by Eden
On the surface, the story should work effectively as a movie, but Abdellatif Kechiche’s Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013) is mostly an odd mess and one that doesn’t do the tenderness of the graphic novel justice.
Kyoko Okazaki’s Helter Skelter is a surreal look into the dark side of fame. While it’s a well-tread territory, Okazaki’s skill at presenting Liliko’s descent is disturbing and harrowing as she pulls more and more people into her immoral world.
The comic is funny, to be fair, but the movie just feels a bit looser and more playful as it heightens the slapstick elements and the absurdities of everyday life.
Ai Yazawa’s Paradise Kiss is more than 850 pages and the most surprising part is how little time passes. From the beginning to the end (minus an epilogue), it really only takes place over about a month. Paradise Kiss packs in so much, it still feels like an intense epic.
Posy Simmonds’ Tamara Drewe isn’t about its title character, at least not in the way one would expect. The story revolves around her, but she’s not the main character in her own story. Everyone else has made her the main character in theirs.