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The Goat Life (2024)
Plot Carried Greater Potential
The film had built extreme hype around it before its release, with the hardships the cast and crew had to go through over many years to finally be able to release the film.
The film follows a non-linear pattern with Najeev landing at the Saudi airport and not finding his Visa sponsor. After waiting late evening, one Arab man comes in and takes him and his friend along in a truck. Far away from civilization, amidst the sea of desert, he is forced to live a life worse than the Goats he has to take care of. The Arab beats him day in a day out for a handful of rice and some water, under the scorching heat of the Middle East. The story is a courageous tale of survival and freedom.
As an audience, we are fed with the context with flashbacks of a well-fed Najeev (apparently Prithviraj weighed 97 kg here), who's married and has an expecting wife. To secure a future for their growing family he takes the risk of falling for the Gulf Dream as many in Kerala do even today (some of them billionaires today).
As it establishes the context, it spends too much time on his romantic life with elaborate songs of intimacy and regular Indian film clichéd romance. The entire 15-20 minutes distracted me from the plot in a wrong way. As it comes back to the plot, you take some time to adjust to the mood. The editing is not fluidic and hence the intended tension doesn't set in. These important minutes spent showcasing the love story could have been productively utilized to build characters.
Even the scenes in the desert seem prolonged with events here and there without much grace. The role of Najeevs friend (Hakim played by Gokul) is a poorly enacted character who is meant to hyperventilate or smile without reason. He never evokes any empathy nor does the over-dramatic scenes in two-thirds of the film.
The songs don't seem like Rahman, but the sound design by the Oscar winner, Resul Pookutty sure does win my heart. So does the beautiful Desert landscape cinematography which occupies a good part of the film.
The film ends like an uncleaned mess. There's no reference to the actual Najeeb nor does any actual visuals of his return or even within the film they don't show him uniting with his wife or the family. When the director has set up the audience to stimulate so many feelings for their love, why did the director not take one step further to close it off?
It's overall watchable film at 6/10
But with great direction, this could have reached greater heights. Prithviraj has done a great job with losing weight for the character. He looks the part.
Barbie (2023)
Surprises You, Entertains You
One might think this is a girly movie made for teenage girls and may be the early 20s. It starts off misleading the audience into a fun filled ride of jokes and conscious silliness at the start. Later, as we all settle into the Barbie world, it slides in Feministic conversations. At one point you think whether it's an adaptation of "Men are from Mars..." book, because they hit you deeper than the laugh you make of the dialogue.
The subtext I gather is, the film is about a rich good looking girl who is living her hunky dory life where everything is spik and span. This girl has been metaphored as the Barbie. The girl who understands little of the real world until life hits her with ugly truth (revealed at the end) and she starts feeling real pain and emotions. At first she denies it and fights it and also gets it all back for a brief moment. Later she realizes, she wants to live real and wants to let go of the made up cocoon of beauty, perfection and pink.
Entertaining, fresh and perfect Sunday morning watch to setup for an interesting discussion later in the evening.
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)
Not the MI RT Score Lead Me to Believe
Mission Impossible has always been about masks, impossible stunts and twists. Well, this has all of that and some more. The "some more" part probably brought down the film for me by a couple of notches.
The plot is interesting but the focus of the film stays 1-dimensional. The IMF team and almost all the big intelligence agencies are in a "hunt" (unintended pun) for the key that could shut down a villainous AI.
The movie did not hold me, particularly scenes like an overlong chase sequence where they use an official IMF car that turns out to be a Fiat 500. Fiat 500 is a super small car and this scene is intended to humour up the audience with the sound design for the car that keeps making a small box sound as it moves while big Trucks and Alfa Romeos are chasing them. The joke fell flat except some teenagers giggling here or there.
You wait for it to end, while it keeps going on and on without pushing the plot further.
There are unbelievable coincidences that would even make Fast and Furious look better. Cruise breaks through the exact window of a long train where his partner is held as a hostage, kicking down the villain.
You always have the popular train-roof fight sequences in many films. We had one in Spider-man 2, Skyfall, Matrix Reloaded, Ra-1, Uncharted 2, etc etc. Mission Impossible just recycles all of those scenes and does not do much different. You have people punching and kicking each other on the roof of a high-speed train where both forgot their pistols. And then you obviously have them ducking down for Tunnels and Electrical Poles. Obviously, the bridge ahead is bombed for the train to crash. Obviously, Tom Cruise saves the whole train.
Enough with the masks, enough with the trains and enough with last-minute extreme unlikely coincidences. Fast and Furious at least doesn't claim to be as smart as the MI series.
Oppenheimer (2023)
Oppenheimer is one of the Most Complete Film from Nolan
The film is a study of the genius mind of Oppenheimer. The first third covers his character at a good speed, from his ways of being a womanizer to balancing it with his immersion into the Quantum Universe. The 2nd third of the movie focuses on him being onboarded into one of the world's costliest govt projects: The Manhattan Project overlooked by Leslie Groves played by Matt Damon. We see the successful testing of the bomb in the 2nd half along with the laying of the same in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
We might think the film would focus on the completion of the grandest project. However, this is where it shifts gears and becomes a courtroom drama with a tug of war and some power plays.
The film is a brilliant study of the conflict in the human mind on whether to explore the pursuit of passions or repress them if they stand in the way of your morals.
Many pointed out that the film is slow in parts. I only found it too fast leaving no breathing room. One scene after another, there is always something developing. Because of its long first half before the interval, you got to take care of your loo breaks as the movie with its high speed spilled interesting details across the timeline, you cannot afford to lose a minute. I detested the blaring music used for dramatic scenes in the initial parts of the film but over time the music reduces and also goes completely void at times. I still believe Nolan over-uses the strength of the background score, almost taking it to noisy levels. The dialogues are sharp yet real.
