A Painted House

Usually I put John Grisham in my list of paper(-back) tigers, the kind of books you take on airplanes or trains and don't really mind if you lose them during the course of the journey. But reading A Painted House changed all my perceptions of Mr.Grisham. It was simple language, a paperback with none of the pretentions of 'world class writers', but this one was definitely not use and throw, it was a keeper.

This led me to the video movie made for Hallmark channel and I can truly say the movie did not disappoint me at all, unlike many other book-turned-into-movie stuff. It is the story of a boy growing up in the cotton country of the American South at the fag end of WW2. If you want to know a thing or two about rural American culture of the forties and the fifties this is the movie, it is all the more entertaining because it is seen through the eyes of child. Cotton farmers steeped in debt, hill people(remember Beverly Hillbillies), Mexican who came every year from across the border in time of harvest, GM and Ford factories 'up North' - everyone represents the nation that once was US of A.

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Since Otar Left

Brilliant, bloody brilliant, you have to pinch yourself to make sure that you are watching a movie, it was that damn real. It is from the former Soviet state of Georgia, where the son of the family has gone abroad insearch of job. The abroad is Paris and the son in question holds a medical degree and is working as an illegal construction worker in France, but we never actually see the son(Otar) in this movie.

It is a poignant story of his mother, who eagerly waits for her son's phone calls and letters. The other two important characters are her daughter(Otar's sister) and her daughter who shares the apartment with the matriarch in Tblisi. The movie progresses through life and reflections of these three generations of women, the impact of Otar's ultimate farewell on each of them. Julie Bertucelli has composed an everyday poem of breathtaking beauty, proving it once again it takes a woman to make a movie that'll touch every heart it passes through. The actors have played their parts extremely well, the most commendable is Esther Gorintin, the aged matriarch who is so true to life. I just read that she started acting at the ripe old age of 85 and she's still going strong. Whoa!!!

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Love Actually

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Santitos

Santitos is funny, although it supposedly tells a sad story - of a mother who lost her daughter searching brothels for her missing daughter whom she thinks, has been kidnapped and sold in to prostitution.

The relationship between devout catholic women and the church in Mexico is portrayed as almost homely, like a mother-daughter relationship. The myriads of saints are their friends in need, they serve the same purpose your friend may serve on the other end of the phone listening to your sob story. The film follows the mother, Esperenza on her journey to find her daughter, from an obscure village in Mexico, to Tijuana, to LA and back to same obscurity. Although the premise is serious, the movie is witty, bold and the gritty world around us shot in a lighter vein. Impressive.

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Nobody Knows Anybody

From the team that created Abres Los Ojos (better known by its Hollywood remix - Vanilla Sky), this is another psychological thriller starring the same leading man, Eduardo Noriega and the same mind boggling confusion between what is real and what is not, but less successful this time.

If you like architecture or is/was an architecture student(like I am/was) you'd like the detail at which the Spanish city of Seville is represented in the movie. There is even a scaled model of the entire city which plays an important role in the movie and lets not forget the famous Alamillo bridge by Santiago Calatrava which also feature prominently.

Apart from that if you are expecting the mind blowing power of Abres Los Ojos, you'll be disappointed, its just a few gamer dudes out to destroy the world. Better luck next time.

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Man on Fire

I don't why Denzel Washington's movies are so typecasted. He is always the hero who has insurmountable obstacles to conquer in an almost impossible situation, which in most cases involve saving the life of a child, but somehow you can be sure before you start watching the movie - that child is gonna be safe, as for Denzel it is a 50-50 chance.

Man on Fire is such a typical Denzel Washington-saving-a-child movie and for a change (yeah and we really need it), this time it is set in Mexico City where they kidnap children left, righ and center just for kicks!!! Marc Anthony commits suicide in the movie(hopefully in the real life with JLo he'll fare better) and then there is a fair measure of violence, bombings and kidnappings thrown in..thats about it and ofcourse Denzel saves the day.

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Cyclo

Cyclo tries to tell the story of a cycle-rikshaw driver in Ho Chi Minh city, but gets overly poetic and becomes a montage of disconnected (but beautiful) imagery. While watching it I was sure it was directed by the same director who directed "The Vertical Ray of the Sun", because both movies emphasized much on the imagery and bits and pieces of random poetry than on the cohesiveness or the script of the film which rendered it tedious to watch in the long run.

