THREE -UNMISSABLE- TAPS : MEMORABLE MOVIES

1.- THE BOY AND THE HERON

Is Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki finished making feature-length films? The answer is unclear, but if The Boy and the Heron is indeed his last, the 82-year-old Studio Ghibli legend will have gone out on a high note.

The film - the meditation on love, loss and the horrors of World War II - was a hot ticket in Toronto, where it had its international premier after opening in Japan in mid-July.

The semi-autobiographical movie, Miyazaki's first in a decade, was the second runner-up for the TIFF People's Choice Award.

The film follows young Mahito as he moves with his father to the countryside after his mother perishes in the fire-bombing of Tokyo. After meeting a talking heron, he enters a surreal and perilous fantasy world in search of his mom.

The Boy and the Heron opens in December in the United States.

2.- DUMB MONEY

Dumb Money, which earned a rousing applause at its world premier, recounts the stranger-than-fiction story of the amateur investors who turned shopping mall video game store  GameStop  into a Wall Street phenomenon in 2021.

The film, which opened in select North American cities recently, follows Keith Gill [ Paul Dano ], who invested his life savings in GameStop and posted on social media about it under the username '' Roaring Kitty. ''

Other small-time investors took Gill's lead as they communicated on Reddit,and the so-called ''meme stock'' blew up amid wild trading in January 2021.

The surge was seen as driven at least in part by retail investors who banded together to retaliate against short sellers like hedge fund billionaire Gabe Plotkin [ Seth Rogen].

3.- IN RESTLESS DREAMS : THE MUSIC OF PAUL SIMON

If you're a music fan, look no farther than Alex Gibney's engrossing deep-dive into the career of the legendary Paul Simon, from his fraught partnership with Art Garfunkel to his solo career and embrace of world music.

The movie splices together archival images with new interviews in which the 81-year-old folk-rock icon reveals how he is coping with deafness in his left ear.

It also tracks the development of his latest album, Seven Psalms, which was released in May.

The film, which will also screen at the London Film Festival, does not have a release date. [AFP]