Most movies aim for
the dramatic, the out of the ordinary, the attention-grabbing – formally,
thematically or plot-wise; Jim Jarmusch, forever a chronicler of the deadpan
and understated, crafted something remarkably antithetical to that with the magnificent
Paterson – and that, in itself, made
this such a radically brilliant work. The film is a beautifully low-key and delightfully
heartwarming portrayal of the possibility of poetry and profundity within the
mundane and the monotony of uneventful existence. Gently peppered with straight-faced
humour and pleasant irony, evoking rarely more than a chuckle here and a guffow
there – the kind that Jarmusch’s cinema is most memorably associated with – the
movie chronicled a week in the life of an unassuming man residing in the titular
city in New Jersey. Paterson (Adam Driver), bearing the name of the city he
belongs to, is a soft-spoken and tender-hearted bus driver by the day, an observant
closet poet who pens intensely personal verses between work; an admirer of the
book-length poem by William Carlos William named after the city; he’s happily
married to the freewheeling and naturally joyous Laura (Golshifteh Farahani); and
he lives a life of happy routine which begins early in the morning, involves
travelling around the city while listening to converstions of travelers (from
“Hurricane” Carter to Italian anarchists) with amused expressions, pampering
his wife’s quirks, walking his dog in the evenings and having a customary beer
at the bar post that while having rambling chats with its chess-loving owner
(Barry Shabaka Henley). Driver’s extraordinary turn as the gangly, modest, straight-faced
protagonist in sync with his quotidian existence, along with the strangely affecting
poems, filled the film with warmth, melancholy and a touch of absurdity.
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Genre: Comedy Drama/Americana/Slice of Life
Language: English
Country: US
Lav Diaz’s mammoth
and magnificent Norte, the End of History
– ironically, the Filipino master’s shortest film despite its staggering 4-hour
length – is as epic in its thematic breadth and ambition, as it’s intimate in
its evocations. A modern day adaptation of Crime and Punishment, the Dostoyevskian movie touched upon such themes as morality,
coincidence, guilt, and the futility of justice and redemption. Fabien (Sid
Lucero), a smug, arrogant, potentially reactionary and pathologically
disilussioned guy, who’s left law school midway despite his academic brilliance,
murders the greasy loan shark Magda (Mae Paner) because of his belief that all
bad elements must be expunged and exterminated from the society; he becomes an
aimless drifter thereafter, and the devastating consequences of his pat
rationalization of good and evil are felt near the end when, after many years
of estrangement, he visits his devout and placid elder sister. A parallel
strand revolved around an impoverished couple, Joaquin (Archie Alemania) and
Eliza (Angeli Bayani), who’ve staked all their belongings to Magda; though he’s
accused of the crime and imprisoned, he refuses to lose his sense of idealism;
his soft-spoken wife, in a heart-wrenching turn, takes up the cudgels of earning
a modicum of survival for her two kids. Interestingly, the film started on a
verbose note, filled with abstract debates in a mock-serious tone, but grew increasingly
bleak, contemplative, melancholic and even troubling as it progressed. Filmed
in a mix of medium and long shots, and comprising of a number of single takes – which, especially where there were meandering conversations
within them, struck me as deceptively brilliant – this is a complex, intriguing
and meditative work that both demands and rewards patience.
Director: Lav Diaz
Genre: Drama/Psychological Drama
Language: Filipino
Country: Philippines
Mike Nichols, who’d
made one of the most emblematic movies of the 60s with The Graduate, turned edgy and courted controversy – in sync with
the 70s – with Carnal Knowledge.
Bordering between psychological explorations, satirical take on male libido and
ribald exposé on taboo topics as made amply clear by the film’s sensationalist
title, it focused on the rather politically incorrect themes of sexual objectification
and dysfunction. Hence, admittedly, it was topical, bold in its choice of
subject, and reflective of zeitgeist; however, for the same reasons, it was
also alienating, discomfiting and undeniably problematic too, for the brazen display
of sexism, male gaze and misogyny. The film follows, over the course of over
two decades, the troubling journey of self-discovery of two friends – the
self-centered, sex-crazed, narcissistic, aggressive, volatile Jonathan (Jack
Nicholson), and the sensitive, soft-spoken, passive, ever-curious Sandy (Art
Garfunkel). It begins with them as students and roommates at Amherst College,
with both falling in love with the same lady – the smashing and confident Susan
(Candice Bergen). While Sandy adores and worships her, and eventually marries
her too, Jonathan gets infatuated and obsessed with her, more so upon seeing
how his shy friend is smitten by her. As they move ahead, they keep both
diverging and converging at various points over the years. While Sandy and
Susan eventually get divorced, Jonathan, in-line with his serial womanizing,
heads into a steamy relationship with Bobby (Ann-Margret), even though it
gradually turns into something he never wanted. Nicholson was impressive as
always, and his manic outburst near the end was both electrifying and disturbing;
Garfunkel, one half of the unforgettable folk-rock duo with Paul Simon, was
surprisingly effective too.