I was not wrong, a search in IMDb has revealed that it was taken by Anh Hung Tran the very same director of "the vertical..." Most of the movie is like a guessing game, characters don't speak much, there are abrupt actions, random insertions of poetry, haunting imagery akin to moving paintings but without any connection to the plot. This goes on for a while till you grow tired of guessing and decide to sleep. I am not that arty-farty yet.

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Back and Forth

Back and forth between a rock and a hard place - the situation in the movie can aptly summarized in those words. Filiberto is an illegal migrant Mexican worker who has just returned home to Mexico, after working in the asparagus fields in the US.

It makes you realize that poor all over the world are trapped by their circumstances, from which there is no escape except perhaps prison or hard labor. This is a film about the social realities that exist in the gritty bloody world of the poor and the downtrodden. The world which, through some quirk of fate or blind luck of birth, we didn't have to cope with, but Filiberto has to.

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Valentin

Movies narrated by children have always been a sure success with me, starting from the 'To Kill A Mocking Bird' to this latest one from Argentina. Valentin is the story of a 8-9 year old boy, named Valentin growing up in a city in Argentina somtime during the early sixties with his grandmother. His parents are separated, he tries to find parent-figures in every adult he meets and in turn he touches their lives in his own special way.

It is said to be semi-autobiographical film by writer-director Alejandro Agresti, who also plays the role of Valentin's unreliable father in the movie. It is a beautiful story of childhood, written in a heart tugging way that only a child's innocence can achieve. Rodrigo Noya who plays Valentin in the movie is an absolute darling and carries the whole film on his small shoulders, successfully.

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The Ox

This movie by Sven Nyqvist has a line-up of the best Scandinavian actors - Stellan Skarsgaard, Max Von Sydow and Liv Ullman. The movie starts with "a murder" of an ox, which becomes a turning point in the life of the protagonist - played by Skaarsgard, and his family.

Its funny how the remote rural areas in the globe has the same value systems, the same attitude and the same set of characters, whether it is the Nordic north or a remote village in rural Brazil. It is an interesting movie, a learning experience.

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The Seductor

A Spanish movie about a teenager falling in love with his beautiful and married next door neighbor who is almost as old as his mother. Suburbs look the same everywhere, cool young things drive Vespinos and teenage agony is the same anywhere on the globe.

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Metropolis

Man, oh man oh man!!! I mean Ger"man". The art of perfection has always evaded me, so when I see a practioner of this high art succeed they always command my complete respect as do the makers of this 1927 German silent sci-fi flick.

Metropolis tells the story of a future metropolis where the ruler class reside in fantastic architectural masterpieces above the earth enjoying the fruits of labor of the worker class who live in subterranean caves under the ground and who report daily to ten hours of intense manual labor for their rulers. The story is not much of a crowd puller, but the technical perfection of this Fritz Lang classic which was shot 80 years ago is beyond words. The special effects in the movie are so convincing, you wonder how they could have made it possible such a long time ago with equipments that lacked any sophistication to do it.

As a student of architecture few years back, we had used a lot of graphics from metropolis as a background for our posters, pamphlets etc without knowing about the source where it came from. The architectural eye of the movie makers, constructing a future city is a point to be applauded. After watching the Metropolis, the making of the film(bonus materials) is worth a watch to know how the German film makers made the impossible possible within their limited technical resources. There is definitely a lot of science behind this science-fiction film.

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Shame

My first Ingmar Bergman ever. This is also the first time I have come face to face the great acting persona of Liv Ullman.

Shame, although a war film or more correctly a film set during the war, is more of a character study than a war movie. It follows the life of a couple played Liv Ullman and Max Von Sydow eeking out a living in a farm on an island in Sweden. Shot in B/W this film follows the fate of these two people, carrying the burden of their tribulations and personal mishaps in a time of great turmoil.

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Por La Libre

Por La Libre or Dust to Dust as it English title is, is a colorful, youthful Mexican movie which centers around the death of a patriarch and his subsequent change in to dust(via an incinerator). So the urn containing his ashes is the protangonist in the movie, along with two young men who are cousins and are the grand children of the deceased person.

