Persepolis

FLICK When I think of an animated movie it's easy to expect fantasies like Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle, or fun family movies targeted to kids and adults like Toy Story and Monster House.
Persepolis is an endearing and witty coming-of-age film based on the autobiographical graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi who grew up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. But the story is incredibly involving and has so much heart that there were times I forgot I was watching an animated movie.
Marjane narrates her story beginning when she was a young girl living with her parents and regularly visiting her grandmother, who has strong feminist ideals and offers useful advice. As a teenager (voiced by Chiara Mastroianni, with her real-life mother Catherine Deneuve as Marjane's mother) she is sent away to Vienna to escape the repressive time of Tehran. She rocks out to punk music, learns lessons of love and eventually lives on the streets.
The bold black-and-white drawings have an expressionistic quality that offers a look at a less than joyful past contrasted with the supposed freedom expressed in the colored portions of present day France, where Marjane is today. But the constant motion of the images has a lyrical quality that nicely juxtaposes and makes easier to grasp the growing experiences of a youth within the absurdities of a dangerous political climate. This memoir has a lot of heart without being overly sentimental and I liked Marjane so much that I would have watched if the story continued to have followed her into and through the present. My Score: 9.5 out of 10