As the end of the year approaches and the air is filled with the kerching of winter bonuses and brazen consumerist excess, thoughts turn to our loved ones, and the trinkets that will best pacify them at gift-swapping time. For the cinephile in your life, the JT's film critics suggest the following fine movies and movie-related items. Or you can send us festive booze at the usual address.
Studio Ghibli, the creative home of animation maestro Hayao Miyazaki, has been releasing Blu-rays of its widely loved hits in a steady stream. Due out Dec. 5 are 1989's "Majo no Takkyubin (Kiki's Delivery Service)" and 1991's "Omohide Poro Poro (Only Yesterday)." The former, about a young witch who goes on a fantastic journey of self discovery, makes an especially fine introduction to Miyazaki's visually soaring if humanly grounded magic; the latter, whose heroine journeys into the countryside and her own past, is Miyazaki colleague Isao Takahata's warm-hearted, realistically drawn paean to natural living. (M.S.)
Give a copy of "Men in Black 3" to a loved one, along with a pair of shades (preferably Ray-Bans), and you can't go wrong. This long-awaited sequel to a much-loved franchise came out in late May and is now available on Blu-ray and DVD, to buy and take home and watch endlessly over the holidays. Since "MiB II" in 2002, the indomitable Tommy Lee Jones has added many more jagged creases to his face, but the man can still move, and his younger self is played flawlessly by Josh Brolin. Swoon. (K.S.)