After watching this movie I have a very serious question to ask all the border crossing Mexicans, Mexico is very beautiful, its freeways can compete with any in the developed world and Acapulco kicks ass and still you want to stich yourself in to dashboards and illegaly transport yourself to the US? Why? Unemployment?

The movie is youthful in spirit, the two young actors really fit in to their roles and it doesn't try to teach the next important lesson of life. The photography and colors are cool, corruption exists everywhere and old benzes live long.

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Super Size Me

A documentary with the sole aim of exposing the evils of fast food culture to the American public by Morgan Spurlock, who undergoes the dangerous experiment of intense "fast-foodization" himself.

As a part of this expose, Spurlock eats at McDonalds, 3 times a day for a month and nothing else - all the food he ever consumed during this month came from McDonalds all over the United States. He started off as a healthy young man, with his blood sugar, pressure, cholestrol in their healthiest of ranges and in just a matter of a month, he gains almost 30 pounds, his liver is poisoned(similar to liver poisoning by years of alcohol use) and has an addiction to fast food charecterised by cravings, high heart rate, pressure on chest, decreased libido and a lot other harmful vital signs.

In addition to Morgan's own adventure, during the course of the documentary we see how the American school system feeds its children almost totally on fast foods and sugar, how "super-sizing" became an everyday phenomenon and how less, the doctors themselves know about the effects of fast food.

The documentary doesn't imply we need to embark on an all-out war against fast food. But its always advisable to watch what you eat, after all you have only just one body and moderation is the key.

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Son of the Bride

Juan Jose Campanella's, Son of the Bride is one of the near perfect achievements in film making I have seen in a long while. The story, the dialog, the camera, the acting, the editing, everything is perfect, there are no loose ends - a beautiful film, I think I should buy the DVD.

The story takes place in modern Argentina, where the the protagonist - aka the son of the bride is a restaurant owner, there are too many appointments and conversations crowding his life but somewhere along the way a heart attack makes a guest appearance. The story goes on from there. Cannot call it much of a story, but all I can say is it didn't even register in my mind while I was watching the film. The love between his father and his mother(an Alzheiemer patient) is touching, so is the poem his li'l daughter writes. When you dissect the movie the events it build upon seems trifling, but watch in its entirety - you have a gem in world cinema.

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Marooned in Iraq

Most of the Iranian or Iraqi movies I have watched lately has a documentary quality, this one is no exception. It is a story of an old Kurdish folk singer crossing the border during Iran-Iraq war, to rescue the woman he has loved all his life. His two sons accompany him in the mission, although the last part of the journey he completes all by himself.

Bahman Ghobadi, the director of the movie has succeeded in bringing the aspects of Kurdish life that are unknown and scary to the rest of the world, the situations that Kurds face it daily. The homeland of Kurds, Kurdistan is spread across four countries, most of the times at war at each other. Every time there is a war, Kurds are the first casualty, most of them had spent the majority of life in mountain camps, the roar of fighter jets is their everyday radio, at one time chemical weapon strikes against the Kurds were so frequent that chemical scarring and deaths were common as flu and orphaned children comprise a large section of population. The film tries to touch all these aspects, weaving it in to the story. I'd say it is more of a documentary with some entertainment value. And with all these atrocities against Kurds, it comes as no surprise when Mr.Ghobadi says Kurds have more amateuer film makers per capita(even the cab drivers save up to buy 35 mm camera to make films!) than most other countries!

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Corky Romano

A slapstick comedy starring Chris Kattan. It's kinda entertaining, cliched scenes and jokes abound, along with the facial muscular contractions performed by Kattan. Its funny for a mindless evening when you are stoned and almost on the way out.

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The Terminal

Tom Hanks is one of the best actors to come out of Hollywood in the last few decades, this movie is a feather in the cap of this amazing actor. Viktor Navorski is an East European visitor to United States who gets caught in JFK airport with a cancelled entry visa and an invalid passport as his country ceases to exist after an uprising.

