Cinemascope

The Descendants [2011]

2012-02-02T22:46:00.005+05:30

Alexander Payne returned to the director’s chair for a feature film a good seven years after his last film, Sideways, with this one, but the end product is a proof of the fact that he hasn’t really lost any of his touch. The Descendants, which is a movie about one man’s vain attempts at coping with loss, tragedy and infidelity, that, despite its seriocomic tone, is filled with warmth, poignancy and a certain degree of exuberance – and this makes this film quite unique in his filmography since Payne is mostly associated with biting satires. Matt King (George Clooney) is a well-off Hawaiian workaholic who is on the threshold of earning millions by selling a piece of real estate. However, he’s struck by tragedy when his wife becomes comatose after a boat accident, which gets further amplified when he learns that his wife was having an affair behind his back. The fact that he has never spent much time with his two daughters, especially his teenage daughter who has had some issues with addiction, has made his situating that much more delicate and difficult. George Clooney has given a gently affecting and restrained performance as a family man who seems to be at his wit’s end at the sudden turn of events. Payne underscored most of the dramatic moments as a result of which one might feel a tad hoodwinked from the standpoint of the film’s emotional content, and neither did he take us to any great depths so to speak; but he also interjected the film’s rather serious theme with moments of wry humour and subtle jabs at social mores which nicely complemented both the pathos and the few moments of contentedness that the characters experience.

Director: Alexander Payne
Genre: Drama/Comedy/Family Drama
Language: English
Country: US

A Dangerous Method [2011]

2012-02-01T14:16:00.003+05:30

David Cronenberg has travelled a long way over the course of his eventful career – from shocking body horror and grotesque sexual imagery to the movies he’s been making in the last few years, which, in comparison, appear almost mainstream on account of their restraint and understated natures. A Dangerous Method, in which he’s chronicled the complex and deteriorating relationship between two legendary figures of 20^th century – Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen), father of psychoanalysis, and Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender), father of analytical psychology and a disciple of the former during his earlier days. To complicate matters further, the presence of the Russian-Jewish lady Sabrina Spielrein (Keira Knightley), initially a patient of Jung but later goes on to become a psychoanalyst herself, creates an uneasy and turbulent psychological triangle of sorts between them. The film is extremely verbose in nature thus necessitating undivided attention from the viewers; further most sequences that had dramatic potential have been deliberately underplayed in order to ensure that its darker themes remain well below the surface during the better parts of its length – these two facets have made this quite a different experience for Cronenberg aficionados. The fact that mental degeneration and sexual deviation formed two core themes of this film would perhaps be the sole redeeming qualities for those who still equate the Canadian filmmaker with his earlier works. These apart, the simmering tension and dynamics between the two scientific giants have been very well captured, thanks in large parts to the exceptionally assured and quietly powerful turns by Mortensen and Fassbender, the matured and cerebral treatment, and the layered script.

Director: David Cronenberg
Genre: Drama/Psychological Drama/Biopic
Language: English
Country: Canada

Open Your Eyes [1997]

2012-01-31T22:10:00.004+05:30

Dreams, lucid or otherwise, make for darn interesting films, and the Spanish tech-noir (if it can really be qualified as one) Open Your Eyes sure remains a pretty good elucidation of that. This oddly compelling movie, boasting of a highly ingenious plot, is about Cesar (Eduardo Noriega), a young, handsome and insanely rich playboy whose life could very well form the dictionary definition for hedonism. However two incidents, in rapid succession drastically change his life – he finds himself falling for Sofia (Panelope Cruz), the pretty and charming date of his best friend, despite having just met her, and soon after that he meets with a debilitating car crash thanks to a jealous former lover of his that leaves his face horribly scarred. But then, are these all for real, or are they simply the figments of his imagination? Revealing anything more of the unpredictable storyline would be criminal on my front, so let me resist the temptation for doing so. Suffice it to say, this is a topsy-turvy ride and quite an interesting concoction of psychological drama, romance, mystery and science-fiction. Okay, the film isn’t the masterpiece that its fans have made it out to be – the acting is just about average, some of the plot twists could have been better dealt with, the psychological interplay between the protagonist and his friend ought to have been delved more deeply into, among others. But, that said, there’s no denying the fact this is one hell of an entertaining and engaging ride that deserves a watch – if not for anything, at least for the wildly original idea it has been based on. The film got an American remake in the form of Vanilla Sky which I plan to revisit and review sometime soon.

