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aakash-karkare
Reviews
Tere Bin Laden (2010)
Good Comedy
Tere Bin Laden is part of the new Indian Cinema. It belongs to the category of films like Dev D, Khosla Ka Ghosla and Road, Movie. Movies about real people. Played by good actors. These movies do not rely on huge budgets, exotic locales, over the top acting and item numbers. Instead the focus on plotting, scripting, directing and acting. Things that really make a movie
Tere Bin Laden is different from most Bollywood films that have been made in the last decade. It is well researched and actually says something intelligent. It has a sense of humor and has good jokes. Compared to the shipload of terrible comedies made in Bollywood over the last decade Tere Bin Laden can be heralded as the 2nd coming. I can see this film with a big budget. Akshay Kumar playing the lead in his over the top manner. Katrina Kaif playing the hairdresser and forgetting to act. Paresh Rawal playing Osama and somehow trying to make sense of the mess surrounding him. And somewhere we will have an item number by Malaika Arora thrown in. And thats that. We will have the biggest Bollywood hit.
Tere Bin Laden doesn't do that. It stars a bunch of character actors from Bollywood and stars a Pakistan Rocker as the lead. They all do a good job and all of them make an attempt to act and create. They seem like they are having fun and that goes a long way in making this a good comedy and not another piece of dung like Housefull and the like. Some jokes do fall flat but I think that's because they try to make the film have more of a selling point but that doesn't matter.
The film opens with a disclaimer that a particular word used in song lyrics is a reference to a Bulgarian poet and isn't meant to offensive. The point of having such a disclaimer eludes me. IS that how sensitive the audience has become . I found that the film was sued, banned, condemned. How stupid have viewers become ? Can no one say anything different from the what is the status quo? Have they forgotten what satire is ? How to laugh? Douglas Adams would never be appreciated by South Asians.
But the reference to the poet shows that the director is well read and intelligent. Ali Zafar the lead in the movie has posters of films like Goodfellas and Amercan History X. An Indian director with good taste in books and films? Thats new. It told me all I needed to know. I was in good hands. I would be entertained in an intelligent manner that wouldn't insult my intelligence.
Tere Bin Laden towards the end makes a few intelligent points. The writer seems fairly up to date with current affairs and efficiently lampoons the current scenario. It is not like Karan Johar's fecal piece My Name Is Khan that was so divorced from reality that it wasn't even funny. It was just two and a half hours worth of depressingly bad cinema. Tere Bin Laden is a breath of fresh air in Indian Cinema. It is not quite art but at least it is entertaining.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
You owe us a story
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is one of the finest westerns I have ever seen. It is more than the traditional western. Much more than any traditional kind of film. Directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne and James Stewart(one of my favorite actors) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is one of the best Westerns ever made.
It endured a troubled production. Ford was such a stern director that he ridiculed Wayne and Stewart so they would deliver an efficient performance. Wayne would fight with Stroud because of this. But you cannot see this internal turmoil anywhere in the film.
The film starts with a retired senator returning to his old town for a friends funeral and he begins recounting the tale of his adventures to a journalist. From there we are shown his early life and how he set out for a adventure as a idealist law graduate looking for adventure in the west.
Liberty Valance is the archetypal bad guy. He kills ruthlessly and there is no remorse in any thing that he does. He isn't arrested because of the coward marshall.
Unlike most westerns the film isn't about anti - heroes and lone warriors. It is about a town and its colourful characters. It is about their struggles. Their attempts to find beauty in the world and try to make sense of it as best as they can. There is no room for law & order .
The film tries to talk about the need for all these things. You cannot go all guns blazing all the time. Like Batman you have to know where to draw the line between your enemies and yourself.
An underlying feel throughout the film is about roots. How you cannot really leave the place where you are born. I love this quote by Abbas Kiarostami that talks about this. He says that he doesn't leave Iran because he would feel like a tree that has been shifted to a new location and suddenly the fruit wouldn't be good anymore
There are moments of tremendous beauty and poignancy in the film. Like the cactus flowers. And the ending is one of the best I have ever seen. It was visceral. Sergio Leone calls this his favourite John Ford film because he says that Ford had finally learnt a word called pessimism. While I wouldn't call this film pessimistic. I would say this is his most true to life picture. Because it is the most chaotic, yet there is an answer in this chaos. There is beauty in it.
Peepli [Live] (2010)
Peepli Live
I really wanted to like this movie. I love it that Indian film makers have begun treating cinema as an art form. Cinema is now becoming a medium of expression of thoughts and Peepli Live exemplifies this to the core.
It is quite similar to a film that came out last year. It was called Road,Movie and was directed by Dev Benegal. Another of the small indie Indian films that I really wanted to like.
But, unlike Khosla Ka Ghosla both of these movies lacked something that is very important for a movie about characters like these. Movies that are concerned with real people and about real things that happen to them. Both of these movie were too detached from their source material. The films lacked an emotional core.
Peepli Live is an efficient film. The camera is used as something more than a tool. It is used like Scorsese uses it. Lighting is used brilliantly in the film and gives its village setting a more real film. So you cannot fault the film on any technical aspects.