I am thankful that Spielberg didn't pursue the romantic angle between Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones and spoil the film. There are holes in the story if you try to analyze, but then who cares, it had some very interesting characters and great acting with Hanks leading the crowd.

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Very Annie Mary

Its one of those fairytalish English movies with an undecipherable accent - of course it takes place in a picteresque Welsh village. Annie Mary is played by Rachel Griffiths who has a perpetual comic look on her face like Minnie Mouse which makes the film interesting. A simple film with a fresh innocence.

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Along Came Polly

This is my kind of chick flick, if it was a chick flick. Ben Stiller, Jennifer Aniston, Alec Baldwin and Philip Seymour Hoffman make up the cast in this John Hamburg comedy. Although in a very short role Hank Azaria will have you in splits with his French accent. A good movie to enjoy in the company of friends.

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Teen Deewarein

After long a Hindi film, a Nagesh Kukunoor one at that. It seems to be on a different track than his earlier movies like Hyderabad Blues, Rockford and Bollywood Calling. The opening shot is an almost exact copy of Shawshank Redemption, the rest of it luckily is not.

Naseeruddin Shah is an actor par excellence, with his effortless acting he proves it once again in this movie. Jackie Shroff is okay, Nagesh Kukunoor is good, so is Juhi Chawla. Gulshan Grover is a much underrated actor, he shines as the police officer in charge of the prison. The dialogs in this movie made me aware how Indian English is a world apart from the kind of conversation we have here in US. The long drawn sentences between two people, the heavy content laden words used in India now seems kind of dramatic, like reading prose.

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The Village

Shyamalan's best film to date, he seems to have created a genre all by himself. Another movie which tells you not to worship the very earth so-called pompous all knowing film critics walk upon. It'll definitely break the stub off all you self-important people. But if you are one with a streak of impishness, I assure you, you'll love it. Life's not all that scary, you know.

Other ++++

+ M.Night’s Shyamalan’s cameo appearance is one of the best done by a director so far (amongst the ones I have seen)

+ Bryce Dallas Howard is real hero material (oops heroine)

+ Mind blowing camera

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Interiors

The DVD cover says Woody Allen, wrote and directed this film. No, it couldn't have been you, Mr.Allen. It's a film for those 'extreme-artsy' types which definitely I am not. Diane Keaton is one of my all time favorite actresses but she seems so not like herself in the movie. All in all a slow one which takes some patient to sit through and devoid of Allen's hallmark wits.

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American Splendor

A documentary/feature film about the creator of a comic called American Splendor - Harvey Pekar. The way the movie is shot like it is the storyboard of a comic book, a refreshing change. Although Harvey is an ordinary person like all of us, the film does not bore one as one would expect the story of a hospital file clerk would. Harvey Pekar is the common man with a 'comic' genius who manages to strike gold, the American dream.

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Children of Nature

An Icelandic film centered on two inmates of an old age home which switches back and forth between reality and dream(at the most crucial points). Two childhood sweathearts meet in an old age home and decides to run away to their old village, now abondoned by all its inhabitants. Its an ok film, 'am not particularly impressed by it.

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The Cooler

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Capturing the Friedmans

A very good and an acclaimed documentary on the Friedman case that took place in Long Island in the early eighties directed by Andrew Jarecki. It is an interesting case-study of an American family falling apart, when the head of the family, the father - Arnold Friedman is accused of paedophile charges and to the horror of all horrors, his youngest son, Jesse is also accused of the same charges.

There is a wealth of home video material which went in to the making of this documentary because of Arnold Friedman, a home video enthusiast and later his eldest son David, who decides to document the whole trial process. Arnold Friedman had definite paedophile tendencies but he denies having carried out his advances to children anywhere near the home he lived, in his computer class or the suburban community which turned his main accusers in the case. But its Jesse who takes your sympathy, wrongly accused for a crime he didn't commit, then spend 13 years of his prime life behind the bars and come back to the society at the age 31 with a label as a child molester. Even in the most dysfunctional family, nobody could have had it worse. A very rivetting and objective documentary, justifies its Oscar nomination.

