and she is in Pennsylvania! We don’t literally watch together in a watch party, although that might be fun one time! We wanted our fall list to feel fall cozy, move into some more chilling movies, than turn cozy again for November. This week we had a double feature week, starting with Fantastic Mr. Fox on Tuesday and today, The Secret World of Arrietty.

Over the past year or so, I became a Ghibli fan. I had been urged for years to watch Studio Ghibli movies by my husband and brother, and eventually I gave in and found that yes, they were right, I love them as they knew that I would. Well, most of them. I like the more fairy tale, whimsical Ghibli rather than some of the more sci-fi type (like Nausicaa). In fact, one of my favorite movies as a child, The Last Unicorn (I still love this movie and the book) was created by the people who later formed Studio Ghibli. So I guess I was always a fan and didn’t know it.

The Secret World of Arrietty is one of my favorites. It is such a gentle movie, with fields of flowers and dreaming, a giant fat cat, a kind boy, a brave girl. This movie is based on the book The Borrowers by Mary Norton, and is about a family of tiny people who secretly reside in homes. They borrow only what they need, things that would not be noticed or needed, things forgotten, like Arrietty’s straight pin. They keep to themselves and remain hidden, for the rule is, if a borrower is seen, than the family needs to move to keep safe.

Arrietty sort of blows that being hidden and not seen thing out of the water. She is thirteen, adventurous, and wants to see what is out there, and one day on one of her forays, a new boy arrives to the home to live with his aunt and her employee. He has heart issues and is staying with his aunt until his operation, so that he can relax and be safe and rest. Arrietty doesn’t know this, or about his personality, which turns out to be kind – but she does know that there is a good chance that she was seen by him. She doesn’t say anything to her parents, Pod and Homily, and later that night goes on her first borrowing with her father. I love this part. The seriousness that is conveyed through animation is amazing. So much is said in the quiet moments, the heaviness of her father’s walk, the stoic way he handles the whole expedition. Homily, Arrietty’s mother, is a bundle of dramatic nerves and I have to say, I sometimes can relate to her. I would be terrified if my teen was going on a borrowing and we were only like 3 inches tall. Homily however knows that her child has to learn how to take care of herself, as the three of them, as far as they know, are the last of their kind. They don’t know if there are others out there, so one day Arrietty might be all on her own. She sends them off, imploring them to be safe and with a small list – sugar and tissue paper.

It’s on this expedition that things go awry. Arrietty is not only straight up seen by the boy, Shawn, but he speaks to her. He talks about his mother who grew up in that house told him stories of little people who live in the walls, and you get the sense she was a romantic dreamer, even though now it appears she has left those days behind her. Anyway, this is not good. Not good at all. Pod starts making plans to move, and spends the next few days finding safe routes away from the house. On one of these trips he becomes injured and is discovered by another borrower, Spiller. Spiller tells them he can help them leave, he knows more borrowers out there, and can help them escape to a new beginning.

Now that they have definitely been seen, they have to move and it kills me. There house is so charming and beautiful and every time I watch it I think about how cozy it looks. Just filled with color and life and useful items, books and herbs and quilts and it is all just so delightful. Plus Shawn and his aunt are sympathetic to the family, and not out to get them, although we do know that someone else is.

The animation is spectacular. The way that flowers move in the breeze, the homes with ivy crawling up their sides, plants with dew, the attention to detail is amazing and so real – the scenes without dialogue that are just quick views of the landscape or scenery are some of the most powerful (and relaxing) in the movie.

I could just lay in a field of flowers on a lazy day reading with a cat curled up on me too.

This movie is bittersweet, in the sense that new friends Shawn and Arrietty have to say goodbye to each other, and Arrietty and her family have to move. However, the last few lines of the movie make it seem a bit better.

It was the relaxing, cozy movie I needed last night, after a sort of stressful two days around here. I fell asleep dreaming of rooms filled with plants and life and color.