Peepli Live tries to lampoon both sides of the story. The farmers are shown as a bunch of illiterate good for nothings while everyone is a bloodthirsty predator. I understand that is really the case. People are really this terrible but life is not this devoid of beauty.
Mumbai Meri Jaan was a similar movie about the human condition but there the people had hope. They could think about the future. They were trying to find meaning and hope. But in Peepli Live the struggle for any kind of higher goal has been left behind. Every single person has become a terrible person and is justifying it.
Anusha Rizvi was a journalist before directing Peepli Live. Maybe that is the reason for a clinical approach to the story. What she does makes everything very realistic. Her use of the camera evokes the style of the cinema verite movement but somehow it is lacking.
The film is a breakthrough in Indian Cinema but it fails to say anything new. It doesn't add anything new to the existing dialogue. Ir doesn't contribute to public opinion. It scratches at the surface but never reaches down into the deep exterior. We never know what Natha really thinks about or what the wife's thoughts on the whole issue are. Everyone is playing their part. Everyone is more or less one dimensional.
But still Peepli Live is a great achievement for Indian Cinema. If only this movie wasn't tainted by Aamir Khan productions it would be a greater achievement.
Watchmen (2009)
Another terrible adaptation
Alan Moore made an excellent statement while commenting on comic book to film adaptation or book to film adaptations. He said that while reading a comic book the viewer is in control of the viewing experience so he can interpret the scene in his own particular view but the movie shows it one certain way and that is what makes it dull or dreary.
Now I am a huge fan of the comic book. Watchmen is one of the greatest works of fiction of the last century. It is not just a deconstruction of the superhero genre or a parody. It is so much more. It has the capacity and scope of 1984 and Brave New World but takes it to a whole new level. It is visionary and an extremely readable work of art.
I could spend the entire review just nitpicking on what scenes matched or didn't match to the original comic book but I wont or rather I cannot. The movie has just picked up every panel on every page and just made it live action. The dialogue, scenes and everything is the same. It doesn't add anything to the work bu just makes it very terrible.
Zak Snyder though a good director seems to me to an extremely dumb person. I guess he is another one of those directors that cite Steven Spielberg as an influence. Now, while Spielberg is a great storyteller and picks up interesting stories to tell all his protégé turn out to be some of the worst directors Hollywood has produced. Snyder hasn't understood the graphic novel. He must have loved the visually arresting artwork and that is where his admiration ended. He didn't care for the politics or the characters and their turmoils or any of the other important stuff that really matters. It is evident from his movies that he cares more about visuals that substance, more about style than character development.
Now if you divorce the film from its subject matter and watch it without knowing of Alan Moore and his graphic novel I guess you could call it good film. You could justify the acclaim that it got but that is not the case. It owes everything to the original novel by Moore and Gibbons. It owes everything.
Brian. K. Vaughn , the writer of Y : The Last Man was told to write the screenplay for his own work. And he changed a few things and reworked the plot. The execs at New Line were not happy as they wanted to be faithful to the original book. Vaughn said that you cannot be so religious in your adaptation. Things must change from medium to medium. And that is what Snyder fails to comprehend. Even with his Dawn of the Dead. Even with 300. He is Michael Bay with more story.
The stupidity of Snyder is evident when Rorschach's voice-over begins " Rorschach's journal ....." Now why would he say that over and over again . Voice-over implies thought and the person doesn't refer to himself in his 2nd person. The book did it because the journal entries were separate. They weren't in the story but were separate from the plot but Snyder couldn't have one intelligent idea of his own.
Overall Snyder's Watchmen is hardly the best movie of 2009. It is hardly a good movie. Snyder further establishes himself as a director who hasn't a single original thing to say.
The Room (2003)
The Citizen Kane of bad movies has arrived
I have recently become a fan of really bad b – movies. Like Plan 9 and a couple of others. The Room has been called the Citizen Kane of bad movies and even if Citizen Kane might not be the greatest movie ever The Room is most certainly the worst movie ever made.
The Room is filled with so many funny details that it is almost impossible to list them. Each viewing will make it funnier because you get to know the characters and know when things will be funny so you can focus on other new terribly funny parts. I haven't laughed this much while watching Some Like it Hot , Sienfeld and others.
The Room is essentialy a very poorly made drama in all aspects. The actors deliver dialogues in a terribly dead pan manner. It can be the worst of news or the best of news the expressions will remain the same and the delivery be flat. The dialogues are hilarious. The situations are even funnier. Situations are introduced but then put away in an instant as if they were never happening. Fights begin and end within seconds and things go back to normal. The movie is filled with numerous sex scenes that go endlessly and mostly have the same kind of shots. The lead actor played by the actor – director Tommy Wisseau keeps laughing in his weird manner which alone gives the money the cult quality.
During advertising Wisseau compared the film to a good Tenesse Williams drama. Later, he went on to say that he intentionally made a comedy. I don't what is true and even though it is more likely that he made a terrible movie I am glad he did. This generation's Ed Wood has arrived on the scene. Time for all midnight movie fans to rejoice.
Gunda (1998)
Plan 9 from India
Gunda is a 90's film made by Kanti Shah, a director called the Ed Wood of India. Gunda is one of his more famous movies as it stars the 90's B Movie superstar Mithun.