Director: Alejandro Amenabar
Genre: Thriller/Psychological Thriller/Sci-Fi/Romance/Mystery/Fantasy
Language: Spanish
Country: Spain

Play It Again, Sam [1972]

2012-01-29T22:30:00.005+05:30

Play It Again, Sam remains a quintessential Woody Allen film, what with it being populated with neurotic characters, its impish and sardonic take on love and relationships, and its self-deprecating humour. Yet, quite ironically, this wasn’t directed by Allen; it’s another matter though that whoever has seen his movies would know that only Woody, and no one else, could have written the its script – and that he most certainly did by adapting from his own stage play. The movie is about the relationship and consequently emotional travails faced by Allan Felix (Woody Allen), a film writer, upon his divorce. He is such a huge fan of Humphrey Bogart that the actor has become something of an alter-ego for him, guiding him through his various personal issues and turmoil. During his incessant and hilarious quest to find a fiancé he eventually falls in love with Linda (Diane Keaton), the lonely wife of his workaholic best friend Dick (Tony Roberts). The film’s title, which is a reference to Casablanca, is interestingly one of the most misquoted movie lines – the iconic final scene of the classic is screened during the opening credits and is wonderfully recreated during its climax. Though the slapstick content could have been toned down a bit (the only proof that the movie wasn’t directed by Woody himself), this does remain consistently funny and enjoyable. Interestingly, Annie Hall, arguably Woody’s greatest masterpiece along with Manhattan, could be considered a companion piece to it as it showed what would perhaps have followed had Allan and Linda got married at the end.

Director: Herbert Ross
Genre: Comedy/Romantic Comedy/Social Satire
Language: English
Country: US

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo [2011]

2012-01-29T01:58:00.005+05:30

Post the success of the Swedish thriller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, adapted from the bestselling Swedish novel of the same name written by the late Steig Larsson, it was a given that this would get remade in the US as well. Expectations were high since David Fincher took charge of the remake, and one must concede it has turned out to be a well-made and engaging thriller. The labyrinthine plot concerns how Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig), a disgraced but dogged journalist, and Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), a socially inept but brilliant computer hacker, team up to unearth a 40-year old mystery (the inexplicable disappearance of a then 16-year old girl) and a whole lot of murky secrets surrounding a famous business family. Fincher has always been known for the visual treatment and technical prowess of his films, and these facets are very much present here too. The film has also been paced well in order to ensure that the story moves forward at a near-breakneck speed, while also allowing the development of vital character dynamics and key plot angles. However, that said, I would have preferred had Fincher transplanted the story to the American context and added a more palpable stamp of his directorial touch, instead of merely going for a frame-by-frame remake of the Swedish original. He could have perhaps taken a lesson out of Let Me In, Matt Reeves’ brilliant remake of another highly acclaimed Swedish film, Let the Right One In. On the acting front, Craig has done a commendable job, while Mara, though quite good, couldn’t really match, leave alone outdo, Noomi Rapace’s unforgettable embodiment of Lisbeth’s character in the Swedish version.

Director: David Fincher
Genre: Thriller/Mystery
Language: English
Country: US

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia [2011]

2012-01-26T23:33:00.003+05:30

Acclaimed Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s latest offering might seem a murder mystery as per its premise, but upon watching it I realized it’s anything but one. Though presented in the garb of a meticulous police procedural, this is, in essence, a meditation on the dichotomies of human nature, a commentary on the socio-political milieu of the Turkish society, and a wonderfully captured odyssey that is as much physical as it is psychological. Based within a span of a day, the movie starts off with a handcuff-bound criminal, who has already confessed to a murder, being taken around by the cops through the Turkish wilderness in order to locate the place where the dead man’s body has been buried. Soon enough we are introduced to the three world-weary principal characters of the storyline whose innermost psyches and carefully wrapped dark impulses have been finely delineated – a police detective (Yilmaz Erdogan), a public prosecutor (Taner Birsel), and a doctor (Muhammet Uzuner). The film is deliberately paced and is extremely verbose in nature; consequently, one might find it to be a challenging watch. However, if one manages to glean through the seemingly irrelevant conversations, one would find this to be a surprisingly perceptive, darkly comic and brilliantly enacted film for the way the director has subtly managed to capture the various layers and mindsets of the characters. Ceylan’s love for breathtaking outdoor shots would be well known to anyone who has seen his earlier movies like Uzak, Climates, etc., and that trend has continued here too, as we are presented with such extremely well-framed compositions that have made it a visual treat.

Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Genre: Drama/Psychological Drama/Police Procedural/Road Movie
Language: Turkish
Country: Turkey

Moneyball [2011]

2012-01-26T02:12:00.004+05:30

Bennett Miller had shown incredible maturity as a filmmaker with his debut film Capote. Consequently it was but natural that Moneyball was greeted with considerable anticipation, more so for the fact that, this, which is only his second movie, has been made a whopping six years after the first. Adapted from a best-selling non-fiction, the movie is about Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), a washed out former player who, as the GM of just another pushover team, ends up reshaping the scouting process in big-league baseball. In this unconventional journey of his he gets a partner in the form of an Ivy League Economics grad, and the two, to the severe discontentment of all those around them, use analytical tools as opposed to intuition while signing players for their team. And the result of this radical approach turned out to be nothing short of a landmark. One reviewer aptly summed up the film with the words that, one needn’t be a baseball enthusiast to appreciate this movie, and I couldn’t agree more with that as I’m a classic example of a person who had a nice time watching it despite never having followed the game. The reason for that is actually quite simple – it is not so much about the game as what happens behind the scenes, and hence could have been equally relevant had the game in question had been, say, football (soccer), cricket or any other big-budget team sports. The film is leisurely paced and is largely devoid of any spectacular buildups or scintillating moments; it is, rather, quietly engaging thanks to the subtlety in the script and the understated nature of its emotional content. Brad Pitt is spot-on as the unassuming protagonist with the courage to deviate from the tried and tested path. Phillip Seymour Hoffman, however, might have been in the film only for old-times’ sake as his role didn’t really need to be graced by a powerful thespian like him.

Director: Bennett Miller
Genre: Drama/Sports Drama/Biopic
Language: English
Country: US

The Turin Horse [2011]

2012-01-24T03:12:00.007+05:30

In his final offering as a filmmaker, Hungarian maestro Bela Tarr has created a movie that is so complex, layered and rich, structurally and tonally, that one must put in some efforts in order to appreciate its power and beauty. This profound, minimalistic, quietly observant and deeply philosophical work is a bleak and distressing examination of pain and suffering; yet, quite oddly, Tarr imbued the film with an understated sense of humanism amidst all the gloom and despair. In Turin on 3^rd January 1889, as the opening voiceover instructs us, Friedrich Nietzsche witnessed the flogging of a horse by its driver for refusing to move, upon which the German philosopher intervened by throwing his arms around the stubborn animal. This incident is said to have deeply impacted Nietzsche, but unfortunately no one knows what happened to the horse, and this is essentially what Tarr attempts at. He extrapolates till five days after that incident, and thus we get to meet an aged farmer and his daughter who are struggling to eke out some form of survival despite their poverty-stricken lives – more so since their horse is refusing to even eat, leave alone work. With the harsh weather outside their home which is located at the middle of nowhere, what with relentless blizzard and biting cold, their world couldn’t get any more desolate. The film opens with a bravura long-take where we are placed right in front of the nose of the tired-looking horse, with an ominous organ-based background score further accentuating the mood – and this trend continues till the end as the movie is shot using slightly more than a couple of dozen takes. Silently roving cameras are used to capture the mundane and cyclical lives of the two characters (one can easily observe the arduous gruel that the two actors, especially the lady, had to endure while enacting their roles). Stunning B/W photography made Tarr’s masterful swansong look achingly beautiful despite its fatalistic vision.