Nolan's films are notorious for their exposition-spewing scenes and cliched heroic moments. However, it is much subtler this time. I never thought Matt Damon could act weak, but with Cillian Murphy living his performance, he seemed slightly out of touch. RDJ might have been overshadowed by the glowing reviews that have come for Cillian, but I think he has delivered one of the most career-defining characters. The wife of Oppenheimer has a unique character arc that is wonderfully brought to the screen by Emily Blunt who I believe is one of the best actresses of the current generation exhibiting great versatility with Edge of Tomorrow, Sicario, A Quiet Place and the more recent Mary Poppins.
This is not for everyone, it's too talky in parts but talky like The Social Network. These dialogues are worth paying attention to because they're leading to somewhere interesting. Many dialogues also get diluted with heavy BGM, issue that has been noticed with past Nolan films like Tenet and TDKR. You have to lip read there but missing them don't really confuse you as it did with Tenet.
Another interesting thing to note is how many stars have been treated like no bigger than the characters of the film. Emily Blunt is sitting behind Cillian in interrogation room while she's almost out of focus. She is smartly brought to focus after her character emerges. Nolan has played some genius moves here. The Oscar winning Casey Affleck comes for a super short scene and disappears. I prefer the camera work of Hoyte (who's the new regular for Nolan) over his previous regular Wally Pfister who had a much cleaner take on shots.
It is a very complete film that executes all the parts beautifully to bring an overwhelming poetic closure with a metaphorical visual spectacle.
Hridayam (2022)
A Nepotistic Jam
Hridayam is terrible. It's a nepotistic jam, directed by the legendary Srinivasan's son, male lead acted by the legendary Mohanlal's son and female lead by the legendary Priyadarshan's daughter. This is clearly a mass manipulative voting that got it to 8.6/10 in 5.5k IMDb votes because nothing about is as special as an above-average film. It is trying to present a coming of age story of the protagonist, Arun and is filled with pretentious cliched dramatic philosophical moments that is thrown once in a while as if we are being schooled on the Poetry of Life by Professor Lame. The songs shot mostly as a montage don't have any vibe and the film floats aimlessly in the wind until it lands on a pile of crap.
The Batman (2022)
Can It Get Any Better?
Villain 2nd to only Joker. Its such a different Gotham than what we're used to. Every frame is filled with grim atmosphere of rain and flashing lights. I wouldn't want a second less from its runtime, it's perfectly edited.
It ties all the loose ends clearly well and also sets up for the sequel.
The narration of the batman at the background adds to an overall poetic vibe. This is Batman, the detective, Batman whose rules are still not well established at its 2nd year. Batman whom the police force don't trust fully yet, the Batman who's still building confidence among the people of Gotham. Many whistle worthy moments. I liked the entry of the Batmobile more than the entry of Batman himself. And the car chase is better than Batman Begins. Even the suit is better than any Batman suit out there.
It's 10/10, but if you still force me to take down 1 point, then it would be for never giving us a nail biting thrill like TDK at any point. But as an elaborate Gotham story, it is above TDK and how it doesn't convolute itself trying to touch so many characters is an achievement on its own.
Batman is the Brad Pitt and Gordan is the Morgan Freeman in this journey to unravel the mystery of Se7en. So many elements is Fincher, and also Nicholsons Chinatown kind of revelations as you keep going further in the story.
This is for fans of Batman. This is not for children though, this is for adults who relish the darkness more than the CGI filled colorful entertaining fun ride of Marvel.
The music by the Oscar winner Michael is refreshing from all the past takes. One might wonder how can anyone better Hans Zimmer. I wouldn't say this is better, but this is different and possibly at the same level of Zimmer if not above.
Cinematography is Oscar worthy and so is the acting. The catwoman character is better etched out than Michelle Pfeifer in Batman (89), though I still prefer the matured cheekiness of Michelle a tad bit more.
I want to polish my thoughts even more to get this overwhelming love for the movie out. A 2nd viewing is already planned and along with it would be many more whistles.
The action choreography is good and shot with a stable camera rather than the poorly edited with 0 visibility and terribly choreographed action scenes of TDK tribology. However, the warehouse Batman action scene from BvS is still the best Batman action scene ever captured on celluloid.
The Batman voice is just Bruce Wayne speaking a little more whispering than usual unlike TDK which has the worst Batman voice ever where it seems Wayne is playing "pretend" with other children.
Also this is the first time you see the Batman smeared in the sweaty black paint around his eyes which is realistic since they always do but have never been shown to have it when they remove the masks.
As Bruce Wayne I still prefer, Bale or Keaton. May be because they play a more mature Wayne than the young hot blooded Wayne played by Pattinson.
But as Batman Robert beats anyone hands down. Also possibly because of the agile suit which doesn't make him look too robotic with his movements. The robotic movements were visible even with the modern TDK suit.
The Batman never entered a scene without an eventful score and camera angle in this film. You can hear his approaching footsteps, then the shoes and then dimly lit suit and finally the face. It's never straight forward.
Madhuram (2021)
Average Feel Good Film
Madhuram is a film that has done many parts right but when it all comes together, it does not fit the best. As the name suggests, the film is too sweet. There is barely any grey in any character, everyone seems to be a good person who has jokes, anecdotes to share, hi-five and cry about. Even a couple staring at divorce don't show any explicit negativity.
But the good parts are well enjoyable, like the beautiful photography that usually any Malayalam film has. The shots of the female protagonists have been shot in such simplistic yet luscious ways that you would fall in love just the way the male leads do.