If you attempt to watch a movie as a piece of art or as a film itself you will be disgusted and terribly disappointed. If Gunda is a seriously made movie it is a very terrible movie. The worst movie made in whole line of shitty 90's Bollywood movies. But if Kanti Shah made it seriously then you can call it his exercise in camp. Like Sam Raimi's Evil Dead series and the recent Drag Me to Hell.
The plot is basic and like most movies in the 90's it has over the top action scenes, terrible acting an revenge and the like. What differentiates it from the rest is the dialogue. The director decides to have all his dialogues in rhymes like the dialogues of the 70's and he makes up such random sentences just so they rhyme that they end up making no sense. Many characters stat the obvious like " Yeh to mar gaya" when looking at bloodied and battered boy or the background in a scene from one scene to the next and back again. Continuity goes completely out the window.
These movies are good for two reasons. One they are very good to watch with friends so you can pass comments, laugh and have a great time or as an aspiring film maker you can watch these movies and see how many ways there are that you can go wrong and then try to correct yourself and avoid these mistakes. Movies like this should be shown in film school courses and people should be made to find mistakes. The ones who find the most mistakes will top the class.
Wha furthered my interest in Kanti Shah was his mention in Udaan. The scene from his movie that were shown were cheap erotica but the dialogue was quite poetic in a cheesy sort of way but the writer seemed intelligent. Moreover a couple of articles were published about Gunda's rising fame. So I checked out the movie and boy was I not disappointed. This movie was more funny that any comedy that has been released in the last couple of years. Maybe cinema is really dying in India . Comedy was the first to go. It is a sad state when you have to see conemas worst movies so you can have a good time watching Hindi films.
The Third Man (1949)
" He said sometimes I laugh too much!"
The Third Man made in 1949 is one of the most perfect movies ever made. It had great acting,directing,music,lighting and every single thing is done to perfection. The score is so beautiful and fantastic that it acquires a life of its own and becomes a character in the movie. The acting is outstanding and every one of the interaction seem very real as if they are really taking place.
What I love most about the movie is its attention detail in terms of acting. There is a scene where the Romanian looks back at the waiter and chides him for no ice as he shakes his head in pooh – poohing manner. Another at the end where the priest puts down the spoon in a huff. These scenes make everything more natural.
The lighting like in most Film Noirs is brilliant. However it is a little bright or too well light by film noir standards. The scene on the wheel where Harry is in shadows while being sinister while he steps out when saying something good is brilliantly done. The first shot of Harry grinning and then at the end when shots of his wretched face are shown are really great.
The movie has some great quotes that are mostly delivered by the girl character and of course there is the cuckoo clock quote which Welles himself has written. I would like to add that the cuckoo clock however didn't come from Switzerland.
The Third Man is an entertaining film. It is quite light and never does it become overtly dark or sinister. Like most other genre movies in those days it doesn't restrict itself to being just a Film Noir but it transcends that and becomes something more.
It talks about making choices. Whether betraying a friend who is evil is wrong or right. Who is the good person the one who betrays or the one who protects such a friend.
The Third Man was made in 1949. I saw it 61 years later but it hasn't aged a day . It is a timeless masterpiece.
Umberto D. (1952)
Umberto D
I found this movie is some random movie list about the 5 best movies about loneliness. Taxi Driver was at the top of that list and his one was at the bottom.
Quite often I have observed that a director's most famous or critically acclaimed film is seldom is best. 8 and 1/2, the seventh seal and Bicycle Thieves are the movies that come the most to mind when I think of this.
Umberto D for me is De Sica's masterpiece. 1952 was the year I guess in which old age and loneliness came to the fore. 1952 was also the year that Kurosawa's Ikiru was released. And an underlying theme in both of them is how unkind people can be. How inconsiderate but they do it all very unknowingly.
The only person in the movie who wasn't trained was the dog. All the others were non professional actors which De Sica had handpicked because they suited the vision that he had in mind while writing the screenplay.
Umberto D unlike Ikiru is about an old man's struggle to survive when he no family to look after him. As usual there is the helpful young person who is a maid in his apartment played by Maria Pia Casilio. It could have fallen into the clichés but it subverts them. Because De Sica tries to keep the movie as real as he can. I love the scene where Umberto has to buy the glass so he can get change. I have been in a similar situation many times. I didn't know shopkeepers refused to give change even in the 1950's. I always though it was a recent trend.
While Umberto D is an ode to loneliness it is not a movie that will depress you or leave you down in the dumps. It is one of the most humane movies I have seen about the human condition. It is about the courage of the human spirit and the will to live through the toughest of times simply because...
Love and Death (1975)
Good Comedy
On the movie's wikipedia page it is given that this is a transition film for Woody Allen from his more Marx Brothers influenced early period to his later period. Transition from Sleeper to Annie Hall.
And you can see that transition brilliantly in the film. You can draw a line between the film and see a perfect balance of philosophy and comedy. The movie is mix of Marx Brothers style sight gags and one liners, Woody Allen's comic dialogue and overtly philosophical musings.
The movie is set in Russia and we are introduced to the setting by a voice-over by Woody Allen just about to be hanged and from then on we are taken down on a hilarious trip through Russia at the time of Napoleon seen through the eyes of 'the Woody Allen character'
Most of the philosophical debate is related to Death as seen in most of Allen's movies and interviews but there is also some good points made about murder. Although most of the dialogue even the most serious is done in a very humorous way Allen does make some valid points about death,war, murder and the like.
