The Sky Crawlers

A Slow and Dreamy Walk Through the Clouds
I went and saw The Sky Crawlers at Toronto's 08 Film Festival, and wasn't surprised when most of the audience seemed to walk away feeling a bit unaffected by the movie. The film's director Mamoru Oshii has a cinematic style that is nothing if not an acquired taste -- one that domestic theaters are reticent to acquire.

Any person who has addicted themselves to the traditional Aristotelian story structure will find themselves feeling lost and aimless by the middle of Act 2 in Sky Crawlers and most of Oshii's films. If there even is an Act 2 in the first place. The big bang opening action sequence between the fighter pilots in Sky Crawlers is about as formulaic as Oshii is willing to get with any of his movies. After that, he transitions from speed-of-light action to speed-of-life storytelling where his characters and their dialoug all have the same pacing and meandering of real life. That means, if you're used to Hollywood's colorful characters bloated with one-liners and a...

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