nusrathowardmoore Reviews

Cinderella (I) (2015)

Haute Couture Complex

[8/10 · 29 October 2016]

That classic fairy tale girls are indoctrinated with in childhood about the charming prince, the metaphor that men are good and dependable, which ironically and cruelly actually set-up them up for utter disappointment in latter life when many women will eventually discover that almost all men will eventually fall short on the charming scale, is of course the basis of this film which is brilliantly directed by Kennath Brenagh.

The screenwriter probably had in mind the idea of the 'Cinderally Complex' first postulated by Colette Dowling that surmises that women have an unconscious desire to be taken of, usually by men, to deal with and perhaps thus steered the modern version of Cinderalla less Trumped-up and more women- friendly. So it is Ella's father who is the flawed man STILL not satisfied with having had one perfect marriage but just had to have a 'second chance at happiness' after Ella's mother departure. And who did he choose to remarry after the demise of his first wife he missed 'all the time'? It just had to be someone he chose by her looks even if she was his business acquaintance's widow. And that is quite enough to put the glass not on the ceiling but on the foot.

Cate Blanchet delivered a sterling performance of a perfectly evil stepmother whose laughter alone can't have been what Ella's father was drawn to to marry. The only reason he did marry her, apart from being in the common male nature never to be satisfied, must have been her look. Yes she was evil but she 'wore it very well' since Haute Couture can indeed make a women.

Cinderalla is a tour-de-force of Couture Parisien. From the camera tilt from the train of the first gown of the stepmother to the long shot of her silhouette seconds later that screamed, Vogue Italia, you knew the film was going from quaint to serious red-carpet.

Anyone who appreciates beautiful costumes would adore this film. Cinderalla was after all nominated for an Academy Award for Best Costume. Kit, the Prince alone, who was metro- sexual enough to appreciate a smart woman's advice and fenced instead of playing something idiotic like soccer, never wore anything not cool and suave. Though all the best dresses except one was worn by the stepmother, Cinderalla wore the most beautiful dress of them all- not at the ball but at her wedding. We certainly did not see enough of that gem!

Apart from being an Haute Couture feast for the eyes, this film had its absolutely hilarious moments. In particular was when the pumpkin was turned into a golden carriage. It takes a director with comic timing to execute the hilarity of the godmother and Ella leaning back as the pumpkin grew before it exploded. Then there is the memorably funny scene of everything magical turning back organic.

Even the score was delightful and nominated for an award.

The writing was of course lovely not only for spinning a modern women-cherishing film from a sexist fairy tale but for hilarious one-liners such as 'I can't drive, I'm a goose'.

Then there is the 'perfect' casting and priceless chemistry between Lily James and Richard Madden. Now that is a pairing to be immortalised. Only because of chemistry could the first dance look so enchanting and make even the most ardent believers in the Cinderalla Complex put their guard down long enough to realise that women do have an innate desire but only to struggle to be appreciated and hopefully cherished by a man, even if that man in reality is rarer than a man choosing this film over The Avangers.

In its own genre, Cinderalla is a 9.5/10. In the open field it is a guilty pleasure of 'serious filmmakers' of the female kind. A film to watch again and again to keep having FAITH in human goodness when men disappoint you in more ways than you can wear Haute Couture. When everything is in place even fairy tales come to life.

Mr. Holmes (2015)

Good Mourning Mr. Holmes

[9/10 · 30 July 2016]

Mr. Holmes is a movie that has successfully achieved, what Ann, the detective's case of a grieving mother and melancholic wife, who was Sherlock Holmes's reason to retire and become a beekeeper, almost managed to do; deceive.

Sherlock Holmes is the brilliant premise for a film that is really about mourning things that have departed and a man's impending death and his realisation that logic, though rare, is not a substitute for wisdom and that while mourning is 'common' it serves a purpose which determines Mr. Holmes' own attitude towards feeling he has outlived his time.

In the bees that Mr. Holmes keep, is the social structure where everything has its place. In the housekeeper is the woman who is worried about her future and place. In the boy is a promise of uncertainty about the time we have and what to not be. In the stones is the answer. The circle is complete when they come in a circle. Will Mr. Holmes find out why mourning defies logic?

If we choose to be fixated about 'remembering' who Mr. Holmes should be and what stalking hat he should wear and demand such, perhaps we might miss an excellent story and nicely executed film and not even realise it was time for a heart- warming fiction to deceive the masses by forgetting the facts.

Absolutely brilliant.

Robo-Dog (2015)

Flogging a dead dog

[1/10 · 15 July 2016]

Dog didn't die in the attic. It committed suicide due to Patrick Muldoon's inability to act - the unforgivable sin that must always ultimately be put on the director's shoulders - and the plot's total lack of human imagination.