This is one of Allen's best movies. More so than Annie Hall and Manhattan. It is right up there with Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Play It Again, Sam (1972)
Casablanca: A Woody Allen Story
Like Quentin Tarantino or Martin Scorsese Woody Allen is another director who loves the moves. He loves talking about them and he always has references to a wide range of movies in his movies.
Casablanca has often been called one of the greatest scripts to be written and filmed. And it has the fairytale quality that so many films of that time did have. So what better a subject for the Allen in transition between Sleeper and Annie Hall to tackle then retell Casablanca in his own style.
In this movie the Woody Allen character is brought out to the full level of his neurosis. He is constantly nervous and fidgety and Allen gives a great performance. There are some really genuine laugh out loud moments.
The movie explores many of the themes that would later be explored in Annie Hall and be furthered in Husbands and Wives. It is as all of Allen's films are about relationships. A man who doesn't know what to after his divorce. A couple who are very comfortable with each other and they feel no need for the so called intimate moments in life.
Allan tries to become like Bogart. Bogart is actually a character in the film and he constantly tries to advise Allan and the exchanges between them are pure gold. One thing I didn't like was that the guy who played Bogart didn't do a good job and that made it lose the charm. Plus they showed his face and he didn't look like Bogart. Hoever, that might have been intentional to show the character's neurosis.
There are constant references to Casablanca and the plot in essence is a retelling of Casablanca and retains much of the plot elements but in distinctly Allen style. He doesn't direct the movie for some reason. Herbert Ross directs and I think Allen would have done a better job. What I have noticed about Allen's films is that he shows love stories without the love scenes and kissing that are not really central to the plot. Herbert Ross feels it necessary and there are a couple of kissing scenes in the movie that seem out of place.
Play it Again, Sam stands out as a comedy in its own right. Though it may seem a parody it is not one at all. It brings out Allen's love for Casablanca and showcases his talents as an actor. We see the chemistry that Allen and Keaton share here which would later also be used in Annie Hall. It could have wrong in so many ways but Allen in the 70's could do no wrong. This is another great addition to his filmography.
Mad Max (1979)
Mad Max
The first part in the trilogy was a pretty decent movie. Since it had a low budget and everyone was doing it for the first time I guess it was a little uneven in parts and that could have been better with tighter editing and more efficient directing.
I saw the dubbed version and I do not recommend it. The voices all seem very cheesy and spoil what the movie is trying to say. I don't know why Americans have to dub English movies all over again.
Having said that Mad Max is a good film in its own right. It is unafraid in what it is doing. Geroge Miller doesn't use a lot of dialogue but instead depicts a very terrible view of a post apocalyptic future. Law and order has failed in this world and humanity has regressed to its very basic form. There are a lot of very exciting car chases and some great shots of the Australian outback.
Mel Gibson stars as the eponymous hero who comes back with a vengeance. He does a decent enough job but there is not much chance to showcase any acting talent.
The focus of the movie is not as much as on the action but more on its characters and their problems. The fact that it was made in 1979 makes it a movie a very unafraid movie for the subject matter that it was trying to tackle. There is no safe ending and no safe scene in the movie. The family is not reunited in the end. No catharsis. The seventies were the time for such kind of movies that did not have politically correct endings . In that sense Mad Max is like Chinatown.
Quentin Tarantino through the lead character in True Romance called it a real movie. He said that movies should be like this. Yes movies should definitely be like this. They should challenge you as a viewer and as a human being. And Mad Max does that. It also spawned numerous rip offs and look alikes. Mad Max gave birth to the 80's action movie.
Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot (1953)
M. Hulot's Holiday
M. Hulot is about well; M. hulot's holiday. That is the extent of the movie's plot. At the holiday M. Hulot gets into all kinds of trouble and is the bumbling fool.
I guess this was the first in the series of such kind of movies. You can see how heavily Mr. Bean was influenced by this movie.
At the beginning there are a couple of moments that are really funny but the rest is carried on by the charm of the movie. You have a light smile throughout the movie. And even though the movie is black and white it still seems as if it is filled with colour. The characters in this movie are so well sketched that everything is lovely and filled with excitement.
The dialogue is limited and it mostly limited to a couple of sight gags in a row. And this is the first in a series. So I am looking forward to the others. Taiti's film is good one for a quiet afternoon. It will transport you back to your childhood days. Days, weeks, and hours spent watching similar movies and laughing at every single things. I wish I had seen this movie as a child. I would have enjoyed it more.
Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922)
Nosferatu
Nosferatu was the first horror film. It was the first vampire film. It also has a wide number of admirers from Roger Ebert to Werner Herzog. It is adapted from Bram Stoker's Dracula. For some reason it is one of the few films from the silent era that still has a wide following.
Nosferatu gives us an image of the vampire. We see him as a lonely man. We see him as sad. His wealth has no real value for him. The movie begins with a traditional love story but the way Murnau depicts it gives it beauty. The flower scene is very beautiful and later where the woman asks him " Why did you kill the lovely flowers?" juxtaposes the two scenes well.
