By: Hess Sahlollbey
Two anthropomorphic dog-women lay on a Grecian style bed in bliss while a cherub plays a horn amidst a mustard yellow background. The cover of J’aime les filles (I Like Girls) by Diane “Obom” Obomswin firmly establishes its surreal presentation.
A Montréal-based comics creator, Obomsawin originally lived abroad in France for 20 years before moving to Quebec permanently in the 80s.
Rent made Montréal more affordable than Paris, Obom found a home in the LGBTQ+ community.
Working as a graphic designer for magazines and advertisements, she was all the while studying animation in the late 1990s. A student at Concordia University, Obom was amongst one of the last groups of students to study traditional hand-drawn animation.
“It’s funny, I always seem to arrive at the end of things and beginnings of new ones,” said Obom.
The medium was shifting from colored plastic cells to hand-drawn sheets that computers and digital colours would then bring to life. As digital consumed the medium, Obom would use her newfound foundations and technology to shift her comics and storytelling to the screen.
“I got used to drawing on a graphic tablet… but I really miss that I have lost the opportunity to work with ink and paper,” said Obom.
While creating comics, Obom would soon fall in with the other creators in the arts scene of Montreal where the atmosphere was less cynical than France.
In Montreal, artists would openly discuss the poetry or their paintings without being looked down upon or facing pretention.
“It was a very collaborative time, but it was also the beginning of individualism, a time where collectively working on a project was on the decline,” said Obom.
This individualism would lend itself perfectly to comics and animation.
The mediums that call upon a tremendous amount of devotion, cartoonist and animators are often working in isolation for hours on end as they transition their characters through a story.
J’aime les filles, which is Obom’s latest collection published by Drawn and Quarterly, recounts short stories of lesbianism, first loves, affection and romantic expression. In 2016, Jaime les filles was adapted into a National Film Board of Canada short film.
“I was not aware of sexuality or of homosexuality as a child, but I knew I was attracted to girls and I would learn more about it later in life.”
With an equal distribution of weight distributed to each panel of a page, the heart and emotion of the stories that Obom conveys take precedence over flashy, superficial art.
“[I find comics] more difficult because you always have think panels and find the relationship between each panel whereas in animation I simply have to think about the scene and what I want to convey.”
Obom often finds herself working for hours on end when animating. Her passion for the medium makes it easy for her to lose track of time.
“With comics I have to think so much more… so when I make a comic I often look for excuses to get up and eat and maybe talk to my dog,” explained Obom.
While many coming-of-age tales in cinema or books may evoke a certain pathos where the viewer shares in the trials and tribulations of the characters uncertainties and anguishes; Obom flips the script with her unique style.
Characters are rendered as anthropomorphic funny animals with unique physical traits that amplify their personality.
Telling her own stories and those of her friends became a more straightforward process once it was divorced from artistic realism.
No longer a victim to the conventional artistic rules of proportion, anatomy and perspective, she is liberated to take more creative risks.
This subversive aspect also allows Obom to inject a distance into the characters that allows her friends to personify their favorite animals and share their personal experiences with first loves and feelings while still maintaining a certain level of anonymity.
Sharing her own stories alongside her friends, Obom creates a solidarity amongst all the tales as they recount a childhood full of revelations and new experiences.
Adapting her comics into animation and vice-versa, Obom’s use of gentle animal figures to tell stories has netted her multiple awards including the Nelvana Grand Prize for Independent Short Animation at the Ottawa International Animation Festival.
A member of the National Film Board of Canada, Obom’s films and comic collections are readily available online and will be on display in May at the Montreal Comic Arts Festival.
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By: Bina Patel
Allison Rutland is arguably one of McMaster’s most notable alumni. She graduated from the Faculty of Humanities in 2002 with a concentration in Multimedia and Fine Arts. She now works for one of the world’s most renowned animation studios, Pixar. Just a few weeks ago the talented alumna won an Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement for Character Animation in A Feature Production at the University of California for her work in Inside Out.
Rutland considered pursuing a career in animation early on but she did not give it much thought, especially while attending high school. She recounted, “I was interested in it when I was younger but then in high school I thought I would be an environmental scientist, and then ended up going to McMaster for Art.”
She credited McMaster for establishing a theoretical perspective of art, and noted two professors in particular. “Judy was the painting professor and Hugh was the life drawing [professor] — they were really good, I really enjoyed them,” Rutland said.
The move from McMaster to Pixar Animation Studios was a gradual process. After her undergraduate education, Rutland applied to Sheridan College for computer animation. And after working on film and television in Toronto and London for a few years, she decided to apply to Pixar in California, something she says friends helped her accomplish. “I had friends who were at Pixar three years before me and it kind of made me want to apply here. They helped me submit a reel.”
