FILM
BLUE GIANT
★★★
OUT NOW / CERT 12A / 119 MINS
DIRECTOR Yuzuru Tachikawa
CAST Shôtarô Mamiya, Amane Okayama, Yuki Yamada
For almost every transcendently beautiful moment in Blue Giant, where music and animation work in breathtaking concert with each other, there’s one that feels out of tune. As the film follows a trio of jazz musicians looking to hit the big time, its big musical sequences are spectacularly imagined; you can see the great ideas housed within each scene even at their most awkward-looking. But there are glaring imperfections in its sporadic use of 3D animation — a distracting bum note in otherwise thrilling performances. When it all comes together — abstract musical imagery warping and stretching with flashes of colour, as the realistic detail of the imagery melts away — the euphoria is hard to resist.