Director: Bela Tarr
Genre: Drama/Philosophical Drama/Family Drama
Language: Hungarian
Country: Hungary

Rise of the Planet of the Apes [2011]

2012-01-23T20:10:00.005+05:30

Planet of the Apes has been amongst the longest running as also one of the most successful film series. The 1968 original spawned four sequels as also a remake by Tim Burton. Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the latest addition to the 43-year old franchise, is a prequel to the first film. The film chronicles how Caesar, the offspring of a genetically modified chimpanzee, which was secretly taken to his home and made part of his family by a scientist (James Franco) engaged in cutting-edge research on finding a cure for Alzheimer, eventually takes the evolutionary leap owing to his high intelligence; he becomes the leader of a revolution against the humans by the chimps, thus kick-starting a fight for world dominance. The movie boasts of spectacular special-effects and a number of scintillating set-pieces and action sequences. The superbly staged and choreographed face-off at the Golden Gate Bridge is worth watching. However, that said, this isn't that memorable a film after all. To be frank, it takes the narrative far more time than desirable to reach its crescendo; perhaps the director was at a loss as to whether he should go for a perceptive social commentary or make a muscular action film, and he got stuck at no-man’s land in the process. Including such elements as a power-hungry boss, a sadistic janitor, etc., too seemed clichéd. Nonetheless, the film turned out to be a reasonably engaging watch despite its failings. The relationship between Caesar and his foster father, and especially his changing persona and behaviour (from that of a friendly pet to the leader of a violent rebellion), have been very well captured.

Director: Rupert Wyatt
Genre: Sci-Fi/Action
Language: English
Country: US

A Separation [2011]

2012-01-22T23:34:00.005+05:30

A Separation, despite its seemingly simple storyline, has managed to be quite a few things at once – it is a sensitive portrayal of the breakdown of marriage, a powerful take on what that entails for the couple’s kid, an affecting depiction of the various nuances that define human behaviour, a pointed observation on the utterly relative nature of truth, and a subtle commentary on Iranian society and culture. An upwardly mobile Tehran-based couple had been planning to leave their country for good; but when the husband changes his mind at the last moment in order not to abandon his Alzheimer-afflicted father, the marriage breaks down irrevocably – their sensitive young daughter becomes the only common string the couple is kept hanging by. This is the event that sparks what is to follow – an unanticipated situation of deep crisis that threatens to tear the family apart and destroy the lives of all those concerned. Excellent, naturalistic turns by every member of the cast have helped in creating a tale of severe moral dilemma, not just for the various characters involved, but the viewers as well – there aren’t any good or bad people here, they are all utterly believable and real with all their flaws and shades. By deciding not to be judgemental, but just a neutral chronicler of the proceedings, the director has managed to create an immensely humanistic film with a universalist appeal.

Director: Asghar Farhadi
Genre: Drama/Family Drama/Ensemble Film
Language: Persian
Country: Iran

Bobby Fischer Against the World [2011]

2012-01-21T23:48:00.004+05:30

Some sporting duels manage to traverse beyond the confines of the concerned sport to become socio-cultural and at times even socio-political milestones. Mohd. Ali versus George Foreman, Bjorn Borg versus John McEnroe, Ayrton Senna versus Alain Prost, etc. are some of the ones that immediately come to one’s mind. But what would perhaps take the pole position, so to speak, would be what came to be known as the “Match of the Century” – American contender Bobby Fischer taking on the Russian World Champion Boris Spassky at Reykjavik in 1972 – a match that came to symbolize the Cold War faceoff for global supremacy between the two feuding world powers. With that legendary World Chess Championship at its forefront, this gripping documentary has taken a look at the fascinating life, both his meteoric rise and his tragic fall, of iconoclastic and forever misunderstood chess prodigy Bobby Fischer. Fischer took the world of chess by storm with his incredible gameplay and his anti-establishmentarian persona; however, he was also forever haunted by his troubled childhood and his increasing mental disintegration, which in turn led to his becoming a political pariah, his erratic behaviour and self-destructive career choices, and his ultimately dying as a severely lonely person at a far-off country. Filled with enough documentary footage as well as commentaries by people who knew him personally and/or professionally, this thumping HBO docu has managed to give us a peek into the brilliant mind of one of the most iconic and enigmatic personalities of the 20^th century.