Rutland says working on animated films requires a range of skills. Animators are assigned various shots by the leads, followed by a shot briefing. “You get a series of shots and you animate what’s in those shots. Sometimes there might be several characters and sometimes there might be one character. It’s not a definite thing,” she explained. Rutland and her team have worked on some high profile movies, including Brave, Toy Story 3 and Monsters University. She says that Sully remains one of her favourite projects. “I had a fun time on Monsters University. I ended up getting a lot of Sully shots and kind of got to know that character well because I got so many shots with him. It was really fun.”
The staff works rigorously on these films and, according to Rutland, animators always feel their comfort zone is being pushed. “It’s one of those jobs where you’re always learning. You kind of have to approach it almost as a student every time and you’re always going to come across something that’s really difficult,” she said. “I like that aspect of it because I always challenge myself to learn and get better.”
Of the 120 animators at Pixar there are roughly 25 women, a ratio Rutland explained has affected the way some characters are created. Brave for instance was a female heavy film and therefore required for a high level of femininity in its characters. “When there’s a female character, you kind of end up getting the women to animate them cause they can bring a certain amount of femininity that maybe the men wouldn’t know about. All my shots were Merida, she was the only character I animated with them,” she explained.
Rutland is thankful for all the small steps that led her transition from an undergraduate at McMaster to an animator at Pixar. “It’s a really great job, I love it. I feel very lucky to have gotten in at this time to be where I am.”
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By: Joe Jodoin
As the first movie from Disney Animation since 2014’s Big Hero Six, Zootopia is a welcome return for the studio. The film possesses many of the same qualities as Disney’s other classics: top-notch animation, lovable characters and a powerful message for children and adults alike.
The film takes place in a world of anthropomorphic animals, and follows a young bunny named Judy Hopps. Judy has wanted to be a police officer her whole life, but after finally getting accepted to the force, she faces discrimination and exclusion from all her coworkers for being nothing but a cute little bunny. To prove herself a worthy cop, she sets out to solve a conspiracy involving 14 missing mammals, and enlists the help of a con artist fox named Nick Wilde to help her solve the case.
The brilliance of this premise is that it contains so much potential. It can work as an amalgamation of crime drama tropes, a parody of modern lifestyles in an anthropomorphized world and explore serious discrimination problems that people face in the real world. For the most part, Zootopia achieves all of these things, but also bites off more than it can chew.
The voice cast is incredible, featuring the voices of Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba, J. K. Simmons and Alan Tudyk among others. Goodwin is the voice of Judy Hopps, and has a vast majority of the dialogue in the movie. She does an incredible job, and it’s almost impossible to imagine anyone else as the voice of Judy. The film definitely would not have been nearly as good if it wasn’t for her incredible vocal performance, in scenes that are both heart-wrenching and heart-warming.
The story is definitely more about what it takes to overcome discrimination, and the importance of treating everyone as equals, than it is about a conspiracy. The film satirizes racism with incredibly strong parallels between how different species of animals treat each other and how people of different skin colors treat each other. It also tackles sexism and stereotypes, arguing that a woman can do anything that a man can do. In the film’s third act, it goes even further, and shows how people can be discriminatory against a certain group without even realizing it because of how engrained stereotypes are in our collective consciousness. The way it confronts real world issues in such a blunt and powerful way is the main reason this film could go down in history as a Disney classic.
Furthermore, the attention to detail in Zootopia is astonishing. When Judy goes to a neighbourhood of mice, she looks like a giant relative to all the buildings. However, she looks tiny when at the police station, since everyone there is a larger animal like a rhino or elephant. The way the movie works with scale and environment is very clever. More highlights include scenes from the trailers, such as the sloth scene at the DMV, the godfather parody scene and a fox committing a con with popsicles and a fake baby.
Sadly, due to the film’s incredible scope and amount of potential, it can feel disjointed and jumbled, moving from one place to another every few minutes. It is normally a good thing when a film has a fast pace, but Zootopia moves so fast that it stumbles often. Some scenes will be working very well, but then will move onto the next scene too quickly. This takes away from some of the emotional impact that the film aimed to have, and also made it less funny as it was almost exhausting keeping up with everything that was going on. To put this in perspective, the villain isn’t even revealed until the last 15 minutes of the movie, and the whole climax, denouement and conclusion all occur incredibly fast. It would definitely have been more enjoyable if it was over two hours long, but that’s not the worst complaint to have about a movie.
