In which the Mister and Monsters join me in reviewing BELLE (2021) which is currently streaming on HBO Max. The film, written and directed by Mamoru Hosoda, follows Suzu,a shyyoung woman trying to navigate life as a teen and the crushing loss of her mother when she was a little girl; a hurt shestillcarries with her. The story follows her as she joins “U”, a virtual world that let’susers be whoever they want to be. During this time she learns to come into her own as her “U” persona is a very popular girl named Belle who’s charmed the virtual world with her beauty and song. Here she encounters The Beast/Kei, a persona who has obviously suffered much trauma. She reaches out to him and soon is pulled into a very serious in real life situation thatinvolves child abuse. The film has a run time of 2 h 1 m, and is rated PG. Please note there are SPOILERS in this review.

Opening intro music: GOAT by Wayne Jones, courtesy of YouTube Audio Library.