Murnau said that in the future there would be a lot of use of camera angles to tell a story. He says people will film thoughts and that is what Murnau does throughout the movie. He is filming thought. The shots of the seas, stormy and calm, the beautiful shot of the Venus Fly trap and various other similar shots. You can see how much Herzog was influenced by Murnau's style of storytelling.
Visually this film is out of this world. It has tremendous beauty to it. Maybe because films in the silent era had to concentrate more on the visual aspect then the dialogue and plot lines but I don't think we would see such a movie today.
I love watching these old movies. They have such simplicity to them and in that simplicity lies much of their charm. The scene of Nosferatu just behind that barred window is typical of this simplicity.
I think it has to be watched a couple of time for it to sink in if you are new to silent film as I am. Some scenes hold more meaning when you see them as a whole and look more beautiful after the first viewing.
The music is quite beautiful and if goes with mood perfectly. There is not a misplaced note in the score and I think the score is a work of art in its own right.
Nosfeartu is one of Murnau's masterpieces and is a landmark of the silent era. Made almost a century ago it is still relevant as a film today. Maybe the plot has aged a little but that is not a problem. But visually the film can be watched and re watched.
In the Loop (2009)
Difficult Difficult Lemon Difficult
In the Loop is a brilliant political satire. Right from the opening scene we are thrown into a mesh of brilliant comic writing, political satire and just pure brilliance. It is set in the period just before America sent out its troops to Iraq and the kind of political chaos that went on in that time.
Based on an acclaimed British sitcom The Thick of It In the Loop does raise a few points and makes some intelligent comments. Was war really unforeseeable? Even with all the drawbacks it would still be carried out because we must climb the mountain of conflict. Maybe the guy who everyone stepped was the only one who was making any sense. The only guy who was seeing things as they were even though he didn't mean it like that.
In the Loop has a varied supporting cast including the likes of James Gandolfini. The entire cast has done a really good job. And that has added to the brilliance of the movie.
The movie is endlessly quotable and has some amazing lines. I have noticed that quite a few British movies have these really abusive guys like Begbie in Trainspotting and Malcolm Tucker in this one. He is the stand out character in the movie and Peter Capaldi has done a great job in essaying the role. The character knows what he is doing is wrong and there are moments when he understand the situation but he either doesn't want to make the right choice or cant.
In the Loop is about how pointless wars are. More often then not they worsen situations not improve them. Soldiers rarely make any decisions and they are like lambs to the slaughter. It is mostly a huge power game on the part of the politicians who are just trying to gain attention and are buried in the chain of command to do any good.
Mulholland Dr. (2001)
A great trip down the darkest corridors of the mind
I don't know how to write a review for this film. It challenges the conventional methods of storytelling. There is no way to tell what it is trying to say. We don't even know where it begins or where it ends. We don't know if it is reality,fiction,fantasy,science fiction, dream or what else. All we know is that it is Lynch film and with Lynch that is all you can be sure of.
Terry Pratchett says how good stories start at different points in the universe but collide at one point and that is where they get interesting. Lynch seems to follow this but at the point they collide something tremendous happens and suddenly everything is upside down.
Mullholland Dr. opens with a surreal dance sequence and then the camera pans to a car accident. We see only one survivor who is now an amnesiac with a bag of money. At this point it can be any normal detective story. It could have been a great film noir. But suddenly all these other things begin to happen.
The movie has its own atmosphere. It is central to the telling of the story. There is brilliant use of lighting and colour. In some scenes you could literally frame them and it would look like a great little surreal painting. The acting is outstanding. Both the leads have very good chemistry and play their roles really well especially Naomi Watts. Also the score makes the movie more surreal, more fascinating, it involves you completely in the plot.
Mullholland Dr. is an extremely fascinating trip into the lives of two women. One an aspiring actress and the other an amnesiac. There is romantic tension and it slowly builds into a very poignant sex scene where Naomi's character keeps repeating that she loves Rita. And after that point things begin to fall apart.
There could be number of interpretations to what happens after wards but that is the beauty of the movie. You can watch it again and again. It is so densely layered and rich in detail that you never get bored. It is tremendously engrossing and a very rich and rewarding movie watching experience.]
For me you could say it is about the fragility of life. Anything can suddenly crack or break and your whole life turns upside down. Like the key and the box are such trivial things but they were opened and something terrible happened.
Or I sometimes think that the box was an outlet to a parallel universe and when it opened everything turned upside down since we descend into it with the camera. Maybe it was like Pandora's box.
Lynch has created one of the best movies of recent times with Mullholland Dr.
The Social Network (2010)
Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher make a great movie!
David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin come together for what could be this year's bet movie. David Fincher has steadily been making a name for himself as on of the the best modern day American directors. He has directed the likes of Fight Club, Seven and 2007's criminally underrated masterpiece Zodiac.
All his movies have been trying to make a commentary on society. I don't know whether its a conscious effort but somehow it happens in his movies because of the topic he chooses and the way in which he tries to tell his story. He does owe quite a lot to his writers like Andrew Kevin Walker, Chuck Palhaniuk and Aaron Sorkin with this movie. His movies are well made and there is never a boring moment or tired moment in them.