The close to flawless acting of certain actors like the veteran Joju George, the comedian turned drama actor Indrans, the young in the industry actresses like Nikhila and Shruti are commendable.
Other than that it does not offer much. It does not follow a neat structure hence towards the end you might seek for many gaps and that might leave you unfulfilled.
Dilwale (2015)
Mediocre From the Word Go
The film is mediocre from the word GO. Varun Dhawan's sounds like he never grew up after the age 12 or may be was force fed with his dad's Govinda films, day and night with eye lids stapled to keep it from blinking, a la clockwork orange. He has tranformed into Govinda cube (I barely managed Govinda let alone cube). Kirti Sanon is another piece of trash, but I let her pass since she is a hottie, at least they offer something. SRK does shine in few moments with Kajol but he seems under pressure to deliver the so much talked about chemistry and hence uses all his moves whether its his curved eye brows or the arched smile. He has been glorified like a South Indian superstar with physics defying stunts wearing the look that only only impresses a straight collared rickshaw driver who would wear an aviator while driving , with Sanjay Dutt's painted posters as his mud guard graffiti. The film shifts gears from an action to romance stupidly, you don't realize when they are in love and when they want to fight. Some of SRK's emotionally romantic dialogues are so funnily delivered, you don't understand whether you're supposed to laugh or feel sorry for the situation. Kajol is slightly better compared to the rest.
The jokes are pure slapstick, Johnny Lever using the recycled formula of oscillating his eye brows up and down, Sanjay Mishra mouthing off one liners that makes you think whether it was targeted to the kindergarten audience, and Boman Irani playing the laughing stock one more time.
Cinematography is the usual hyper saturated bright colours with terribly LOW apertures that Rohit uses in all of his films. The production design is pathetically fake, unsurprisingly, in fact a set in a theater drama seems more deceiving than a Shetty film. He definitely needs to fire the guy he's been using for design or downsize his own brain. The films offers slightly more layers than his past films in terms of stories though, which still doesn't save the film from sliding down the manhole. The three stars is only for the slightly improved layers and SRK's final dialogue to Kajol, which will definitely bring a smile on your face.
Jai Bhim (2021)
Indian Binary Voting
We Indians live in binaries since our votes are mostly emotionally driven. When we love a film star in the film or the cause it discusses, we are hypercharged and want to give it a 10. Just the way Vishwaroopoam was. Vishwaroopam had 9.8/10 with more than 30k votes back in 2013 when Indian films barely touched 10k votes (pre-jio era).
The same is happening with Jai Bhim, which is currently at 9.6/10 in above 70k votes. Diving a little deeper into the vote analysis, it shows 62k votes is 10/10. That would mean, the film has been voted as one of the rarest of rare flawless pieces of art to ever come out in the world of films. I think I have rated about 4 films 10/10. Not to say this does not deserve a 10/10. But the film receiving a perfect score from more than 88% of the total votes is an extreme coincidence, especially when the top 1000 voters on IMDb have a weighted average of 4/10 - not 6, not 8, only 4/10 for the film. The funny thing is, 3.5% of them have voted it 1/10 as well. Let's compare this with another fan-driven top 10 IMDb film "The Dark Knight". The Dark Knight has a combined percentage of 10/10 and 1/10 of 46.3% against Jai Bhim's cumulative 91.5% in 10/10 and 1/10.
Not saying this could not be possible, but this clearly seems like a large section of the audience is voting on the basis of the biased emotional rush. We saw similar instances with Wanted (2008) when this had just come out. However, this has reduced by a huge margin for Salman Khan films in the last 5-6 years with growing awareness on the mediocrity of bhai's films where even the fans now feel illiterate on praising his work. But considering the Hero worship in the Tamil and the Telugu films industry combined with a cause many people strongly resonate with, I am sure many things have been overlooked while judging this particular film. We saw this happen with Baahubali as well, no doubt it is an entertaining film but not without flaws. I am sure, so is this and many other such films.
X-Ray: Selected Satyajit Shorts (2021)
I Don't Get the Hype!
I have many critical complains for the 4 parts series. But the plot is itself so loose, I wouldn't be able to go past that in a regular sized review.
Ali Fazal looked like he's playing an entrepreneur in a college play. Having an entourage walk while you give instructions and then enter with style is done a gazillion times with exact same camera angles and punching dialogues to show he's a star entrepreneur when that's far away from real world. I wouldn't pick up nitty gritty details until when people call it a masterpiece. The going back his "past" scene is full of Old Boy when the protagonist goes to his school and chases his younger self through the multiple floors. That scene is picked up blatantly from the dark gory classic. Though the twist is fun, until then nothing is.
KKs story has so many loose ends. It builds up to give you expectations towards a horror thriller while it deviates directions midway to make a baba it's main character out of the blue and that leaves us wondering what was the purpose of spending so much build up on others. They could have brushed those plots much quicker. You are made to care for other characters like his land owner, boss and his crush, only to be made unimportant in the final 3/4th of the story. That leaves me with, "really?"
Manojs story is well directed, they cleverly use a theater as an exposition machine to the backdrop. But you can see the twist from a mile coming. When the twist starts looking predictable, I believe the director should rush to the ending than make us wait to offer the same. It's a terrible drag.
The final one has Harshvardhan Kapoor. Enough said. Just to add a little more, it's another terrible drag.
The short stories have been given more details to enlarge them into a full fledged 1 hour independent films, which led to the demise of what could have been an engaging interesting set of short films.
Drishyam 2 (2021)
A Disappointing Visual (Drishyam)
It wastes precious 1.5 hours with over elaborated background built. It has many unnecessary scenes of forced attempted family humour and good times.
The protagonist house wife has a permanent face of exaggerated melodramatic expressions, typical of Indian TV soaps with explicit make up that ruins the authenticity of the narrative.
