Walt Disney, part LIII: Only thing about me is the way that I walk

TARZAN

1999

Directed by Kevin Lima and Chris Buck

Written by Tab Murphy, Bob Tzudiker, and Noni White, et al

Spoilers: high

Towering with you

THE PLACE PROMISED IN OUR EARLY DAYS

2004

Written and directed by Makoto Shinkai

Spoilers: moderate (also discussed, Shinkai's early short films, 1999's "She and Her Cat" and 2002's "Voices of a Distant Star")

Putting the "list" in "miserablist"! (or, the films of David Fincher ranked, no. 4)

For going on twenty years now—my how time flies—David Fincher has been our preeminent auteur of gross, depressing tales of murder and mayhem.  Almost uniquely, Fincher has mastered a high-wire balancing act in the thriller genre, crafting films that are formally pristine, morally bracing, thematically insidious, emotionally devastating, and—most important of all—highly entertaining.  Though chiefly noted for this selfsame prediliction toward the pleasantly unpleasant, Fincher has tried his hand at other things, too—one time it was good, one time it was the worst thing ever.  On this episode: a lot less murder in this than our last entry, but—as if in compensation—it brings the most mayhem of them all.

Spoiler alert: I am Jack's review of a widely-seen zeitgeist hit now approaching sixteen years old