Aaron Sorkin has proved himself to be one of the best writers in the business and he has written or co written 66 of the 86 episodes of the West Wing. He has this flair for rapid fire, interesting dialogue Thai is always saying them. Sorkin uses a lot of words but never wastes them. He always gets the point across.
When two minds like this come together even the the biggest Facebook hater will be interested. What earlier was touted as a simply a Facebook movie came to be much more when it was given in the talented hands of these two.
The Social Network is about Mark Zuckerberg's rise to fame and what followed soon after. Zuckerberg is portrayed as a more disconnected person than a cold one. It is not that he hates people or his friends it is that he simply doesn't need them. He loves programming not because he wants to be famous or earn money but it is the only place in the world he finds comfortable where things make sense to him. Relationships, girlfriends are somehow absent from his life. Sometimes we do see him longing for the past when he had a girlfriend, when there was a little tenderness in his life. But they are few or far between. Zuckerberg isn't a terrible person he just seems to be very disconnected. Like Mersault's character in the Stranger. He is brilliantly played by Jesse Eisenberg who is coming in to his own as an actor. I thought he would become more like Cera but he has differentiated himself from Cera and the awkward guy role into something more menacing. But all the anger, frustration is wonderfully masked and lies just at the surface.
The Social Network is not being religious to detail, fact and accuracy. Sorking said as much is in his interview. While I do not agree with what he said I believe the movie is a very good one. It entertains the viewer, it informs him and it also encourages debate and discussion and that is what art should do. It observes facts and presents them in a fairly dramatized way but I guess they had to submit to the producers in that sort of way.
Cidade de Deus (2002)
The birth of a gangster
City of God's is a Brazilian turn on the crime film, Stylistically influenced by Goodfellas and Traffic it is one of the best crime films of this past decade.
The difference between City of God and Goodfellas is that City of God turns the gangster genre on its head. It strips to its bare essentials and gives the audience a very cathartic experience in doing so.
The movie is about a small shanty town in Brazil ironically called the City of God. It is a place of poverty and this invariably leads to crime since everyone is trying to earn a better living with more money rather than go the way of the fathers who are fisherman and the like.
In this town most children want to become gangsters. Some are driven to it like Knockout or others are just plain bad and love to do it like Litte Ze. And once you are in you are never heading back.
The film is told through the eyes of Rocket an aspiring photographer and one of the few people in the film that we say not engaging in crime. Rocket does all the normal teenagy things. he smoke pot, tries to lose his virginity and be creative in his spare time. One thing really going for him is he is always in the right place at the right time. For some reason he just observes the events as they unfold, as kids kill each other, as gangsters shoot and kill each other he just observes the carnage. At one point at the very end of the film does he finally show some emotion if only for a moment. It somehow adds to the whole thing because in the midst of so much violence there is no time for value judgements.
There are many scenes in the movie where kids pick up guns, kill others, do holdups snort cocaine and generally behave unlike other kids. There is one line in the film where Steak and fries tries to prove he is a man by saying he does the above specified. Knockout gives him a smile and pats him on the back. the smile is a very knowing one. Like these kids are doing these terrible things in a playful manner , like everything is a game. Despite the killing they are still children because they don't yet understand the consequences and repercussions of their actions.
City of God doesn't give answers or attempt to give answers for any of the character's actions because there simply aren't any. city of God merely observes and depicts. Much like Stanley Kubrick's film Full metal Jacket it tries to say that this is how it is. It just is.
City of God is a brilliant achievement in terms of acting, direction, photography and various other technical aspects. The lack of production value that a Hollywood production would give it add to its charm and make the story that much more richer and real. There is a tremendous energy on screen and the film is very colorful due to the clever use of the multitude of lenses. City of God is one of the decade's best!
Rio Bravo (1959)
They don't make 'em like they used to
I know its a cliché to say that but sometimes it is all you can say. You watch movies like Rio Bravo and Casablanca and you just thing how the movies were made in a different era. They were filled with such joy and innocence and were so heartwarming, uplifting and enjoyable that you long for the era that has gone by.
Rio Bravo stars John Wayne as John T. Chance a town sheriff who is trying to take on the big shot in town who has all the money. He has two deputies in the form of the Dude who was a drunkard but is now trying to become sober again and Stumpy played brilliantly by Walter Brennan. He played the character very well and I guess in the 148 minute runtime it was he who stood out the most. He was given a very endearing character to play and he made him even more endearing. Angie Dickinson is very beautiful and in every scene that she occupies you find yourself just lost in her face and she gives a good performance as the Sheriff's love interest.
The movie begins with the Sheriff arresting the big shots brother and that sets off a series of events. The Sheriff refuses to release the brother and he has to keep fighting for. At first he refuses help and decides to go at it alone but slowly he realizes that everyone needs help and the town bands together at the end in a final shootout.
Rio Bravo isn't like most westerns. It isn't the contemplative western and nor is the extremely violent western like The Wild Bunch. It is the 'Perfect Hangout Movie' as Tarantino calls it. Its about a bunch of guys hanging out and trying be happy and chilling out. Maybe it served as an inspiration for all those other movies. But somehow it retains a lot of enjoyment from watching the characters do their daily tasks and their interactions with each other.