The cinematography is amateurish, with overexposed lighting on every character and the background score is spoon fed to set the tone for the scene. Climax has heavy heroic almost laughable beats, supposedly to add to the heroism.
It fails in most parts. The plot could have been better supported with quality production values and editing.
It saddens me, after watching the extremely well done Malayalam's The Great Indian Kitchen just 2 weeks ago, this one stands as a stark contrast against it.
It's a Rajnikant film with heroism infused in dialogue and strategy than the physics defying stunts. Either way, both make you roll your eyes in its implausibilities.
The Great Indian Kitchen (2021)
The Great Indian Movie
As the name sarcastically suggests, the Indian kitchen is where things start and end for women in most parts of India. They are not allowed to dream, choose or express. Cutting across many social subjects in an artistic style, the film is composed of many daily routines of the kitchen. It might seem repetitive and monotonous but each scene in the kitchen adds to your frustration.
We as an audience start feeling the same anguish and exhaustion of the protagonist wonderfully portrayed by the lead (Nimisha). How silently a woman bears to serve a man's well being, personal development but at the same time has none left for herself.
Some scenes hit me hard, like one of the conclusive scenes where the camera navigates through different family portraits in the family tree, hanging on the wall with the background sounds of a woman working in the kitchen - stone grinding coconuts, doing dishes, washing clothes, sparkling sounds of spattering oil: representing every family firmly stands on all the unacknowledged exhaustive hard work of a woman. In one other scene, the wife is distracted by the flashes of rotten foods, choked drain water, and stinking used dishes that she worked on through the day while the husband is deep into the sexual act expresses the mental turmoil forbidding her from indulging in the romance.
The cinematography is kinetic, it slides from the hands to the expressions to the objects at a quick pace, giving you a thorough 3rd person perspective standing along with her in the kitchen. You smell the stench, you feel the annoyance and you want to collapse as she does, yet unlike most films, this ends with hope. Acting is flawless, with minimal dialogues it conveys what it has to.
We still have 11 more months, but this will definitely be one of the best films of the year.
Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)
I'm a satisfied fan
Way better than Whedon's. The climax has been improved so much. The earlier one was an easy finish after Superman comes in. Here he keeps it interesting until the end. Also many forced lame 1-liners added to color up the mood of the film by Whedon, have been thankfully removed and replaced with the consistent tones of dark drama.
This film can stand alone without the background of MoS or BvS. The 4 hours allow time to expand on characters and the plot better. At no point you'll be questioning the joining dots. All loose ends seemed to have been tied well.
Yes there are many empowering super hero moments, but none that give you the feel of Captain America taking the Hanmer in Endgame. The other complain I have is with the music. There is no innovativeness, it's the same recycled super hero music one would have heard in so many films/tv shows. It's extremely bland. There are some musical moments here or there with Wonder Woman but again it's not as good as the Wonder Woman film.
Batman also seems to have been under utilized, I would have wanted to see him stylishly bashing some skulls and throwing some punches as he did in BvS.
I am a fan of Snyders stylish slo-mos and close ups. He hasn't used too many here, starts with some and then goes on normal mode until the end.
Either way, I'm a satisfied fan.
Article 15 (2019)
Unabashed, Sucker Punching Intense
Article 15 hits you hard with its unabashed, sucker punching, intense portrayal of Indian society.
Score: 8/10
Direction: the story telling style seems to be adopted from Bong Joon-ho classic, Memories of Murder, which itself elevates the treat in suspense, cutting through many social causes along the way. There are 2-3 scenes of slightly less than subtle humour, which give you just enough to bring you back to the seat slightly more than the edge you were about to fall off. the ending was a well crafted, symbolic, satirical and lighter.
Final Scene: After the stressful work that leads to the finding of the body, when everyone's too hungry they just have the food on the street side without bothering the caste. And when the lead asks the caste of the old lady who cooked, everyone turns around to see her reply but it gets drowned under the honking of the truck shot from an angle, which sarcastically shows "Mera Bharath Mahaan" at the back of the truck.
Writing, plot: Dialogues are sharp, bold and relevant. Story may be about delivering the same old plot-line, but in a refreshing, interesting, thrilling package: the govt trying to stop the idealists, the border line suspects turning out to be the real evils, and the revolutionaries disguised as the threats to the society.
Cinematography and Music: Ewan Mulligan is for Anubhav, what Jeff Croneweth became for David Fincher. though obviously not at the same levels of craft. With the dark visuals, using a lot of light, fog and blue hue to give the undertone of "night" and the lack of clarity, suits perfectly to depict the nightmare the lead goes through.
I loved how it starts with one of my favorites from Bob Dylan:
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
The song goes well with the how the film starts: how the lead is not too motivated about getting it resolved but more about the process. But in his subconscious efforts to prove his lady-love and become the "hero" (as she speaks about in one of their conversations) and his emotional setback, his motivation builds up to do the right thing, swimming against the tides.
I don't know how many times we would have a film, that gets so many things right together, last in my mind is Masaan, if I cut some slack then even Sairat.
Joker (2019)
Joker is lifting the Rug and Looking Underneath
Joker is a character study, it is how a society can create a villain and later ridicule them for turning into one.
It starts with long shots of the protagonist laughing uncontrollably while his shrink watches on with an insensitive gaze. His constant restless legs and his laugh invoked by a medical condition along with his attempts to control it delivers an allegory to his hard attempts to not give in to the madness that is building up inside him. The idea of how death could bring more meaning than life scribbled in his book also gives another glimpse of how tired is he fighting every day with the piling up dirt. As much as the protagonist tries to do good, his actions are discouraged consistently: whether its the occupational stress and politics, public in general on the sidewalk or the bus.