Director: Liz Garbus
Genre: Documentary/Biography/Sports Documentary
Language: English
Country: US

Jar City (Myrin) [2006]

2012-01-20T23:55:00.006+05:30

Jar City reminded me a lot about the Norwegian police procedural and psychological thriller Insomnia – both accentuated their psychological contents and excellently juxtaposed the inescapable human and societal violence against the starkly beautiful Nordic landscapes and its harsh weather. This grim, moody, intricately plotted and brilliantly paced Icelandic movie has as its centre Erlendur, a weary, jaded and chain-smoking police detective who, while investigating the brutal, messy and seemingly pointless homicide of an elderly man, stumbles upon some murky secrets including some that go as far back as three decades. The movie is presented through two different point of views – one being the meticulous procedural upon the afore-mentioned murder, with the other, shot through washed out blue filters to give a distinctive tonality to it, being on what led to the murder. Meanwhile, Erlendur’s troubled and drug-addict daughter finds it difficult to keep clean, thus adding a strong human element to his otherwise placid exterior. Thus, the personal lives of the protagonist as well that of the mysterious young man who might just be the perpetrator added emotional undertones to what could have otherwise become just another drab and convoluted exercise in crime solving. The film has a number of cleverly penned sequences and character dynamics that added layers of quiet power to the script. One of the most memorable aspects of this bleak, well-acted thriller, for me, were the number of stunning aerial shots used to capture the incredibly beautiful locales in and around Reykjavik, thus making this a visually arresting piece of work.

Director: Baltazar Kormakur
Genre: Thriller/Psychological Thriller/Mystery
Language: Icelandic
Country: Iceland

Baishe Srabon [2011]

2012-01-19T13:12:00.005+05:30

Srijit Mukherji, whose debut film Autograph earned considerable popular success, has taken a completely divergent route with Baishe Srabon (the 22^nd day of the Indian month of Shravan and the great Indian litterateur Rabindranath Tagore’s death anniversary), and is a clear indication of the director’s growing maturity as a filmmaker. This dark and noirish murder mystery, and carefully garbed morality tale, is a brave attempt at exploration of the seedy underbelly of the city of Calcutta, otherwise known for its gentility and bhadralok culture. Members of the bottommost strata of the society are getting brutally murdered leaving the police confounded; the only clues they have at their disposals are, the carefully chosen dates for the murders, and scraps of paper containing poems by some of the greatest Bengali poets left beside each of the victims. On one hand we have a young cop (Parambrato Chatterjee) begrudgingly having to accept the leadership of a moody, rough and brilliant ex-cop (Prosenjit Chatterjee) infamous for his involvement with custodial deaths and encounters; a key parallel narrative strand focusses on an angry, bitter and perennially rejected poet (director turned actor Goutam Ghose) who is a self-anointed member of the “Hungryalist Movement” which had attempted to revolutionize Bengali poetry during the heydays of 60’s and 70’s. The screenplay is a tad uneven leaving the moodiness of the story diffused at places, Parambrato is quite disappointing, and the finale seemed quite forced. However, the terrific visual treatment courtesy the expressionist photography, and the intense and powerful angst-filled performance of Ghose made the movie worth a watch. Prosenjit, too, deserves a mention for his strong turn.

Director: Srijit Mukherji
Genre: Thriller/Psychological Thriller/Mystery
Language: Bengali
Country: India

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy [2011]

2012-01-18T23:15:00.004+05:30

Tomas Alfredson, whose previous movie was the brilliant deconstructionist vampire tale Let the Right One In, changed his milieu from icy Scandinavian winter to gloomy British winter with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Adapted from the famous John Le Carre novel, this Cold War-era thriller is a complete antithesis of the kind of slick and kinetic spy thrillers one is mostly accustomed to. Alfredson has been largely faithful to the source while bringing to screen the labyrinthine cloak-and-dagger tale of deceits, conspiracies and subterfuge populated with undercover agents and double agents grappling with a complex world order. The story is about George Smiley, one of Le Carre’s most famous creations, being compelled to come out of his forced retirement in order to conduct the hush-hush job of identifying a Russian mole who has infiltrated right into the top echelons of MI6, referred to in Le Carre’s novels as the Circus. Narrative inter-cuttings and frequent flashbacks have been made ample use of in order to present Smiley’s meticulous uncovering of the resident secret agent. Gary Oldman has given a pitch-perfect performance as the glum, detached, taciturn and world-weary Smiley, as has the series of talent character actors who are part of the exquisite cast. London has been portrayed here as a perpetually wan and gray urban jungle courtesy the moody photography, and like his earlier film, this too is rich in atmosphere and is leisurely paced in order to ensure a slow but compelling buildup to the climax. Further, excellent detailing in terms of the characters’ looks, attires, art decoration, texturing, etc. to present a fine zeitgeist of the era. The unspectacular nature of the proceedings, the dry tone and the inherent bleakness of the story might make the viewing experience underwhelming for some, but they worked very well for me.