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Magdalane Sisters, The

A harrowing tale(s) of escape of three young woman from a conventwhere they were enslaved against their choice. Or it'd be wiser to say they had no choice to speak of. This Irish film by Peter Mullan is a window to the rest of the world, of the inhuman practices meted out by Catholic nuns to young women/girls kept in their convents. It is not a prototype for Irish catholic convents of the 40-50 years back, but such institutions definitely existed.

These girls come in to the convent for various reasons, some of them gave birth before marriage and their families disowned them and put them in to the care of sisters. One of the girls was raped by a cousin of hers and her family to escape the shame forcibly sent her to the convent. At the convent the young women are made to work for a laundry the nuns operate for commercial purposes. Its like an emotional boot camp with no doors for escape. Human rights violations happened whenever and wherever the authorities got drunk on authority, either in the name of politics or religion. This film is a proof and its triumph is the ultimate escape of the girls, although it is not what I'd call dramatic.

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Ladykillers, The

Starring Tom Hanks, as The Professor, Ladykillers is the story of a casino heist which almost succeeded but for a lady. The lady in question,Mrs Munson(played by Irma.T.Hall) is a god-fearing, church junkie with a passion for gospel music. This is not exactly the best movie Coen Brothers have ever made, but its passable, funny and reflects the amazing range Tom Hanks has. Irma.T.Hall fits like a glove in to her character and so does the portrait of her husband hanging over the fireplace.

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From Dusk till Dawn

Directed by Quentin Tarantino twister in one night. You start watching a gangster movie of two thieves - George Clooney and Tarantino himself, halfway through the movie Tarantino decides that his thirst for blood cannot be quenched by mere handfuls of blood splattered by some shots in the head fired by these vily gangsters, so he turns the movie into a vampire thriller.

So he brings in Salma Hayek, who has to play a seductress turned she-vampire. In true Tarantinosque style the movie has blood, blood, blood and more blood and gore. In between all that there is a plot that travels from US to Mexico in an RV. Not bad, but take it only as pure entertainment, nothing beyond that.

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Master and Commander

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, is definitely not my kind of movie. It was okay, but it created an Oscar flutter, I can't imagine that! It is a good education about the times when sailors were like astronauts in the sixties or computer geeks of the late nineties, when sea was the final frontier, before it gave way to space and the internet.

Russell Crowe fits the role as the captain of the English, other performances are okay, it seemed a bit put together for the movie kinda script, a tad rehearsed perhaps. If you want to see a real movie of sailors and the life at sea I'd still suggest the German submarine classic, Das Boot.

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I,Robot

It is easier to criticize than to praise. I have always been lavish in my criticiscm of Hollywood, for once I'd like to rectify that and give Hollywood its due. I,Robot is a movie only Hollywood can produce with the finesse it has. From Isaac Asimov's story of the same name, the film stars Will Smith as the protagonist in this futuristic saga set AD 2035.

In this scenario, thirty years from the present, robots serve as helpers to all human-beings creating almost a Walmart Superstore of robots called US Robotics which aims to put one robot in every home. But somewhere in the process, some of the robots go 'Darwinistic'(read evolve) and we have a major riot in our hands. Will Smith gives a good performance, the robots are cool too and the graphics are pretty neat. Born sci-fi readers might have a different opinion about the film, but for common man(woman) like me this is as good a sci-fi movie gets in Hollywood before it gets lost in the 'matrix' and gets reduced to incomprehensible jibber-jabber. All credit to Alex Proyas.

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Goodbye Lenin!

For those who where growing up during the late eighties when 'the wall' came down this is a movie you can empathize with, more so if you are an East German, like the hero of the movie, Alex.

Alex is brought up by his irrepairable 'party'(as in communist party) girl of a mother with true socialistic values. When the wall falls in Oct '89, we see him as youngman along with the protestors screaming to tear down the wall. Thats also how his mother sees him last, before she collapses on the sidewalk from a heart-attack on the way to a party party.

The movie is about Alex and his friends' efforts to recreate the former socialist state within the newly liberated and united Germany. Its funny, natural and a treat to watch.

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Brazil

Its the name of a futuristic paradise, where everyone wants to go - music, free life and salsa dancers, that must be their marketting strong points. The movie is a sort of retro-futuristic prophecy or commentary whatever you may call it. More than science or gadgets(they are there) the emphasis of the film is on the political and social scene in a futuristic society.