His lonely walks across the neighborhood especially the long stretch of stairs that he goes up towards his building shows the efforts he puts to stay the good man his mamma always wanted.
He becomes the sponge to the society's bullying crowd, until the scene where in his utter desperation of losing the job under an unfair situation he shoots few folks in the train. This does confuse and petrify him when he is out in the station but as he closes the door and comes in touch with his inner self, his feet naturally begin to move to match the tune of evil calling out to him for so long. And comes a dance, the dance of liberation, the dance of feeling himself, so truly.
The madness inside, keeps reaching out to the surface as the shrink prescribed pills are stopped as well. His delusions start going out of control. The more he kills, the better he feels and when he finally lets himself fall into the madness, we can see him going down the stairs wearing the suit all decked up for a talk show with a rejuvenated confidence and energy.
Towards the final scenes, Joker licks his own blood and draws a smile on his face, seemingly enjoying the taste of his blood and also being acknowledged newly hailed king of anarchy. Or did he? The film is viewed through the unreliable eyes of Joker, who may have imagined the entire resurrection while being in Arkham Asylum, but it is all left open to the audience to interpret and let the imaginations run wild.
The film is a metamorphosis of the character from the crouched-bound by the world of unfairness and appearances to the man who lets his monster free, a monster that was born and grew on the backfires of the society.
The film carries a daunting background score created mostly on a cello and other string based instruments. Understandably, music is directed by Hildur Guðnadóttir (Chernobyl) who herself is a cello player. It is a refreshing shift from the arresting music of Hans Zimmer we are accustomed to in the The Dark Knight universe.
The scenes are artistic and well shot. There are many scenes with flickering lights, symbolizing the disturbance in the psyche of the protagonist. Gotham is presented as a city where the rich-poor gap is widening, there is an underground revolution in the making with chaotic graffiti all over the subway and city walls. The frustrated poor and the underprivileged exploited by the rich, protests and search for a face and a leader for their movement. With garbage lying scattered, the disorganization of the city is very visible.
Joaquin has been flawless and brilliant in his portrayal of Joker. The fluid dance, his wide-stepped run or the trademark laugh, all stay with you long after the film is over.
Joker is not just a comic film made to entertain, it is a thesis on the society how the lack of a simple virtue of sympathy can spiral anybody out of control. It's everyone's story who have wanted to scream and let their monsters out. It is very easily my favorite of the year and would likely stay so when the year ends. As our very own Thanos (Josh Brolin) puts it, "Joker is simply lifting the rug and looking underneath it. Nothing more, Nothing less."
War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)
A Culmination of Various Pop-Culture Extractions
The film takes colours from different films, mythologies and history. The film starts with, showing how a few apes have already sided with the humans losing all hopes of winning a war against their modern weaponry. Caesar tries to keep it calm until a betrayal begins a chain of events that leads to having his family killed. The whole 140 minutes relies on Caesar's journey to Colonel to avenge his family, their capture and a war that eventually makes the earth a planet of apes.
The realism carried in the character sketch of the ideal leader Caesar, his slogan, his war keeping up the moral integrity at the same time carrying an emotionally deep understanding to his motivation is a straight reminiscent of Moses leading Israelites to freedom from slavery. Woody's character as the colonel with a cheeky maniacal fashioned avatar talking with convincing statements on his actions reminds you of the Brando's much more demonic and psychotic Kurtz in Apocalypse Now, though even Woody owns the part with an interesting individualism. The final third of the film takes many cues from the Great Escape when the captive Apes plan an escape. This part uses lighter-mood background score even with the extreme tension of the situation giving us some subtle humour along the way.
The film doesn't always push itself to be fast, but does it with enough zest keeping you engrossed throughout. It likes to have conversations and generate details not found in other summer entertainers. The credibility is so evident that you stop seeing them as apes but as probably less privileged humans who have not had equal rights even with their growing intelligence almost posing a threat to humans. Its, only in the end you realize how you have supported the apes in winning the war killing all the humans but you still can't help but rejoice in the destruction of mankind, if that is not direction then what is?
Justice League (2017)
Not As Bad as Rotten Tomatoes Makes It Look
The film offers more character than we have seen in any DCEU films, whether it's the regular talks between Bruce and Arthur while trying to convince him to join the league or Bruce's walk by the lake with Diana. There is noticeable efforts to make it lighter in tone with the superheroes giving smirk whenever there is a chance and almost every slam being preceded by a one liner. Though the one liners are all funny, they could have brought that down a notch because at some point it starts looking like they are trying too hard. Some scenes, even Batman has been happily sacrificed of his dignified stature to accommodate one liners.
Though the repeated rolling of eyes and the playful childishness essayed by Ezra Miller wasn't even close to the charm of the Marvel equal, Spider man, it was nevertheless a refreshing addition. Aquaman does offer some dude laughs and Wonder Woman looks prettier than before. Cyborg could have been used more and Superman as Clark has added more colors to as a person in this film than he did in his previous two films.
Some scenes had a straight from the Tim Burton's Batman feel with the cinematography and music, especially where all the superheroes land on the roof after Gordon calls Batman with the Bat-signal. The tone is as we have been hearing, inconsistent, from fresh natural light tone to almost nothing-visible-dark, from fresh open corn fields to a reddish-orange palette, I am still not complaining.
But one thing I am complaining, would be the villain. According to multiple sources it is one of the costliest films ever made and still if they couldn't get Steppenwolf right then they didn't negotiate well when making the deal with the VFX 3rd party. The action choreography was almost below average, not one scene where one would go wow for a punch or a kick. Zack as a director seems to have a changed a lot in his style, didn't notice any trademark style slo-mos or poetic close ups, a lot to do with his last film I suppose. The run time impressed me, it didn't brood, and concluded even quickly, a fantastic move by WB right before the release amidst huge spotlight.