Director: Tomas Alfredson
Genre: Thriller/Spy Thriller
Language: English
Country: UK

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows [2011]

2012-01-16T18:03:00.003+05:30

Guy Ritchie was credited to have brought to screen something new and unique with his zany reinterpretation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary creation. Even though his first edition of Sherlock Holmes cannot be qualified as a great artistic achievement, it at least acted as a breath of fresh air; further, it wasn’t difficult to visualize the beginning of a new franchise. Unfortunately, and quite surprisingly, the novelty factor took a sharp downward plunge with this film despite it being only the second edition in the series. The antics of a jaded, acerbic and martial arts expert Holmes was both distracting and bland – only the presence of Robert Downey Jr. infused some life into Ritchie’s version of the super sleuth and hence managed to be one of the very few reasons for sitting through it. Further, while the first part had loads of mystery in the plot, here the principal focus was on the duel (and that too not a very cerebral one) between Holmes and his arch-nemesis Professor Moriarty – consequently the storyline was predictable, largely bereft of any surprise factor, and quite akin to any run-of-the-mill thriller. Thankfully, it does continue to boast of exquisite set-designs and cinematography, thus managing very well in capturing the Victorian era. It also has enough hyperbolic action sequences thrown in to keep the audience involved – the final showdown was especially good in its reimagining of the classic Reichenbach Falls finale in The Final Problem. But, these apart, the movie was mostly forgettable and disappointing.

Director: Guy Ritchie
Genre: Action/Thriller/Mystery
Language: English
Country: UK

Down by Law [1986]

2012-01-15T23:39:00.005+05:30

Jim Jarmusch attained instant renown with the seminal Indie film Stranger than Paradise. Down by Law, his follow-up to the earlier film carried forward a number of thematic strands – the general sense of aimlessness among the protagonists, the rambling narrative, the idiosyncratic tone, an odyssey of sorts taken by the whimsical characters, among others. This unlikely buddy film has three principal characters who have incidentally ended up in the same jail-cell in New Orleans – while Jack (John Lurie), a pimp, and Zack (Tom Waits), a former disk-jockey, have been imprisoned for crimes they haven’t committed, Roberto (Roberto Benigni), a cheerful Italian tourist who, ironically, happens to be the only one among the three who isn’t wrongly accused. Though initially dismissed by Jack and Zack for his nerdish behaviour and oddly funny demeanour, Roberto, or “Bob” as he prefers to be called, turns out to be the most resourceful of the three; he doesn’t just help them escape from the prison, but also provides them with one hell of a lucky break post their directionless travails in the Louisiana bayous. The movie’s distinctive aesthetics was another reason that made it a companion piece to the groundbreaking Stranger in Paradise – the glorious black-and-white photography, the excellent yet low-key background score, the dry and deadpan humour, the fascinating character study of the three rudderless drifters and oddball anti-heroes, the languorous pacing, the strangely infectious character dynamics, so on and so forth. All the three lead actors really owned their characters in this brilliant Jarmusch film, with Roberto Benigni being most delightful to watch for his carefree and malapropism-laden role.

Director: Jim Jarmusch
Genre: Comedy/Existentialist Comedy/Buddy Film/Road Movie
Language: English
Country: US

Mouchette [1967]

2012-01-10T00:46:00.003+05:30

Watching Mouchette I couldn’t help but notice that this Robert Bresson gem has a number of similarities with his Au Hasard Balthazar – so much so that the two can almost be discussed in tandem. Not only was this too was a minimalistic and emotionally challenging movie with religious undertones and powerful socio-cultural commentary and was shot in stark black-and-whites, its principal protagonist too is a deeply misunderstood and socially inept girl who digs a grave for herself through her own folly and misjudgement as regards to deciphering human nature. Interestingly, here too the girl suffers for getting close to, for the lack of a better word, the wrong guy. The movie’s titular character, played absolutely brilliantly and affectingly by Nadine Nortier, is a young lonesome girl whose job it seems is taking care of her ailing mother and her newborn brother. She is mistreated by her alcoholic father (who also happens to be a bootlegger), and has no friends at school. On one stormy night she makes acquaintance with a delinquent poacher, and what ensues makes the already marginalized girl’s life even more isolated. The movie’s portrayal of the complexity and absurdities that define human behaviour made it a truly profound, layered, quietly disturbing and deeply philosophical piece of work. And the sparse visuals made this downbeat story both lyrical and heartbreaking.