Overall, Zootopia is a fun and original addition to the Disney cannon, and is almost impossible not to like. It has a great message that all kids should hear, tons of pop-culture references and a balance of character and heart. However, the whole isn’t quite as strong as the sum of its parts, making it feel like a minor disappointment.
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By: Joe Jodoin
It has been eight years since the original Kung-Fu Panda was released, but now we finally have the complete trilogy. Kung-Fu Panda 3 works really well as a closing chapter to the character arc of Po the panda, but it underwhelms in terms of bringing any new ideas to the franchise. This is an easy movie to review, because it is exactly on par with its predecessor. If you liked Kung-Fu Panda 2, you will like this one just as much, but if you find these movies a little too childish for your taste, then the third iteration will not sway your opinion.
Story wise, Kung-Fu Panda 3 does not break any new ground and it is significantly similar to the first two movies. The villain this time around is voiced perfectly by J.K. Simmons, and is motivated to collect the “Chi” of all the kung-fu masters. For some reason (which is not fully explained), Po can only defeat him by learning how to use his own “Chi.” A new side plot involving Po’s biological father (voiced by Bryan Cranston) and Po training a panda army of his own provides much needed relief from the weak villain arc, but it still feels like a very conventional and familiar story. It’s also a little odd how the theme of Po’s coming of age is still the driving force behind his character arc, since this theme was the same for the past two films.
Where this movie really shines is in the visuals. The animation is gorgeous and colorful, in a way that is not only super absorbing for children, but also impressive to adults as well. The action scenes in particular looked amazing, and the fluidity of the character movements and choreography of the battles add up to some outstanding set pieces. There definitely could have been much more action, as every fight scene felt cut short or slightly underwhelming when it finished. I respect that the filmmakers were trying to focus more on story and character development, but for a movie called Kung-Fu Panda, there was not nearly enough kung-fu.
The fast pace of the movie works as both a strength and a weakness. First of all, it keeps viewers interested and constantly entertained. There are no scenes that felt like they didn’t need to be there, and no jokes that should have been cut out. This makes the movie feel lean and to-the-point, which was quite welcome. However, it is hard to become emotionally invested in what is happening, and it also makes some characters, like the villain, feel one-dimensional and forgettable. There is a sub-plot involving Po’s adopted father coming to terms with his son reconnecting with his biological father, but while this could have been deep and emotional, it was quickly glossed over. The short length of the movie — the whole movie is less than an hour and a half long — hurts its potential for more complex storytelling.
Overall, Kung-Fu Panda 3 is an entertaining and fun diversion, but it lacks the depth and originality that the best animated films possess.
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#10 — Inside Out (review by: Joe Jodoin)
This Pixar masterpiece is not just the best kid’s film of the past few years, but it managed to draw a large adult audience as well.
What’s shocking about this film is that it has a really clever and high-concept story that is still engaging for children. Arguably, making great films that are equally loved by children and adults is one of the hardest things for a filmmaker to achieve. Michael Giacchino’s score is also beautiful and unique, and works perfectly to make every important moment of the film more powerful and memorable.
More than anything, Inside Out deserves recognition because it represents the height of what modern filmmaking can achieve: it’s funny, emotional, powerful, re-watchable, and original, with great animation and a deep message.
#9 — Straight Outta Compton (review by: Hess Sahlollbey)
A biopic recounting the career of the N.W.A. on the rap music charts of the early 90s, Straight Outta Compton was the sleeper hit of the summer. Directed by F. Gary Gray with Dr. Dre and Ice Cube as producers, the film recounts the rise and fall of five friends from the eponymous neighborhood in California that popularized gangster rap. The artists in the film base their music on their emotions towards the injustices and discriminations that black Americans suffered in the 80s. Yet the film still functions as an effective commentary on not just black history and American history, but on contemporary race relations, issues and social change that is still relevant today. The film stars O’Shea Jackson, Jr. as his father Ice Cube, Corey Hawkins as Dr. Dre, Jason Mitchell as the late Eazy-E, and Paul Giamatti as their manipulative manager. The film can best be summed with that famous line from their debut album: “You are now about to witness the strength of street knowledge.”
#8 — Star Wars: The Force Awakens (review by: Trisha Gregorio)
Considering the significance of its release late in 2015, it feels wrong not to include Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Taking over George Lucas’ brainchild in this seventh installment, J.J. Abrams recaptures the action and charm that has long defined the Star Wars film franchise, and makes it into something exclusively his.
The Force Awakens achieves a careful balance between old and new, whether that be in its storyline or the interweaving of both familiar and fresh new faces. Most notable, however, is its accessibility to a generation that grew up on everything space and sci-fi, as well as a generation that has only passively heard of it, heralding an era of much promise for the future of the Star Wars series.