Rio Bravo was Directed expertly by an old master Howard Hawkes. The directors of America's golden age knew how to tell a story really well. They could keep you engaged in every aspect of the story and you wouldn't feel bored barring a few. Howard Hawkes is at the top of that list of directors.
Rio Bravo is for a great afternoon's enjoyment. It is not demanding or challenging or any other things that you find like to find in a good movie. It is just a good movie like the fairy tales of our childhood. As light as a piece of pie but every bit as delicious.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)
Great Entertainment
Edgar Wright is one of the best directors of this decade. He has an extremely entertaining, funny and exciting body of work. From his work in television to his two movies in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz he hasn't put a foot wrong. This is his latest offering. Scott Pilgrim is adapted from Brian Lee O'Mailey's comic book Scott Pilgrim which I must say is better than the film. Now I don't want to nitpick about the differences in plot but watching the movie made me realize that the movie has severe constraints that the comic didn't have and it could play around a bit more with the characters. The characters, situation and dialogue had more charm in the book that at some points did not translate well to the screen. This was evident in the scene where Scott's roommate tales Knives that she is too good for Scott. In the movie the scene almost made me cringe but if the roommate had been given a back-story then maybe it would have fitted better. Regardless Scott Pilgrim is a very good, entertaining and funny movie. Unlike other movies Edgar Wright has managed to retain the feel of the comic book while adding his own flavor and giving the movie a standing in its own right as a sort of companion piece to the comic book. The movie holds much charm for anyone below 25 and I guess the adults might enjoy it if they are the nostalgia types. You could call it the John Hughes movie of this decade. The acting is pretty good. Michael Cera is playing is usual role of the awkward guy. I guess it's his looks that give him these roles and eventually he will run out of them but till then he is doing a pretty good job of it. Overall Scott Pilgrim is great movie if you are looking for a good time, a popcorn entertainer that is actually funny and has a couple of laugh out loud moments. There is also a coming of age story involved. So anyone who likes Cera, videogames and the original comic book will like the movie. Others should give it a shot too, they just might be surprised!
Tôkyô monogatari (1953)
Tokyo Monogatari
Tokyo Story is one of the most emotionally draining movies I have ever see. It is right up there with Berman's Cries and Whispers as a movie that literally wrenches your heart out.
The movie is about an aging couple who visit their children and realise how everyone has drifted apart. Ozu's ability to capture the mundane as well as the profound aspects of daily life is uncanny. Especially the scene where the boy moans about not being able to study and his mother points out he never studies anyway.
The imagery and cinematography are beautiful One of my favourite scenes is the boy and the grandmother at the start of the movie. That scene is cinema at it's most beautiful at its most poignant moment.
The movie is filled with moments of such beauty. And there is also an underlying warmth and humanity to it that it endears itself to every viewer. You could fault the movie on being a bit slow but if you stay you are rewarded. Japanese movies tend to take the more contemplative approach which i love although one must be in the mood for it.
The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003)
"You see what you believe"
Errol Morris' intensely watchable documentary feature is aptly titled 'The Fog of War"
It is about the life of the US Secretary of Defense Robert Strange Mcnamara. In an intensely candid interview along with spliced footage of war and various other things that Morris considers relevant to telling his tale Mcnamara outlines his views on war among other things and talks about his life and the various decisions he made in his term.
Mcnamara is a very fascinating person. He agrees that he has made mistakes but he also points out that he could not see what else could have been done. He points out that it was inevitable and he could not see other views to do it.
Here is a man who is trying to give an answer to America's turbulent relationship with war and he gives it an extremely poignant way.
Morris couldn't have picked a better subject for such a documentary. Morris has a huge talent and he can make the most compelling of documentaries with the most idiosyncratic of subjects. As always he shows how much he loves his subjects and how much he cares for the story he wants to tell.
True Romance (1993)
Tarantino's early work
It was great to see the humble beginnings of Quentin Tarantino. True Romance was the first script he sold. He wanted to direct it himself but no one was willing to give him the chance so Tony Scott got the job. I haven't heard much about Tony Scott but I think with Tarantino directing it would have been a better movie. It lacks that goofy feel that pervades through Tarantino's movies. The love for movies and just plain fun that is so integral to a Tarantino movie is missing in True Romance. Still, True Romance is a good movie. Stylistically influenced by Terence Malick's 1973 film Badlands it also stands as a movie in its own right. Who knew Tarantino was such a sap and could right halfway decent romantic dialogue? The voice-over narration and the background score is where it heavily borrows from Badlands and of course the serial killers on the run. But Alabama and Clarence aren't serial killers on the run. They are just people wanting to start over and try to live a better life, a happier life. But Tarantino will not let them do it easily. There are gangsters, Hollywood movie producers, old friends, drugs, policeman and guys with wires. More often than not Tarantino's movies have a variety of different plot that collide and all hell breaks loose. We witness this again and have a Mexican standoff. I guess that is where the problem lies. Tony Scott just directed the movie and I guess he didn't care so much about the characters and the Mexican standoff became very predictable in the last half hour of the movie and the action scenes were a little too cheesy.
