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Happiness for Beginners (2023)
Sweet and straightforward
Making an interesting rom-com is hard, simply because of how familiar the subject is. Happiness for Beginners doesn't really break new ground, but it's a lighthearted watch that manages to keep you interested. The characters are grounded and realistic, each with their own quirks. The leads keep you absorbed in the story. The side-characters bring their own unique perspectives and motivations. The romance grows slowly and organically, and never feels forced into the narrative. The visuals of the Appalachian trail are beautiful. All of this is done with a light touch that makes the movie easy to watch, and the overall result is something sweet that I think I'll be coming back to.
Kuttey (2023)
A bare bones story that grows dull quickly
Have you seen one of those comedic chase sequences? It maybe starts with one guy running away from a dog, then a second guy chases after him, and then a group of people chase after both of them, and so on. The main plot of Kuttey is the same. There's an ATM money transfer truck at the center, at several people make an attempt to rob it for their own reasons.
The makers have tried to focus on the reasons, inserting a backstory for each character that explain how they got to this point. While these stories take up a lot of runtime, each one could be summarized quickly into single notes.
With a weak main story and weak sub plots, there's not much to do here. The makers have tried to make things exciting by adding doses of strong violence, sex, and foul language. Honestly, all of it just grates on your nerves as you wish for the movie would go faster and get to the point.
The ensemble cast and the reveal trailer looked promising to me, but what a disappointment this turned out be.
Black Adam (2022)
Muddled and Unfocused
In the first few minutes after Black Adam is introduced, he takes on a dozen or so elite soldiers and comes out on top. Naturally, the soldiers call in backup to throw everything, and Adam takes them out in a slow-mo sequence. (If this was an attempt to recreate the fun sequences with X-Men's Quicksilver, it falls flat.)
Now that we have established that our lead is indestructible, where do we go? The screenwriters seem to have to settled for an approach to go everywhere and see what works. So we follow a few secondary characters ending up in mortal peril, a city that's been under oppressive leadership for years (millennia, apparently), an ancient artifact, the 'Justice Society', Adam's own backstory etc.
What results is a movie that's just tolerable to watch. Action sequences are aplenty, but with an indestructible hero, there are no stakes to talk about. The secondary characters fail to leave any mark on the story, and the emotional beats don't land well.
There are a few good things about the movie: Adam's origin story is interesting and comes with a few twists. The action sequences, despite the lack of stakes as noted above, are still fun. The post-credits scene sets up the next movie, which promises to be an interesting watch.
Anek (2022)
A mixed message
Anek attempts to bring together conflicting viewpoints and expose the machinery of war that keeps turning in the states of Northeast India. This is depicted with a story spanning a large number of characters, each having their own journey tracked through subplots.
The first and second acts of the movie handle this complexity well. The setup of each subplot, followed by the escalation of events, is depicted in a realistic, at-times hard-to-watch way. It is the third act where the movie stumbles and falls over. Most of the subplots are conveniently and hurriedly wrapped up into a neat ending. Some threads are simply discarded.
This problem carries over to the theme as a whole, which includes some philosophical conversations about peace and about the identity of being an Indian. Anek explores these points, but it does not put forward any views of its own. In the end, it's this indecisiveness about its own message that breaks this movie for me.
Fresh (2022)
Entertainingly twisted
'Fresh' starts out as a rom-com, but at around 30 minutes, it makes a sharp turn and reveals its true colours. I think the decision to put the opening credits here was brilliant. It's like the movie saying, 'forget what you've seen so far, the madness is just beginning'. And it does escalate from there in creepy, painful, and nauseating ways.
Technically, the movie looks and sounds great. Great cinematography, engaging soundtrack, and steady direction. The cast is also very good.
The third act of the movie is a little weaker compared to the first two acts. Some humour felt inappropriate here, and I felt that it took away some of the impact of certain scenes.
As a whole, do I recommend this movie? Yes.
CBI 5 (2022)
Not up to par
As an investigation thriller, this one lacks a certain rigour present in the previous installments. Too many false leads/dead ends drag the pacing of the story down. Lots of characters and actors are present, but the majority of them end up being inconsequential to the plot. Several subplots are kicked off, but not wrapped up properly. Even in the main investigation thread, problems abound. A key character is found by pure coincidence. The climax is arrived through yet another logical leap. Mammootty as Sethurama Iyer is great, though his English lines feel a little forced. In all, this movie could have used a more focused vision and presentation. There's a lot of cruft here that should have been left out.
Long Shot (2019)
A basic twist over classic rom-coms
The first trailer for 'Long Shot' has a character stating that this is basically 'Pretty Woman (1990)', but with the roles inverted. I'm not sure if this line of dialogue is present in the final cut of the movie, but it is an accurate summary of it. Seth Rogen & Charlize Theron seem like an unlikely pair, so it's fun to watch their characters mesh with each other in the first half of the movie. Beyond that, 'Long Shot' feels like a by-the-numbers romantic comedy.
Nocturnal Animals (2016)
A lot of flash, but very little substance.
Nocturnal Animals was watchable, but it was not quite as clever as it presented itself to be. The positives of the movie were that the story-within-a-story mechanism was interesting, it was beautifully shot, the actors delivered great performances, and it was presented as a stylish, polished overall package. But in spite of all of these positives, I still felt that the movie had nothing to offer beneath the surface. The inner story was supposed to be a symbolic representation of the destruction that had occurred in Susan's past. The grimy thriller approach to showing that destruction was indeed effective, and I wondered if that could have made a better movie on its own. The escalating sequence between the family and the men at the beginning of the story was gripping and terrifying. On the other hand, the sexual violence involved in this story (and how it was shown & described) made me extremely uncomfortable, and I was seriously considering an exit at that point.
The connections made between these two stories were also too obvious. As the story unfolds, you get this mapping of how the events in the first story connect to the events in the second story. The pacing of both stories was such that this happened side-by-side, so there was really no sense of mystery involved in this process. While this was happening, I also felt that I did not care much about Susan as a character. The only characterization I had on her was that she had made regrettable choices, and that she ruminated on those problem in her monstrosity of a home. I wanted to see where her story would go, but ended up feeling blank when it eventually ended. I did not feel that the ending was ambiguous in any way, simply because the movie included a scene around a painting that quite literally spelled out 'REVENGE' in obscenely large letters.
To summarize, I thought that Nocturnal Animals was a movie with a lot of flash and very little substance. When a movie has ended and you still don't care about the main character, it's hard to rate it as being 'good'.
Tomb Raider (2018)
A solid action thriller
This movie is the adaptation of the video game Tomb Raider (2013) which itself is a reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise. And so the movie takes you on Lara Croft's first adventure: to find her missing father and to solve the mystery of the Death Queen Himiko. This movie stands well on its own as a solid action thriller. There are several fight sequences throughout the movie, all of which feel very kinetic and very physical. Alicia Vikander's commitment to the role shows really well. The element of mystery regarding Queen Himiko is also handled quite well. But the movie also has its share of flaws, such as a weak villain and a general lack of emotional investment. This could be attributed to the quick pacing of the film, which covers a lot of ground in terms of Lara Croft's development as a character. Overall, this movie is definitely worth a watch for its action sequences and Alicia Vikander's performance as Lara Croft.