Director: Mike Nichols
Genre: Comedy Drama/Social Satire
Language: English
Country: US
Bristling and
volatile familial dynamics, perhaps mirroring the sociopolitical landscape of
modern day Russia, has been a crucial theme for Andrey Zvyagintsev’s dissenting
voice – be it in the grim The Banishment
or the brilliantly subversive Leviathan
or the darkly compelling Loveless. In
the bleak, restrained, engrossing and Hitchcockian Elena, the interplay between marital relationship and class differences
made for an implosive Molotov Cocktail. The film begins with an eerily tranquil
opening sequence that perfectly presaged the lull before the storm. Elena (Nadezhda
Markina), a former nurse belonging to a lower social strata, is married to the
fabulously wealthy Vladimir (Andrey Smirnov); though their’s might have been a
love marriage, the yawning socioeconomic backgrounds of this middle-aged couple
is firmly established by her role more as a housekeeper than an equal partner.
And their delicate balance is made all the more fragile by their kids from
previous marriages – she’s unhappy of the preferential treatment he extends to
his strikingly attractive, hedonistic, acerbic daughter (Elena Lyadova), while
he disdains her slob son (Aleksey Rozin) who resides in the working-class
outskirts and is dependent on financial support, including to keep his teenage
son out of compulsory military service. This precarious equilibrium, however,
is given a nudge – which is enough for their house of cards to collapse – when,
after a heart attack, he decides to bequeath his wealth to his daughter; and this,
in turn, provokes her to take a grimly decisive step to get her rightful share.
Shot using precisely controlled visuals, awash with brooding minimalism and
punctuated with an evocative organ-based score, the film never took easy sides
with any of the characters, which made its moral ambiguity all the more riveting.
Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev
Genre: Drama/Marital Drama/Family Drama
Language: Russian
Country: Russia
The powerful, albeit short-lived,
#MeToo movement had emphatically raised the topic of sexual harassment and
abuse (especially in workplace), which is often ignored, buried or even normalized;
hence, some of its slightly problematic aspects aside, its stirring and
empowering impact was unquestionable. The Hollywood biggie Bombshell might well be one of the first big budget films
consciously centered fair and square on this topic – and that, in itself, makes
this worth a watch. It chronicled the spectacular fall from power of Fox News’s
bullying Chairman / CEO Roger Ailes (John Lithgow) whose rabid conservatism was
equaled only by his predatory sexism; was spearheaded by three highly reckoned
actresses (a remarkably compelling and steely Charlize Theron as popular
newscaster Megyn Kelly and a heavyweight within Fox News, a fervently dogged
Nicole Kidman as once popular newscaster Gretchen Carlson who starts a chain-reaction
when she’s fired, and a sassy yet vulnerable Margot Robbie as Kayla, an
ambitious journalist and a composite character); comprised of a string of fine
performances (including a slimy turn by Lithgow, and an affecting one by Kate
McKisson as a closet lesbian and Democrat faking her life and political
afflilitations to survive in Fox), and all of these were invigorating to watch.
However, that it veered into simplifications and contrivances by downplaying
the moral and political subtexts of its protagonists, in order for us to root
for them within the otherwise toxic context of Fox News, meant that the film
forsake depth and complexity for appeal. But, that said, it did pull punches
and had its share of moments too, be it in Megan’s realpolitik U-turn on Trump
or Gretchen’s quiet rebiliousness or Kayla’s painful coming of age.
Director: Jay Roach
Genre: Drama/Showbiz Drama/Docufiction
Language: English
Country: US
Phoenix, the devastating middle chapter in Petzold’s
marvelous ‘Love in the Times of
Oppressive Systems’ trilogy – sandwiched between Barbara and Transit – is
a magnificent examination of identity and memory in the complex and ambiguous
atmosphere of post-WWII Germany. Ravishing, moody, haunting, luxuriously filmed
and delicately structured, the film eschewed conventional realism and was
seeped in cinematic references – from classic noirs and Vertigo to Eyes without A Face – as it tackled with remarkable assurance a subject as troubling as
the murky period it was set in. Loosely adapted from Hubert Monteilhet’s novel
The Return from the Ashes but transplanted
to war-ravaged Berlin shortly after Nazi Germany’s collapse (reminiscent of his
transplantation of James Cain’s The
Postman Always Rings Twice to a very different political context in Jerichow), the film is centered around
Nelly (Nina Hoss), a former cabaret singer and Holocaust survivor. After undergoing
reconstructive surgeries for disfigurements suffered at the camps – preferring
to reclaim her earlier face when many preferred new identities to hide their
pasts – she stumbles upon her husband Johny (Ronald Zehrfeld), a former piano
player working at a smoky nightclub. Unable to recognize her but noticing an
uncanny resemblance nevertheless, he asks her to impersonate Nelly so that they
can split her fortunes; she starts playing along in this game as she’s still in
love with him, even if he might’ve had betrayed her to the Nazis. Hoss was
riveting as the fragile protagonist, while Zehrfeld was good too as her obtuse,
roguish ex-husband; the enigmatic intimacy, luscious visual schema and engrossing
jazzy score made this all the more evocative, while husky rendition of Kurt
Weill sensuous song Speak Low took
the film to a heartbreaking finale.
Director: Christian Petzold
Genre: Drama/Romantic Drama/Political Drama/Psychological Drama
Language: German
Country: Germany