#7 — Sicario (review by: Joe Jodoin)
Sicario is an incredibly tense morality tale about a young up-and-coming FBI agent thrust into a world of hitmen, assassins, drugs, and lies, where she is forced to confront serious ethical questions about the lengths one should go to protect their nation’s security.
Not only is the plot of this movie incredibly interesting, but the cast including Emily Blunt, Benicio del Toro, and Josh Brolin makes up one of the best ensembles of the year.
What Sicario excels at most, however, is building up incredible tension that keeps the viewers on the edge of their seats, clenching their fists for minutes on end, with each scene progressively becoming tenser than the next. This is action-packed and thought-provoking filmmaking at its finest.
#6 — The Hateful Eight (review by: Joe Jodoin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnRbXn4-Yis
Those who are familiar with Quentin Tarantino are also familiar with the writer/director’s signature style: brilliantly crafted characters, hilariously memorable dialogue, non-linear narrative and a sprinkling of over-the-top violence that’s not for the faint of heart. The Hateful Eight delivers all of this and more, in a nearly three-hour long thriller that keeps viewers on the edge of their seat. The interesting aspects of this movie’s plot are that it takes place mainly in one setting, and that no character can really be described as “the good guy.”
Although this could have easily been a play, Tarantino brings such a wonderfully cinematic style, making the movie feel like a classic western from the 60s era. The film never gets boring either, as the violence and verbal sparring between all the despicable characters means there is never a dull moment.
#5 — Mad Max: Fury Road (review by: Vannessa Barnier)
This is perhaps the most talked about film of the year and I somewhat agree with the hype. I would recommend this movie to people who enjoy going to monster-truck events and punching. It’s incredible how nothing actually happens in the span of two hours. Mad Max, the namesake of the film, goes from prisoner to liberator, and drives a large rig back and forth across a great span of wasteland. He doesn’t do this alone, of course. One of Mad Max’s major assets is the strong female lead of Furiosa, played by Charlize Theron. I commend them on the cast, but they left out any people of colour – even if one of Immortan Joe’s wives were a woman of colour, that would have been nice. If you want to watch people drive around barren land for two hours while yelling, watch Mad Max.
#4 — Spotlight (review by: Tomi Milos)
Spotlight was the most self-righteously idealistic movie of the year, and such unapologetic belief in its own morals made it one of the most enjoyable watches of the year.
The film centers around the Boston Globe’s “Spotlight” team of journalists who unearthed a systemic pattern of child sex abuse by Catholic priests in the Boston Archdiocese.
Marty Baron’s (Liev Schrieber) first instructions to Spotlight as the newly-inducted editor of the newspaper is to speed up its research on locally-sourced stories.
Baron’s encouragement goads the quartet headed by Robby (Michael Keaton) into a fierce investigation. The ensuing probe into one of the Church’s closely guarded-secrets is thrilling despite the obvious ending and leaves one with the sort of heavy-handed inspiration that probably incited you to crack open a book after watching Dead Poets Society.
Props if you can recognize an unlikely McMaster landmark in a scene that was shot in Hamilton in 2014.
#3 — The Revenant (review by: Joe Jodoin)
Not many filmmakers have as much passion for the art of filmmaking as Alejandro G. Inarritu, and The Revenant is a clear example of film as a work of art. Every single shot looks like a painting thanks to award-winning cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, and every scene is choreographed perfectly to juxtapose the beauty and grit of nature. Inarritu was able to make the film simultaneously beautiful and brutal for the entire two and a half hour run time, and has truly created a visual masterpiece. The film is incredibly made in every other way too, and the acting of Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy especially elevate this film even higher. While not an easy film to watch due to its graphic and realistic violence, even those who don’t enjoy the film will admit to being blown away by the spectacle. This film is truly the definition of epic entertainment, and seeing it in theatres is highly recommended.
#2 — Carol (review by: Bahar Orang)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4z7Px68ywk
Carol — Carol — icy blue eyes, red-hot-livid-lips, porcelain skin, predatorial in that oversized mink coat and then small and timid as precocious prey with that terrified exhale of ‘I-love-you’. She is motherly, goddess-like, fierce and afraid, graceful and stumbling, large and lean, deep voice and heavy gaze, in awe, in despair, in heaven and in hell. And Carol’s sweet, solemn lover: Therese Belevit — ‘flung-out-of-space’ — is equally rife with complexity, contradiction, silence and stammer. She is child-like and vulnerable, but strong and complete and falling, unfaltering, forth into that woman, that person, that courageous, calm, clear-eyed, uncloaked, uncraven Carol. And between them: car windows, glass panes, December fog, large mirrors, a camera lens. But through it all their gazes remain on each other, vital and potent and precious and powerful.