Overall the film is far better than what we have been reading, may be we are all getting too critical about the DCEU and hence they have to work twice as hard to reach the same success of Marvel. Expect nothing but a thorough pop-corn entertainer and you will end up getting much more.
Black Panther (2018)
Good Film, But Still Over-Hyped
Black Panther did garner many whistles with its brief appearance in Civil War. MCU left no stone unturned in investing above $200 m in the film which is huge considering its not as popular as other super heroes. But last few months it has generated so much hype that, the box office estimates have gone over the roofs.
The same hype made me crazy enough to not able to contain my excitement and subsequently find out what the fuss is all about. Strangely, even when the film is done I am still asking the same question. Black Panther starts off with one of the most important scenes of the film that becomes the fulcrum on which it develops its plot post mid-way. The story without spoilers is basically about a precious metal, Vibranium which is the root reason of the secret city, Wakanda's technological advancement and power. It is about whether it should be available to the people around the world for other countries' problems and if yes, who gets to decide the right people who should lay hands on the massive power. And if no, then is it really right to continue its use for the selfish well-being of Wakanda alone?
Keeping all the hype aside (Rotten Tomatoes' 97% score, Box Office), I found the film strictly just "good". The characters are well developed, Wakanda city has been beautifully realized and the conventional Marvel wit adds to the charm of the whole. But the film never really takes off to build enough tension to keep us engrossingly glued. It is more of an exhibition of the tribes of Africa and their rich persevered culture. It also makes clear statements of racist atrocities and its payback, whether it is Killmonger screaming his lungs on how T'Challa should use the power of Vibranium for "their people" or the frequent use of "these Americans" in a form of their subjugation to the Wakandians. With past few Marvel films showing an individualistic innovative style of action, this film fails to offer anything that impresses you beyond the anchoring use of claws. More than the Black Panther or Killmonger, it is Andy Serkins' Ulysses Klaue that steals away your attention with captivating screen presence of a chilled maniac. Unfortunately, the appearance is limited to brief after which Killmonger takes over. Killmonger played by Michael Jordan feels like an immature street punk hip-hopping away his dialogues. When he starts talking, all you feel like saying is, "You just lack some knuckle slaps when you were growing up". His motivation is without depth or understanding, its too outlined to generate any taste for the villain. Even T'Challa, whether he played a king or even a super hero, always felt like a character who is undergoing a 2 month course with his shrink for confidence issues. The music shifts gears in discontinued forms from rap beats to African tribal and the usual loud score for action sequences.
Overall, the film is an entertaining pass time for the well etched characters and the relationships among them, some unexpected comical expressions that was very subtly fit into the writing and a refreshing change from the usual we have been coming across.
Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety (2018)
Another Mediocre Misogynistic Tale
The film starts with the familiar formulaic feel of Luv Ranjan films where the protagonist is convincing his buddy on how a girl-friend is nothing but either a gold digger or life sucker. But unlike his previous films, this doesn't carry the authentic relatability that made them so popular.
Except for few laughs, the rest of the film is pathetically filled with desperate attempts to be a rib-cracking comedy which ends up being a film targeted for the 10th graders, at best. In other words, the film is one joke reused in several forms until the end. By the third act it becomes an Ekta Kapoor inspired drama with disconnected emotional scenes of people walking in slo-mos with heavy background score.
Karthik Aryan looks like a good fit in the Bollywood scheme of things where over acting and being slapstick along with good dancing skills is important, he does all of them with enough confidence.
I hope Luv Ranjan uses his talent for film making in a different genre for his future films, instead of capitalizing so much on his misogynistic gyaan, which has run out of gas since the first Pyaar Ka Punchnama.
Aligarh (2015)
A Masterstroke Direction!
Aligarh carries a sense of intellect and understanding in the way it has been directed. It doesn't try to be philosophical or engrossing in any form, It stays raw and unfiltered letting the viewers have a first hand experience of the problems that accompany ageing, whether its the loneliness or a step down of the speed in their daily mannerisms, to decide for themselves to settle on a perception. It explores in a subtle way the life of Professor Siras, his simple tastes, listening to Lata Mangeshkar classics and having a glass full of whiskey. The direction in particular is one of the finest one may have come across in the recent past, in Bollywood. Its confident and bold. Bold because it has stayed almost entirely honest to the material instead of holding itself back fearing whether it will work right for the audience, because there are places which can make people go utterly bored or sublimely orgasmic. One such scene is when Siras is listening to "Aap ki Nazro ne Samjha", he is so absorbed in the intoxication of the song that it takes him to a meditative state, making him come in terms of the negativity of his life in its core, subsequently bringing out tears, impeccably acted by Manoj Bajpai. Even with the long list of his honorable performances, I rate this, his best. When it comes to acting, another act, Rajkumar Yadav's lovable portrayal of Deepu Sebastian, a budding journalist writer from Kerala is flawless to the T. The sound design (Madan Kulkarni) as well as the music (Karan Kulkarni) is near perfect for the film. The cinematography isn't a treat but then again a film like this wouldn't fit to any sort of cinematography except a realistic and practical kind. The editing is class, slowly revealing the pieces left off from the previous scenes which help us construct it non linearly, till the final conclusion, by which time it is completely developed. The beauty of the film lies in its detailed attention towards the smaller aspects to give a matured outlook of the whole product. Hats Off to Hansal Mehta for his efforts!