The score is as amateurish as a made-for-TV-movie that has absolutely no desire to have some dignity with someone's idea of musical goofiness mistaken for cuteness.

The best thing about this movie is when it ceases.

Robo dog is proof that a movie is not made because the screenplay is good but because funding is a lottery of fate.

This is the kind of movie they teach in film school not to make especially when you are graced with the honor of funding. Wastefulness is the devil's bretheran.

Ombak Rindu (2011)

Ombak Rindu: A criminal cinematic TRASH to justify RAPE

[1/10 · 29 August 2012]

Anybody who does not mention the word RAPE when reviewing or talking about Ombak Rindu is either a) a chauvinistic man who subconsciously does not think that RAPE is a crime b)is an oxymoron c) didn't see the movie and is just lying his way through.

Ombak Rindu is a story of a spineless woman tricked and sold off to a whore-house, gang raped, passed on to a regular client who rapes her again to whom she pleads not to leave her. She becomes his personal whore because she gets to live in a nice villa overlooking the sea. She is most disturbed only when the 'hero' and rapist gets a second wife. In Malaysia this is a box-office movie and people actually think nothing of the continuous RAPES but instead see it as heartbreakingly romantic. In essence it is a cinematic attempt to rehabilitate a rapist into a hero and in Malaysia, unfortunately it works. But that MUST NOT be permitted to be the case anywhere else in the world because it is a blatant glorification of RAPE, subjugation of women and all things Taliban. Horrifyingly, it was adapted from a book that to date has been reprinted 29 times due to the popularity of the film, written by a woman.

It is also an attack on Islam because it portrays the imbecile victim, Izzah as a religious teacher of the Quran but one who does not even attempt to defend her dignity and flee as a real Muslim woman would have done. Instead, Izzah sits demurely waiting for her RAPIST pimp and would-be-polygamous husband at a bus-stop in broad daylight to come pick her up in his posh car after the first rape encounter to take her home and be his whore. She submits to zina (illegitimate sex) with not much resistance at all before he agrees to marry her.

The locations are lovely. The cinematography is acceptable. The acting is POOR. Maya Karin, who was once a good actress shows not much emotional depth in this film but her standard cliché expressions.

Bronte Parlare, an otherwise excellent actor is horribly amateurish especially in the opening scenes, which were terribly corny.

Directors' heads must always roll first when there is poor acting. Given that Bronte Parlare was so bad, it just indicates that the director was a complete and absolute failure. Further proof of his total lack of skills in this movie is the glaring continuity errors such as when Hariz, the RAPIST is drenched by rain but when he goes into the whore house, he has towelled off.

The biggest and absolute FAILURE of this movie is the screenplay, adapted by Mr. director extraordinaire. To portray a woman who has just been raped by a total stranger begging to follow him home is the most perverse form of Taliban literature and most audacious attempt in the world to justify RAPE - 'she asked for it'.

This could well be the most revolting movie in terms of CONTENT and MESSAGE on the planet and I am not kidding you!

Another Earth (2011)

A nerd's wet dream

[1/10 · 14 December 2011]

Logline: Instead of going to MIT a blond girl decides to be a cleaner but still dreams of a second chance here and on the mirror earth.

The awful trailer to this movie gives it all away and the film itself is quite predictable. You know a film is a chauvinistic male's wet dream when the movie casts a beautiful woman for the lead and does not care at all about how the male lead looks like especially to female audiences. As long as the blond female lead, Rhoda looks hot...

Rhoda is played by Brit Marling who is also the co-writer but it is obvious that the writing was dominated by Cahill who directed, produced, did camera-work and even edited. There were a lot of male fingerprints. A whole minute of scenes playing video games makes sense for Cahill for a man in mourning to start seeing the fresh blooms of love.

Another ridiculous element, which only assures you that this is Cahill's wet dream is the half- baked idea that a girl who had qualified to go to MIT, could just claim that her cleaning company is giving free 'trial-cleaning' of houses and the professor bought it lock stock and barrel and invites her in. He must have been thinking with his other head. Obviously. Were there questions about the fee next time she comes? None. Yet there were many scenes regarding the pay cheques.

Despite penned by two people, the writing is indeed poor because we are also expected to believe that Rhoda's smart-aleck brother did not blabber to their parents about Rhoda's winning ticket. Furthermore if Rhoda did not even have the courage to tell the professor about what she had done, are we supposed to believe she has courage to go to Earth 2? If she knew how to write 'forgive' with her finger on someone's palm don't you think she would be the type of girl who would write 'sorry, I did that' and push it under the professor's door? Where was Marling's female input in the writing as to female behavior?