The film centers desire: to respect your desires, to listen and tend to your desires is dignified, unshameful, crucial and brave. The film centres women: sometimes, men are dispensable, blundering, tepid and cruel. And finally, the film is a gorgeous relief from that history of fictional gay couples who suffer many a calamity in their pursuit of each other. For two women can indeed fall in love and stay together, dodge tragedy, and imagine a way of being where neither marriage nor age nor dread nor social disdain can define the limits or the levity of love.
Carol will leave you breathless and breathing, fulfilled and voracious; it is cold winter and hot touch; it is stunning, essential cinematographic poetry.
Directed by the masterful Paulo Sorrentino, Youth tells a deeply-affecting story about self-reflection and the yearning for more out of life as it steadily ebbs away.
#1 — Youth (review by: Michelle Yeung)
The film circles around Fred Bellinger (Michael Caine) and Mick Boyle (Harvey Keitel), two best friends who find themselves among the visitors of a lavish spa nestled in the Swiss Alps. Fred, a renowned and now retired composer, has vacationed here for over 20 years. Mick, on the other hand, steadfastedly works away with a group of young screenwriters to contrive his “final testament.” While Fred is alarmingly apathetic, Mick – not yet ready to let go of his past – continues to blaze towards a perilous dream. The other guests at the resort also seem to be cocooned in their own worlds. Everybody is doing their own thing, but nobody is really doing anything.
The exquisite marriage between the talents of Italian cinematographer Luca Bigazzi and contemporary composer David Lang catapults Youth to another stratosphere of cinematic brilliance. Bigazzi’s lensing is evocative, poignant and a marvel to behold. His compositions are impossibly striking; each shot could be framed and exhibited at a world-class art gallery.
In Youth, the sense of idleness and alienation is eerily compelling. Caine appears in one of the most tender and moving performances of his career, embodying a weathered and guarded man with reservoirs of harbored sentiment he was never able to express.
In the way he crafts his films, Sorrentino is similar to Fred in that he is also a composer himself. There is an eloquent, musical quality to his directing that, when combined with outstanding actors, makes watching his works both an immersive pleasure and a transcendent experience. Youth is cinema at its apex. It is poignant, ravishing and will engulf you like a dream.
Photo Credit: Diane Arbus
By: Michael Nisiak
Family Guy recently had an episode that crossed over with The Simpsons, resulting in a witty commentary on creativity and artistic influences, and more than a few crude jokes.
At the start of the episode, the Griffins are watching a Modern Family and All in the Family crossover and Chris says, “a crossover always brings out the best in each show. It certainly doesn’t smack of desperation. The priorities are always creative and not driven by marketing.”
This is sneaky. How can one complain about the crossover episode if the show itself already made fun of the idea?
But my intention isn’t to bash the idea of a crossover episode. I took the episode as an opportunity to see what happens when the characters from two different worlds come together.
The first point of interest is the relationship between Stewie and Bart, which most highlights the differences between the shows. At one point, Bart shows Stewie how to prank call and Stewie “pranks” Moe with an inappropriate rape joke. It is interesting to see how Bart will respond to this kind of joke that he isn’t typically exposed to in his world. His silence was an appropriate response as it showed that he was just as shocked as the viewers.
The episode also poked fun at each of the shows, most notably being a legal battle in which the beer in Family Guy, Pawtucket Patriot Ale, is accused of being a rip-off of the beer in Simpsons, Duff. This legal battle echoes the accusations that Family Guy is a rip-off of Simpsons, and even emphasizes the similarities by having each Family Guy character sitting with their Simpsons counterpart during the court hearing. Quagmire sat with Lenny, Cleveland sat with Karl, Mayor Quimby sat with Mayor Adam West, etc.
In the end, the verdict came from Fred Flintstone, who commented that both beers were a rip-off of his favourite beer, Bud Rock. In other words, sure, Family Guy might be a rip-off of Simpsons, but Simpsons is a rip-off of another show, which is a rip-off of another show. The way the episode comments on how the two shows interact with each other is by far the most intriguing aspect of the crossover.
Unfortunately, if one were to watch the episode for the story, they’d likely be met with disappointment. The plot was paper-thin, with no direction or purpose. It seemed to mainly be used as a device for bringing the characters together and forcing them to interact. As for the jokes in the episode, let’s just say that for my taste, they’re a bit too Family Guy-ish.