Director: Robert Bresson
Genre: Drama/Psychological Drama
Language: French
Country: France

Warrior [2011]

2012-01-08T00:40:00.005+05:30

Hollywood loves coming up with good underdog stories where not just the odds are heavily against the protagonist’s inevitable victory, he also needs to overcome numerous obstacles and adversarial scenarios during the process; and contact sports make for compelling character studies with the brutal physicality juxtaposing against the emotional turmoil. Warrior is yet another reasonably compelling work in the ‘underdog’ sub-genre, with Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) being the contact sport in question. Interestingly, this movie started off with two underdogs in the form of estranged brothers Tommy (Tom Hardy), an ex-Marine with troubled past, and Brendan (Joel Edgerton), a school teacher struggling to pay off his mortgages. Both are in need of money, and hence enlist themselves in an elite winner-takes-all MMA tournament. Given the predictable nature of the plot, it was but inevitable that the two brothers would meet each other in the final; but interestingly, well before their face-off takes place, it was easy to gauge on which of the two characters the director’s sympathy lies, thus essentially leaving us with one and not two underdogs – and by the time that realization dawned, it was easy to guess as to which of the two would win the championship. The predictable plot apart, the movie also suffers from rather bland character developments. Acting by the two leads, too, were unimpressive if not bad. What really made the movie engaging at the end of the day were the brooding atmosphere, the excellent depiction of working-class neighbourhoods, the angst-ridden storyline, and the superb performance by Nick Nolte as a former alcoholic and the estranged father of Tommy and Brendan.

Director: Gavin O'Connor
Genre: Drama/Sports Drama/Family Drama
Language: English
Country: US

Hana-bi (Fireworks) [1997]

2012-01-06T23:57:00.003+05:30

Takeshi Kitano, aka “Beat” Takeshi through his involvement with Japanese television, didn’t just direct, but also wrote, edited and played the role of the lead protagonist in the movie Hana-bi – often considered his best work. Poetic, minimalist and stylish – the movie managed a unique concoction of energetic action sequences, with a near detached tone and deliberate pacing (punctuated at regular intervals by the former). Nishi, played by Takeshi, is a former policeman whose life has taken a southward trajectory – his wife is slowly dying of cancer, his daughter was murdered, his partner is wheelchair-bound, and he’s being constantly hounded by the ‘yakuza’ for having borrowed a large sum of money. The laconic and emotionally aloof cop robs a bank on his own in order to pay off his debts and take his ailing wife for one last trip. But the loan sharks won’t leave him alone, and since he is the kind of guy who prefers thrashing the other side with nerve-racking violence as opposed to pleading his case out, skirmishes break out regularly between the two sides which are bound to end on a bad note for both. Takeshi made the role his own purely through projecting the character’s outwardly detachment, impassivity, and increasing neurosis (which is taking over his behaviour at an alarming pace), despite spending most of the movie’s duration in silence. This is not an easy film to appreciate though, because of the rambling plot, the leisurely pacing, the hyperstylized narrative and the ambiguous tone – but these are essentially the facets that have made it a compelling film.