Cahill and Marling seem to have not done much Astronomy nor Physics in school because of the ridiculousness of the situation of having two planets that close which should have only meant gravitational disaster,at the very least to the earths' moons. Melancholia, the other planet-coming movie had it right in that department at least.

The abyss of how poorly written, predictable and corny this movie is is the suggestion the professor makes to celebrate the winning ticket - cook dinner. But even that does not compare to the cringe worthiest moment when just like that, a beautiful blond girl decides to undress and give herself. Was that sympathy wet dream sex? Really Marling?

The male lead's performance was utterly amateurish and awful at the important scene of rage. I doubt we will ever see him again on-screen. On the other hand, Brit Marling, the actress, not the writer, is the one thing good about this movie that is even technically poor with many out-of-focus and zoom-focus mishaps. There was an obvious continuity error as well when Rhoda puts the ticket on the sofa.

All in all Another Earth is astronomically awful. You just wish you were on another planet instead of watching someone's wet dream...and that a female co-writer would write some sense!

New Year's Eve (2011)

Lovely...perhaps because I'm a woman

[8/10 · 8 December 2011]

I try to watch 1 film a day and I review them on my twitter account. 98% of my ratings is lower than IMDb's but this time I've decided to write a review here too because this is the first film that gets a rating from me much higher than it does from IMDb.

The trailer of the film is atrocious and I dreaded to go watch but I'm glad I did. The plot is not ground breaking, some of the different segments involving different actors, in particular Aston Kutcher's were quite poor but I'd have to take my hat off to tying it all up nicely and not in a corny way.

I forgot all the flaws of the movie after the fabulous speech by Hilary Swank - great piece of writing that - and began to appreciate the little things such as Sofia Velgara's delivery, De Niro's great acting, Zac Efron's adorability, Pfeiffer gorgeousness at 53, her great chemistry with Efron, Little Miss Sunshine being grown up, Bon Jovi being still around and looking omg hot in red, Lea Michele's lovely voice, Auld Lang Syne and everyone's fantastic performances, in particular Hilary Swank's with De Niro and Halle Berry's.

The film did touch me because I could relate to it - to the dying father, to the frustrated career woman, to daughter who was sick of not being able to go out at night. Despite its flaws it also made me want to write my own wish list like Michele Pfeiffer. Since it made me feel, think and wish about what I should do this new years eve, this film for me is a winner. And I am glad I might be the only person who would give it high marks.

And Zac Efron's little dance with Pfeiffer when the credits rolled was utterly gorgeous!

A lovely film to get you in the mood for new year's eve.

Brighton Rock (2010)

Subtle brilliance of Brighton Rock

[7/10 · 17 February 2011]

The best things about Brighton Rock is Sam Railey and Andrea Riseborough. At first Railey's squeaky voice might put you off even entertaining the thought of him as the badass your rebellious inner 17-year-old teenager might fancy. It certainly doesn't help that Pinky (Sam Railey) gets pushed into the urinal at the beginning, thus making him look meek. But as the character develops and grows in confidence you might begin to imagine yourself as Rose (Andrea Riseborough), IF you have ever been hopelessly attracted to someone you shouldn't. Then you might, like Rose, conveniently disregard good and bad and just focus on love you think you can only get from the one person you know - Pinky. And he is very attractive after all. He gives you hope from your dreadful existence with a parent who'd sell you off as soon as he got the chance and another who is too posh to really care. By then you would realise that THE Rock in Brighton is Rose.

This is actually a good film if you care to see the nuances. You have a main character - Pinky the ambitious youthful thug who kneels in prayers midway of a chase by rival gang members. His youth echoes the 'youth riots' of the era the film was set in. You understand that his drive is about the youth being empowered. His ambition to be like his dead mentor with the baret and the photo of him like a child with his father begin to make you understand where he is coming from, sympathise with him for his background of depravity albeit the fact that he goes in a delusional and opportunistic way to be someone.

The casting is brilliant with the sexual chemistry between Pinky and Rose which enriches the film tremendously: 'I am bad, you are good and we are meant for each other' could be understood as a man who has resigned himself to his fate and a woman willing to pay the highest price for love.

The token non-Caucasian cast member, Nonso Anozie (Dallow) saves this from being relegated to just another all-white-filmfest of the not-a-single-non-white-nose King's Speech colour-blind genre.

The film is rather unsatisfactory in some aspects though. You never really understand why Ida was so vehement for vengeance for a murdered thug. The reveal of who she really was was also too casual.

But the final pan from the gramophone to the cross with the disk stuck at the words that leaves Rose continually in her belief resonates the best line in the film when Phil, Ida's partner delivers: 'Its amazes me that love.....' (or something to that effect). And that pan alone signs off Brighton Rock as a film really worth a watch.