Post 9/11 this Terry Gilliam masterpiece has become all the more relevant and the Oscar nominated screen play is eerily remniscent of what the real world is now, replete with 'terrorists', 'patriot acts' and 'dept of homeland security', just as in the film! Everybody is scared of terrorists and the government is actively hunting them down, 'deleting' many innocent citizens taken into custody without any need of warrants and this ironical situation receives the pie in the face when one of the character asks another, "but tell me, how many terrorists have you seen in real life?" and the other character racks his brains just to come up with the conclusion, "None". Does it remind you of something? Or have you got trapped in this film called 'Brazil'?

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12 Monkeys

Send-back-in-time movies make me a little wary, but this one rose above the cliche, at least for me. It had an intriguing plot, that keeps you at the edge of your seat, not too much science to torture your mind whether technology could really make it possible or not and Brad Pitt was brilliant although it was Bruce Willis's film.

Its a good sci-fi flick to come out of Hollywood, I think, reminded me of the more recent British sci-fi film - 28 Days Later, but ofcourse it didn't have the Bruce Willis factor or should I say the Die-Hard factor. All in all I liked the movie, could be called a good sci-fi film if you don't try hard to question the science part of it.

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Kitchen Stories

Swedish furniture designers - the fountainhead of all talent in the furniture design field. Now this film reveals to you the extent to which they will go to perfect ergonomics and work flow patterns associated with a single piece of furniture, say a bar stool.

The movie is funny, not in an American way, but in a slow laid back European style. A furniture company sends its representatives all over the Nordic wilderness to the homes single men to study the kitchen behavior of bachelors. This is 1950. Fun begins or rather its a study of interactions of me, extremely funny I'd say, in a closed space.

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Solas

A gem of movie from the Spanish director, Benito Zambrano, Solas won 5 Goyas(Spanish Academy Awards) and I'd say everyone of them was justified. It is the story about Maria, a 35 year old pessimist, part-time alcoholic who is employed as a part-time cleaner and her mother, a simple peasant woman who comes to stay with her daughter when her husband falls ill and is admitted in a hospital in the city(where Maria lives).

A moving story about two women, whose lives are always in crisis. Their lives, their relationships, the simple friendships they form in this fragile world is the fodder of this film. Solas means Alone, alone in their own lives as the world moves mercilessly around and ahead of them, this film follows three people(or four if you count the barman) - Maria(Ana Fernandez), her mother(Maria Galina) and their old neighbor, played by Carlos Alvarez-Novia and the bonds they forge in unconsciously makes the film poignant and etches it in to your hearts.

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L'Atalante

Jean Vigo's masterpiece-acclaimed-after-death, L'Atalante is so far ahead of its times(it was released in 1934). It tells the idyllic story of a sailor and his bride, sailing a barge down the waterways of France with a crazy old man as their first mate. It is interesting to note that all the three who played the main characters had long successful runs in the film industry, almost till their deaths in the late sixties and early seventies. All, except for the young and charismatic director of the film - Jean Vigo himself. Vigo died before he could see his film released and the film itself had to wait ten years till someone found out that it was one of those hidden diamonds of world film!

The camerawork and frames of L'Atalante are commendable for a film that old, a path breaker for the future art house movies. If people can give Citizen Kane a 10/10 which I guess is mostly because of it being such an outspoken film for its times, L'Atalante deserves a perfect score for being perfect in the art of film making.

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Winged Migration

It is hard to categorize Winged Migration in to Documentary or Feature Film classes, because it is both in some way or the other. All in all it is a beautiful film about the parallel world of birds. Though I knew vaguely about the concept of 'imprinting' it was this movie that showed the effect and extent of 'imprinting' on wild birds. After you watch the movie you should take it upon yourself to watch the making of the film, because without it there will too many holes in the story.

The film charters the migrations of various bird species all across the globe in a fictious one year period, although the film was shot over a period of four years with four hundred people serving as crew at all the scattered places ranging from India, Peru, United States, New Zealand, Artic and the Antartic. The camera work will leave you with your mouth open for most part of the film, it is why its essential to watch the making of the movie, lets feast on some knowledge and leave those flies out of our mouths!

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