Director: Takeshi Kitano
Genre: Crime Drama/Road Movie/Existentialist Drama
Language: Japanese
Country: Japan

Tintin and I (Tintin et Moi) [2003]

2012-01-05T11:58:00.007+05:30

I’ve been an ardent fan of the Tintin comic books since when I was a kid, and consequently chancing upon this documentary was a lucky break for me indeed. In fact, every admirer of the timeless and immensely loved Herge creation would find a potential treasure trove in this informative documentary by Anders Høgsbro Østergaard. Tintin might have been a globe-trotting boy-journalist, but its creator, Belgian writer and artist Georges Remi, aka Herge, was an armchair traveler with a fecund imagination and a brilliant mind. Through Tintin he didn’t just usher in the ligne claire drawing style, but also used vivid imagery and eye for details to make the Tintin books not just fascinating tales but also concise socio-political companion of the last century. This documentary, composed primarily out of candid interview tapes taken over 30 years back, chronicles the creative process behind the legendary comic books, as also the life and times of its reclusive author and how these influenced the evolution of the stories over the years. Thus we do not just get to know of interesting details regarding his political ideologues, his clashes with the Church, his obsession with details, and his personal travails, but also of his enduring friendship with a Chinese guy that is sure to bring a lump to one’s throat. Personally I would have liked the director to also touch upon the controversial initial couple of books too, instead of just focusing on the popular ones.

Director: Anders Høgsbro Østergaard
Genre: Documantary
Language: French/English
Country: Denmark

Melancholia [2011]

2012-01-04T00:39:00.005+05:30

Danish provocateur par excellence Lars von Trier loves deconstructing popular genres, and then having a wry chuckle at the expense of his audience. Who can forget what he did with the much-loved ‘musical’ genre with Dancer in the Dark. He set his eyes on science-fiction this time around, and has come with Melancholia which, like all his movies, has split the audience right down the middle, despite, quite interestingly, being among his least controversial works. This poignant, downbeat, wonderfully enacted and beautifully composed film is a superb meditation on mental illness and apocalypse. The two principal characters are a pair of sisters – Justine (Kirsten Dunst), who’s suffering from clinical depression, and Clair (Charlotte Gainsbourg), a seemingly stable person who’s essentially a patient of hyper-anxiety. The movie has been divided into two parts – while the first deals with a grandiose get-together arranged by Clair and his millionaire husband John (Kiefer Sutherland) in order to celebrate Justine’s marriage, the second deals with the effect that a fast approaching planet has on the two sisters and their relationships, both with each other and with John who is an amateur astronomy enthusiast. Like his previous film Antichrist, this too opens with a superb opening sequence wherein a series of hyperstylized montages, shot in slow-motion, tell us how the movie ends – viz. in the form of a glorious inter-planetary collision, thus ensuring that the sci-fi aspect is used as nothing more than a plot device to accentuate the profoundly human story rather than having suspense and thrills play any roles whatsoever in driving it forward. Look out for noteworthy cameos by John Hurt and Charlotte Rampling as the sisters’ dysfunctional parents, and Stellan Skarsgard as Justine’s malicious boss.

Director: Lars von Trier
Genre: Drama/Psychological Drama/Sci-Fi
Language: English
Country: Denmark

Quicksand [1950]

2012-01-01T20:40:00.003+05:30

What better way to resume my journey with Cinemascope in the new year than with this darn interesting, albeit criminally overlooked, film noir. Mickey Rooney, who had been hitherto typecast mostly in sugar-coated feel-good movies, went for a total overhaul of his on-screen persona with this compact and fatalistic film. Rooney played the role of Dan Brady, a not-too-bright working class guy stuck in a dead-end job as a car mechanic. He’s also a bit of a charmer and a ladies’ man, and this trait of his leads him to make a small error in judgement while raising 20 dollars in cash in order to take a broad for a date. Unfortunately for him, Murphy’s Law takes full effect on his life as covering for each misstep leads him to commit bigger and bigger crimes – from hold-ups to robbery to murder, as a result of which his life takes one hell of a downward spiral before he’s even realized the kind of trouble he’s getting himself into. As the title so succinctly suggests, the more he tries to get out of the mess of his own making, the deeper he sinks into the quagmire with ever-so decreasing chances of retribution. Rooney was cast against his type as the amoral schnook whose life takes a harrowing turn sparked by one stupid decision, and he did a fine job in ensuring that his character is thoroughly believable with all his flaws. One could always say that more time ought to have been invested in taking the mood and atmosphere to their crescendo. Further, the optimistic finale reduced the impact of the nightmarish tone maintained till then. But, these missteps apart, this breezy, roller-coaster ride was a competent work in the blind-alley subgenre of noirs.

Director: Irving Pichel
Genre: Film Noir/Crime Drama
Language: English
Country: US