Next up we leave the world of animation and move back into classics, with the African Queen! This movie has been on my watch list for years and years and I am looking forward to finally watching it. When I feel like a Bogart movie, I almost always switch on Key Largo, one of my favorites, rather than trying a new one. So I am looking forward to finally watching it!

You can find Lisa’s post on Arrietty here! I am linking straight to her blog as I know she had some stuff going on and may not get her post up until a bit later.

I am so excited for the fall edition of the buddy movie watching I do with my friend and fellow blogger, Lisa, over at Boondock Ramblings! We wanted to watch some fall movies together and really couldn’t pick one lane. Or maybe I couldn’t, because that sounds like me. So we have a list that we compiled that moves from feeling all cozy autumn that moves into sort of creepy, then boop! Back to cozy again! We wanted movies that made us feel all snuggly, that made us want to get under blankets and drink tea, and then we wanted a little extra thrill for around Halloween. And I think we were successful in our list making! Feel free to watch along with us!

This week we are not just doing one movie, but two, and it has me all kinds of happy. I happily settled down Saturday night in my super comfy pajama pants, a cup of mint tea with honey, and my honey, Billy to watch the first up, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and from the moment it began I was glued to the screen. (sorry for the cheesy joke…)

This movie is a visual treat, and perfect for autumn with all of its super warm tones of yellow and orange. I have said time and again in this space that I am a sucker for a beautiful movie, and that even includes stop action animation. Also, Wes Anderson! I love Wes Anderson! He managed to capture the spirit of the book and blend it with his own style and aesthetic in the most perfect way. Or should I say, fantastic way?

This movie sticks to the core of the book, with Mr. Fox being a clever little fox vs. the villainous farmers, Boggis, Bunce, and Bean (one fat, one short, one mean..) The movie added a bit more to the plot to fluff it out a bit more, with the addition of nephew Kristofferson, Ash and his foibles, school, etc, and fleshed out the life of the animals more. In this version, Foxy is a former thief, and a very good one at that. However, he promises his wife Felicity (voiced by Meryl Streep!) that he will give us his thieving ways and get a safer job. So, he does, and becomes a newspaper man. He is suave, he is sophisticated, he is clever, but lives in a den underground, like foxes usually do. Foxy though, has higher aspirations and ambitions, and moves his family to a beech tree, right in the middle of a highly dangerous neighborhood, one occupied by none other than the farmers Boggis, Bunce, and Bean. And here the madness begins.

Oh Foxy. He causes So. Much. Trouble! Not just for his family, but for all the animals in the area, who are none too happy with him. And neither is his wife, Felicity. One of my favorite scenes is one where Felicity is giving him a piece of her mind, and she asks why he didn’t keep his promise to her, and he says, “Because I’m a wild animal”. And I thought what a great line, what a great moment. Because despite everything, he is who and what he is. A wild animal. They may be little animal versions of newspaper reporters, artists, lawyers, doctors, but they are all wild animals first and foremost. This actually becomes a much deeper theme later in the movie, that is expanded upon in a wonderfully fantastic way.

There is another scene that I loved just as much. Foxy and his gang are out on a mission, when in the distance, they spot the most wild animal of all, the wolf. There is this pause, a weighty pause full of emotion, more than you would expect from a movie like this, as the characters take in the majesty of what they are seeing.

It gave me goosebumps.

The voice actors all did a fantastic job (yes I am going to keep using that adjective) – George Clooney, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Meryl Streep, and Michael Gambon who managed to be 100% Gambon-ish even in the role he was voicing. And I loved how instead of swearing in this movie, the used the word “cuss”, where there would be a cuss word. So very very clever.

So, does Foxy beat the farmers? Are his family and friends saved? Well, you will just have to watch and find out!

You can find Lisa’s thoughts here!

Next up is The Secret World of Arrietty, another movie based on a children’s book. Arrietty is based on the classic The Borrowers, and oh do I love it so much. I want my whole house to look like their house. Anyway, that is for another day – Thursday, in fact.

This is our list of movies by the way. We do have some break weeks built in, so stay tuned for which weeks are break weeks!