The supporting cast features some of the biggest stars of today. Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini to name a few. Back then I guess they were just starting out. It is great fun to see a young James Gandolfini a couple of years before he played Tony Soprano doing what he does best. It's surprising how Michael Rappaport frequently plays the old friend of the lead character. He plays the same character in Beautiful Girls and some Schwarzenegger movie. I guess this was the movie that made him typecast in that role. The cast is decent. I never really like Christian Slater that much. His voice always irritates me but he's done a decent job in the film. The female decent is quite good actually. She is very pretty and plays her role with aplomb. True Romance is about well a True Romance. How two people meet and realize they are perfect for each other. It is about innocence and losing, grabbing chances and trying to struggle for something better. A better future. Because mostly things go wrong. But sometimes they go the other way too . . . . . . The other way too . . . . . . . . . . . .
Badmaa$h Company (2010)
Boring . . . . .
The opens with an interesting voice-over that tells us about the lead played by Shahid kapoor as he begins to describe Mumbai or Bombay as it was then called in the nineties. Little do we know is that the voice-over is one of the few interesting things that will happen in the movie over its two and a half hour runtime. The movie is about a bunch of nobodies just fresh out of college trying to earn the proverbial quick buck. They have amongst them a schemer who realizes that ideas and not capital are the cornerstone for a business. They begin to earn money and make use of the extremely high import tax on branded shoes. Now at this point in the movie audiences will believe that they are in for a good movie that will have thrills and will be at par with one of those good Hollywood blockbusters. But they would be mistaken. At little over an hour into the movie the plot that had been chugging along begins to derail with the four head on to America to try their fortunes. The plot begins to fall into the same ole' pattern where there is a fight and everything becomes so predictable that it becomes almost embarrassing to watch. Parmeet Sethi writes and directs his debut feature in a very half handed manner. What could have been a great movie becomes embarrassing. He had a good idea and capital but he still failed. Maybe business need more than that. They need good execution. At least the dialogue in parts was funny . The acting was average. Anushka Sharma could barely play the part of the macho tomboy from Jaipur. It's as if there are only two girls in India. The homely kind and the one who is like Anushka Sharma in this movie. Shahid is busy trying to become more like Shahrukh Khan with each successive movie. And also continuing with the exact same performance in each movie. The other two are pretty okay since they didn't have much to do anyway.
If it's ever coming on t.v. and you are really bored give this movie a watch but other than that there is not much going for the movie.
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
Clint's finest hour
Towards the end of the movie there is a scene where Clint playing the eponymous Josey Wales signs a pact in blood with one of the characters. The other guy is an Indian and for him such things are a serious affair and are meant to be done with passion care and utmost concentration. Josey Wales is an outlaw who understands such things but is not a passionate fellow. So the Indian makes a huge incision in his hands while Josey just makes a small cut. Maybe I am reading too much into the whole thing but I would like to believe it is intentionally the case. And it is this attention to detail that I love about Eastwood's films. Whatever you say about the guy he can act. He can direct. And when the two go together you get to witness pure beauty on screen. Eastwood plays the character with his trademark grimace. The movie opens with him farming in the fields which interestingly would also be the opening scene of his other acting-directing masterpiece that is 'Unforgiven' He goes home and is entire home is set on fire and what other option has he got but to become an outlaw and wreak havoc on those who took everything away from.
It is set in the end of the eighteenth century. America has just gotten independence and is trying to make everyone submit to its authority but is finding it hard to do. The outlaw Josey Wales is an entertaining Western as entertaining as any of the other ones but it is trying to do more and trying to say many other things. So the gunfire and gunfights might be a little on the lesser side. So if you are expecting The Good,The Bad and the Ugly you might be disappointed. If you are looking for a good movie in it's own right that you gotta give this one a shot.
Chinatown (1974)
Chinatown
Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown. One of the most iconic lines in cinematic history can be found in Roman Polanski's 1974 masterpiece Chinatown.
Chinatown is almost the perfect movie. The direction is outstanding. Polanski knows how to tell a story as good as anyone. The perfect camera angles and the perfect shots are taken as we take a dive in two the mind of J.J. Gittes a private detective who reiterates that he makes a fair living. He is masterfully played by none other that Jack Nicholson who gives one of his best performance that can be ranked alongside his performances in 'The Shining' and 'Cuckoo's Nest' Nicholson gives a very controlled performance. There is no unnecessary shouting or going over the top. He begins to uncover a terrible plot over in L.A. that involves the water department,incest,adultery and Chinatown. Robert Towne wrote this script in the traditional noir way with voice-over and the like but Polanski eliminated all the voice-over so the audience would uncover the mystery as Gittes would and was that a good decision. The movie is an absorbing 2 hour experience as you get completely lost as the plot unravels and more of the mystery unfolds. It is tremendously quotable movie. It has a noir touch to it that is obvious from the overture but the touch is so light that the movie simply floats on this delightful little script. Recently the movie was named on a list of the seven films to see before you die. Well I generally disagree with such lists because it's the apples over oranges thing isn't it. But Chinatown is a brilliant film. The ending is so powerful that it can knock most films out of the water with just that. It leaves you feeling frightened, challenged and with so many questions that you can debate about it for hours on end. And that is what Art really should accomplish. It should encourage discussion and that is what Chinatown does. You can call the movie anything you want but it sure as hell is a piece of art.