Suicide Squad (2016)
Rotten Tomatoes Aren't Wrong this Time
Like any DC fan boy, I was waiting for this with bated breaths. But stepping in and seeing the way it starts, kills you. The film falls apart right from the beginning: The witch and her brother who come without much background, decide to go for a demolition plan, again in a massive scale without a lot of depth to their motivation to build a machine to destroy all of mankind. We have only been introduced to how the unconventional Task Force X have a difficulty getting through, against all the restrictions from the government and just when we expect to see more of a slow elation towards the build up: finally gelling together and hitting it off, they're brought together, just like that and made to fight against the opposite forces. Harley Quin was only as good as the trailers while the Joker disappointed and don't pin this on the benchmark Heath set, even if we see this as an independent performance, this is shallow. It is clichéd beyond understanding, it almost makes you wonder whether this is an English language Bollywood film: the daughter issue, the boy friend issue, the brother issue, the girl friend issue, you have it all, the only thing I missed was an "aaa aa aaa" sung in chorus by a Karan-Johar-regular orchestra that I am used to with so much drama. Are they really the villains we were looking forward to? Not Me!
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
Catered to Purely Comic Fan Boy
I being this huge fan of DC comics was waiting with bated breaths for the film to release for 3 years at least. A joy ride it was, giving all the thrills typically etched for a comic fan I'd say, if not everyone BvS starts off giving the usual introduction of Bruce Wayne's parents' demise without adding much to it. And then it also goes about explaining how it ignited the spark in the Batman to fight Superman. Though it clearly sways away from the comics, it gets us warmed up of what we can expect. I wouldn't go into the plot so much, virtually everything should be kept away from the readers to avoid the spoilers.
Zack did not do such a bad job with Man of Steel, though not even coming close to the expectations everyone had for the film especially knowing Nolan is at the helm as an executive producer. Without Nolan present for any creative decisions (not at least as much as he was involved in Man of Steel), Zack has slipped into his indulgence for clean Comic like taste he likes to keep for his films (read 300, Watchmen, Sucker Punch). The cinematography particularly is spotless and erodes all ideas of the real world gritty feel Nolan generally gave with Wally Pfister. He goes for a dark bluish tinge whenever Batman is around and sometimes uses a bright yellow to its addition (Nolan kept Orange as the second color). Every frame seems to be sprayed with water paints, constantly reminding us of the graphics we have been reading. I loved the use of strong close ups and his trademark usual slow mo's in certain scenes.
But having 2 superheroes and also touching Wonder Woman arch is a tricky business. Unlike Avengers, you don't always have these super heroes together, with completely different cities and tones they carry, it is rather tough to have a story develop in parallel to the development of the characters. And Zack doesn't completely manage that either, one can actually notice the choppy editing (a word I also used for Man of Steel review). The lack of fluidity to the scenes keep us floating without generating much interest for the film, at least in the first half. As the film advances the plot lines coincide which also proportionally keeps getting us more hooked. Subsequently they merge and the comic fan boy, in all scenes later, is thoroughly tickled.
Acting isn't exactly the best, which means Ben doesn't surprise! Henry and Gal have done well enough with the limited scenes both were squeezed into to accommodate Batman. Jeremy Irons (Alfred) would have done much better had he been offered more screen time while Jesse as Lex goes clearly over board, but again no complaints as such. Amy was highly credible and so was Holly as senator Finch, my picks among the caste.
The film very smartly gives glimpses of DC characters for the expansion of its universe, never feeling too forced, though with 2 and a half hour length, those could have been edited, conveniently avoiding the distraction. The action choreography is a huge improvement from Nolan's much rebuked such scenes, but it also serves as a reminder in one of the Batman dream sequence where Ben clearly looks like waiting to get hit when watched closely, slow and pretentious. The music is more towards the entertaining part than what Zimmer uses for Nolan's films, the famous escalating music with arrests. Here, each character has its own signature, I specifically loved Wonder Woman's and Batman's theme, also the music used towards the end for Lex is cheekily sweet.
The plot is heavily stuffed, if worked on details could have easily been turned into a good two films. But it still delights never losing the grip once it takes off, which almost is in the second half. Zack also over comes his drawback of making "humorless" films, subtly entertaining with a few one liners here and there.
In all, this film is nowhere close to what I have been reading in the reviews (31% Rotten Tomatoes score, are you kidding me? Lower than Daredevil?). It's a fantastic entertainer, worthy of letting Zack direct the Justice League.
The Revenant (2015)
Harrowing, Yet Deeply Rewarding
This Alejandro González Iñárritu directed masterpiece was under immense pressure after the director's victory in the Oscars for direction and best film last year. Him uniting with one of the industry's best actors, Leonardo Di Caprio, invited even more buzz. Well, the film more than delivers. The story in all its familiarity is about survival, the protagonist has to deal, post being left to die by his mates after getting attacked by a grizzly bear. It though tries to include elements of love and pain of loss, but keeps its focus towards having minimal layers.
