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“Watch these for yourself before sharing with kids depending on their maturity level. Death, war, orphans, neglect, disease, independence, and responsibility are explored in these selections. All are worthy of viewing if only for their visuals as they contain sad portions or themes.” -Cinda Grave of the Fireflies (1988) Summary: As the Empire of the …

Only Yesterday (1991) Summary: After living her whole life in the city, 27-year-old Taeko decides to visit her relatives in the countryside. As she travels, memories of her youth resurface. And after meeting young farmer Toshio, she wonders if she’s been true to the dreams of her childhood self. What would her life be like …

Spirited Away (2001) Summary: When a young girl is trapped in a strange new world of spirits, she must call upon the courage she never knew she had to free herself and rescue her parents. The mysteries of what this place is, who is responsible, and how to escape all fall on Chihiro’s 10-year-old shoulders. …

My Neighbor Totoro (1988) Summary: Two young girls, 10-year-old Satsuki and her 4-year-old sister Mei, move into a house in the country with their father to be closer to their hospitalized mother. Satsuki and Mei discover that their rented home may be haunted and magical creatures inhabit the nearby forest. Adventures and rescues abound while …

Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) Summary: A young woman named Sophie is cursed by the Witch of the Waste and is turned into an old woman who is unable to tell anyone of her plight. Unable to continue her job at her mother’s hat shop, she goes to the ambulatory castle of the notorious wizard Howl …

Porco Rosso (1992) Summary: Slouching towards middle age, Porco Rosso makes his living by flying about in his red bi-plane and fighting sky bandits who prey on cruise ships sailing the Adriatic. When he’s not engaging in dog fights, this pilot lives on a deserted island retreat. Porco was once a strapping young man, but …

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984) Summary: This film tells the story of Nausicaä, Princess of the Kingdom of The Valley of the Wind from a time after a climatic war. This period, known as the Seven Days of Fire, has destroyed modern human civilization. The survivors have regressed to a variation of …

Michael Collins | Neil Jordan – Director Summary: Ireland, 1916. His dreams inspired hope. His words inspired passion. His courage forged a nation’s destiny. A Biographical film depicting the life of Michael Collins, head of the early version of the IRA. Recommendation: I recently visited the GPO in Dublin where portions of this movie was filmed.  …

Cyrano |2021 Summary: This is a romantic historical musical version of the same classic story made completely attainable by Steve Martin’s modern take with Roxanne (1987). Whether or not the music is part of what you enjoy about this version, that’s up to you. I don’t want to talk it down just because I found …

Ava (2020) Summary: I tend to like well-done spy and espionage movies, but can get bored with the heavy politics and gratingly slow pace. Ava doesn’t have those issues. Chastain completely RULES as the assassin looking for a way out. What will her purpose in life be once she steps away from the job? Can …

The Help (2011) Summary: Skeeter just graduated college and is hoping to find a worthy job as a journalist or writer. Given a chance with a weekly column on housekeeping tips, she notes she’d have to take lessons from ‘the help’ to learn what to write. This takes her into the world of 1950/1960s southern …

The Spy Kid franchise (2001) -or- Little Nikita (1988) Note/Summary: I wanted to review Little Nikita, the story of an unwitting dependent child of parents who happen to be Russian moles in 1980’s USA. However, the IHLS does not appear to have a copy available for viewing at this time. As the character played by …

The links below the groupings direct you to various blog posts featuring the listed titles. Happy Reading! -Jenna Dauer, Smithton Public Library District Library Director Tween (5th grade and up) interests:  Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by Grace Lin – 2009 Inspired picture books: Thumpy Feet, by Betsy Lewin – 2013 This is Not …

From Cinda: The holidays are on their way! I associate holidays with family coming together. Do you have a favorite family movie? Does it happen to involve a holiday or not? Some of my favorite movie families are shown without any holidays involved. I also love a few traditional (and not so traditional) Christmas movies …

Blood Quantum – 2019 Summary: This amazing story is told in two large parts: before the discovery of immunity and what happens after. The native Canadian people (the Mi’gmaq) introduce their lives as an infection blazes through the other populations around them. Once they put into effect the natural immunity they seem to hold, the …

Movies/Books by the same name: AtonementThe Bridge Over the River KwaiThe Call of the WildThe Color PurpleCrazy Rich AsiansDivergentThe Fellowship of the RingForrest GumpThe GodfatherThe Great GatsbyThe HelpHidden FiguresThe Hunger GamesThe Last of the MohicansLittle WomenThe Lion, the Witch and the WardrobeThe MartianMe Before YouThe NotebookOne Flew Over the Cuckoo’s NestThe Perks of Being a …

Birds of Prey | 2020, starring Margot Robbie Summary: If only criminals were more trustworthy… ehh! Harley Quinn is finally done with the Joker, so she claims her independence in a big (boom) noisy way. Anyone after her for retribution or payback now knows she’s without protection. Except there are these accidental teammates that keep …

Ophelia | (2019) starring Daisy Ridley, Naomi Watts, Clive Owen Summary: Based on the novel by Lisa Klein, this movie is the story of Hamlet shown from Ophelia’s point of view. There is so much more to her from beginning to end, you’ll feel like you’ve experienced a completely new Shakespeare play by watching it. …

Tenet (2021) with John David Washington, Robert Pattinson Summary: A CIA agent is forcibly recruited into the most hush-hush of special units. Their goal is to identify and minimize ‘inversion’, a catastrophically damaging element of entropy brought to the regular world on purpose by a megalomaniac. There are manipulations overlaid atop and across each other …