Just Hear Me Out 

The differences in these films could not be more blatant, and yet Gus Van Sant has found a way to portray the same messages and use the same techniques in each.

If the message here is that without a support system, grieving people turn into monsters, it’s not really well-delivered and may be flawed as a message itself.

Wild Child tells the story of a wealthy, spoiled teenage girl named Poppy Moore who lives in Malibu, California, who attends a boarding school in England. This film shows us how Poppy is first labeled as a fish out of water compared to her boarding school classmates, as she is a wild child, but eventually earns her roommates' friendships and respect.

What seems like such a simple story of survival is so much more than that—it’s a story of family, and of war, and of destruction. It’s painful to watch, but not in a bad way. It makes its audience reflect on their own actions, and in how they are complicit in the sufferings of others as the adults in this film are. Grave of the Fireflies does not hold back from being heartbreaking, and it shouldn’t. It tells a message that needs to be heard decades after the war, and a story that cannot be forgotten by history.

Nightbooks, the newest entry in children's horror, honors classic horror films, focuses on themes of acceptance, and has awesome production design.

Unfortunately, People We Meet on Vacation didn’t hold up quite as well as I’d hoped.