The film is another epitome in cinematography. In certain parts, the camera work and execution is so out of the world, I missed few dialogs purely enchanted by Emmanuel Lubezki's work. This man is in the middle of the most towering run ever achieved by a cinematographer. No other cinematographer has won three straight Oscars, and Lubezki, who won the Oscars for Gravity and Birdman, is the most eligible winner for yet another, thanks to his sky faced- wide lens-natural light portrayal of the main character's journey. With how much difficulty, Alejandro prepared for such long shots, where the camera almost turned anywhere, is near beyond anyone's idea. Though Lubezki already has a similar experience with Children of Men, this definitely must have been much tougher taking into the account the extreme sub zero degrees of the locations, loosely also helping it achieve the tag of being one of the most difficult films to be shot. The film reportedly faced countless obstacles not only related to weather but also due to number of staff either quitting in the middle of the production or being fired by the director (could be also due to weather). On several occasions he was asked to use technology instead of real locations due to seasonal changes which didn't help with the consistent look of the film. But Alejandro stayed firm on his stand of not using a green screen, only to let the actors feel the chill to their bones in order to generate authenticity. And for this he had to shoot in 12 different locations including US, Canada and Argentina. Without divulging much, the Bear attack scene and one other Horse chase is shockingly real for its closeness and the quick multiple movements of the camera, to ultimately provide audience a raw almost first hand perspective of the whole. These scenes are such, if not prepared, will most definitely make you spit a loud "FUCK!" Acting is top notch, though I really hope Tom gets at least an Oscar Nomination nod since he was snubbed in the Golden Globes, he is totally electrifying as the villain. I am sure, had he been given more scenes he would have gone past Leo. Leo gives another stellar performance to decorate his body of work, the filth scale he plays with is on par with Kill Bill sort of films though this is much higher in its aesthetic presentation. The writing doesn't quite match to its cinematography or acting, though that is not to say, its bad, but just that the standards set by those two other departments is so high, it makes others, difficult to get there. I'd definitely rate Alejandro's Birdman higher in screenplay. In all, this film is an intense, raw yet beautiful portrayal of a simple story backed with engaging pace and masterful direction. Easily on the top, along with the best films of the year.
Spectre (2015)
A Classic Bond
The highly anticipated and the costliest Bond film bringing the collaboration of Sam and Craig one more time is something all Bond fans were cross fingered about and I'd say it has just about delivered.
The film starts with an almost 5 minutes long continuous shot, a la Emmanuel Lubezki from Alejandro films, the careful and tedious work was super attractive as it was intended, but it is never repeated in the whole film, not even for 2-3 minutes, for requirements constraint obviously, leaving the audience asking for more. The action in Mexico is one of the most realistically shot helicopter scenes ever, as Sam likes them. But it still with all the grounded take has an element of Bond to it, the last second save and et al.
The title credits was a disappointment, I could hardly pin point any inventiveness in terms of design and graphics, except periodically wrapping the characters with the slithering muscular tentacles of Octopus, like sea creature. This might be one of the worst such sequences in a long time, some films from the early time line of Bond era have clearly made far better ones with lesser technology.
On the streets of Rome, where the devil organization is at a meet, the structure goes awry with Bond's presence being recognized by the head himself, leading to the highly talked about chase of DB10 and Jaguar C-X75. The chase is slower than the chases we have seen in other Craig Bonds, whether its Casino Royale or Quantum of Solace (QoS had some one of the best edge of the seat car chases), nevertheless the state-of- art cars, with few twitches in the Aston Martin to make it technologically smarter, renders a fairly enjoyable piece. Action shifts from country to country ensuring the contrasting change in the atmospheric feel and the mood of the whole from time to time. But even with the strong palette of colors they offer, Hoyte van Hoytema, the cinematographer has grossly underused them, with such striking works in his kitty this was clearly a disappointment, or may be the standards set by Roger Deakins was just too high with the last film. The scenes are strictly just above average shots, making at least no noticeable unique efforts of getting remarked. Though some of them like the Rome lit up in the dark with the orange sodium lamps reflecting on the stone paved roads is beautiful and so is the train scene giving a rich bronze classic royal feel throughout. The sequences towards the end with a gentle blue-tangy combination might be faintly reminiscent of the Nolan Batmans, though I won't emphasize them too much.
Newman who has also given music to Mendes 23rd film, isn't as powerful here. Most of the scenes are painfully quiet. One can listen to the Shanghai sequence music in Skyfall (Shanghai Drive) in a loop for many days together but there's no such identifiable tone here, just the occasional arresting escalation used very commonly in the current crop of action films which comes as a surprise from a 12 time Academy award nominee.
The script is definitely better than what the loop-holed driven Skyfall offered but some of the scenes are unnecessarily over long and could have been harmlessly been edited for the sake of fitter and faster tempo. The film ends up becoming more of an action drama than an action thriller which it usually is, for its slow conversations and a little inclination towards emotions. Towards the end, the story isn't as much about stopping a villain from his megalomaniac plans but the villain cheekily playing games with Bond, another reminder of The Dark Knight.
The action choreography isn't as punching, raw and high voltage as it has been with all Craig films (in fact even too bland on certain occasions). They are slow and may be more powerful with Dave Bautista being involved and all. The film makes a good use of occasional humour, whether it's the banter between Moneypenny and Bond or the tame Bond tease on Q, lighting up the atmosphere even in the supposed tight situations. In all, the film lacks the tension and thrill which makes Bond a Bond, but that also doesn't seem to be the motive of Mendes who seemingly aims for a classic Bond trying to include all the little elements leaving the film in a blithe ending.
The Gift (2015)
One of the Finest Debut
It is a little late talking about this film, since it released more than 2 months back, but the film is worth talking about any time. This, a directorial debut for Joel Edgerton (actor, Zero Dark Thirty), is a fantastically written and implemented psychological thriller along the lines of Old Boy(2003) and The Hand that Rocks the Cradle(1992). Joel has shown tremendous maturity as a director with his first film itself, and he executes every element close to perfection. The film is a dark play of psychologies of the battles between the bully and the bullied. Unlike Old Boy though, he doesn't add layers of emotions or melodrama but pure thrills which again works for the way he directs. The music definitely lacks a bit of a punch but the raw acting, dark suspenseful cinematography and a lonely themed production design is terrific. He's surpassed many acclaimed directors in bringing it all together with so much sync. Don't hate me for this but I think comparing debut films, this is better directed than Reservoir Dogs, 400 Blows, Gone Baby Gone or even Citizen Kane (I'm only talking about direction here, not about the story arch or its influence in pop culture).