The Pile-Up: Death on the Motorway 

As an extremely avid fan of DC’s animation, I’ve become familiar with the way the studio uses Batman as a bit of a Trojan Horse to introduce some of their lesser known characters.

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is the most human movie of the year. It is based on the 2010 short of the same name that follows a big-hearted, little shell named Marcel as he navigates through life in a human-sized world. 

Cursed is based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel, and is a retelling of the Arthurian legend with a twist. Instead of King Arthur gaining Excalibur, a teenage sorceress named Nimue (Katherine Langford) does. Her people — the Fey — are being hunted down, and so Nimue will do whatever it takes to save them.

Every movement becomes a question of identity. To become who we are meant to be. In order to reach that we often have to shed who we once were, and that shedding can sometimes be so brutal it’s ungraceful.

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.

While the director didn't set out to make a feminist film, "A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night" reads as a reclamation of female power in a patriarchal society.