[EXPRESSO] A New Dawn (2026) | Deidara Docet

Directed and written by Yoshitoshi Shinomiya, A New Dawn is an anime film about the creeping effect of gentrification, and how it effected an historical fireworks factory held by the Kaitewaki family for centuries, and in turn Keitaro and Sentaro, the two young sons, and their childhood friend Kaoru, which drifted apart after Keitaro’s father disappeared, leaving the property to rot, while government officials have waited to prey on it for “renovation”.

Sentaro and Kaoru left for the city, but some years after Sentaro drags Kaoru into talking Keitaro out of his reclusive stay on the old family home and factory, as the city is gonna tear it down in a matter of days, which brings the trio close as they once were, and provides them with an occasion to pull off the complex firework display concocted by the father (called “Shuhari”) but never put into action, something that involves a special pigment and pattern, as something of a farewell…

While there is a romantic subplot, A New Dawn is mostly a drama about confronting with the past, coming to terms with modernity but without giving up on craft, tradition and art just because it falls out of fashion, is outright rejected or simply becomes more and more obsolete by the new norms, and it’s a pretty dang good one, with great realistic teen characters, amazing melanchonic vibe, a really good artistic painting-inspired style, and while animation is already damn good, it’s commendable how it’s willing to experiment with stop motion animation sequences too.

Also, A New Dawn fittingly also feels like a light of hope for the anime industry maybe still able to have new talents (this is the directorial debut for Yoshitoshi Shinomiya, whom previously worked on Makoto Shinkai projects) emerge in spite of… well, of itself.

Recommended.

[EXPRESSO] The Last Viking (2025) | Brother Pepper

One thing i didn’t quite expected from cinema in the future is to spawn a “Beatles-borne/like” kind of subgenre, and i’m not even talking about the 4 upcoming films about the band by Sam Mendes, or Across The Universe. i’m talking about having the Beatles be the instrumental catalysts of unrelated films, for example Danny Boyle’s 2019 film, Yesterday, where a mediocre singer found himself isekai’d into a world where the Beatles never existed, while he does remember their songs.

Again, it’s a Doofenschirmz situation, it is weird it happened at least twice, this time for the sake of crime comedy, the Norwegian-Danish The Last Viking.

A criminal, Anker, after having paid his 15 years sentence for a bank heist, he comes home, planning to retrieve the loot as he had his autistic brother Mandred hide the money underground in a place they knew… problem is Manfred now believes himself to be John Lennon (among other things), so Anker has to deal with this and try to play along, travelling together to some childhood places of theirs in order to eventually make him remember where he hid the money.

Which might mean having to get the “Beatles” back together.

Obviously this leads Anker to confront his rooted family traumas and his difficult relationship with his brother Manfred, and the movie to tackle the themes of mental health, happiness, perception,, but also – and especially – acceptance of one self, finding solace in our own “madness” in face of a delusional reach for complete, unrealistic “real sanity” , through a lot of surreal bizarre characters, grotesque situations, and plenty of dark comedy.

And i do mean dark comedy, it’s funny and hearthwarming in the end, but even for a Nordic black comedy it can get so bleak to be almost depressing.

[EXPRESSO] 100 Liters Of Gold (2024) | Moonshine Madness

Finland (and Italy since it’s a Finnish-Italian coproduction) time for 100 Liters Of Gold, a comedy by Finnish director Teemu Nikki (Euthanizer, The Blind Man Did Not Want To See The Titanic, Death Is A Problem For The Living, about two sisters, Taina and Pirrko, that run a successful – yet seemingly illegal – brewery renowed for their “sahti”, a traditional kind of Finnish beer (usually done with homemade methods as a secular family activity), and do it extremely well.

Things go south when their third sister orders them 100 liters of sahti for her wedding, as a series of family issues and petty yet almost deadly rivarlies surface, alongside a series of infortunate events and their desire to taste the product lead the two to guzzle down the entire batch for the wedding, then having to scramble and fix the situation in time for the wedding..

It’s a slow burn, off beat comedy about family and alcoholism also big on black comedy and nonsense, since the two middle aged sisters won’t stop out of stealing from the dead (among other things) to get out of their predicament and keep the promise with her soon-to-be-married sister, whom also previously lost a leg in a car accident, making age old dysfunctional family issues bubble up for the event, leading to a surprisingly dramatic resolution.

I think it’s decent movie and far from boring, though it’s also strangely meandering after a point, and it’s not a case of having too little going on, there’s a lot but none it’s really properly explored/developer comedy or drama (ending aside) as it could – and should -, resulting in a duo of protagonists – and by extent the many foul things they do – that’s hard to properly care for, despite the talented lead actresses.