Dec 22, 2005

I Heart Huckabees

Psuedo artsy crap. I do not know why this film got rave reviews. Anyway I could be prejudiced because I am wary of the whole game involving psychoanalysis, therapists and their couches.

Closer

Not bad, afterall it had Clive Owen.

Sarkar

Abhishek Bachchan could act and Ram Gopal Varma could do no wrong.

AIFF 2005: Kamikaze Girls

Kamikaze Girls is a wacky comedy from Japan.

Jackie Brown

Another flash of Tarantino's brilliance - script, direction and a more human story than his most other films. After Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction this is a bit low key, looks like step in Tarantino's growin' up process.

Motorcycle Diaries

"What do we leave behind when we cross each frontier? Each moment seems split in two; melancholy for what was left behind and the excitement of entering a new land" - Ernesto Che Guevera, Motorcycle Diaries - his memoirs. Thats what you feel after watching the movie, like you've crossed a new frontier.

Travel is an eyeopener - to the world and to your innerself. If Ernesto Che Guevera had not gone on his life changing motorcycle expedition across the length of South American continent, the world would have sold lesser tee shirts and coffee mugs, we'd not have got a charismatic revolutionary icon to represent the world's inner struggles with a loveable name - Che.

Directed by Walter Selles, the film is about this legendary journey undertaken by two impressionable young people who had dreams about changing the world to make it a better place. Yeah I know we all have/had such dreams(most of us are kind hearted people) but seldom do we act upon them. We - the ordinary beings who stop far short of Che Guevera are happy with our I-Pods, our brand new beemers and our annual subscription at the hippest gym to worry about the starving millions in thrid world. We do care for them sometimes, when we watch movie like the Motorcycle Diaries or Salaam Bombay. Then the pressures of life overtake us - we have to pay bills, raise families, think about the next promotion or like me - plain lounge online.

I respect Che Guevera despite the murders he committed later in his life, because he crossed the unconquerable threshold. I respect him for crossing over to the other side - for doing what he believed in, instead of contemplating or devising plans on alleviating human suffering and for being honest about his intentions. There is a line in the film where Ernesto wonders how the natives who practised skills like advanced urban planning, brain surgery and the like be conquered by Spaniards who were far less competent, he believes there is only one answer - the Spaniards had gunpowder. The very same idea forms the crux of Che's revolution, unlike Gandhi he believes that revolution or freedom of the downtrodden from the clutches of their powerful masters requires guns and ammo - there is no other way and he breaks free the conventional crutches of society to live his idea and principles.

The film charters the subtle transformation of a sheltered affluent college kid in to the revolutionary we now know as Che(played by Gael Garcia Bernal).Gael Garcia does a real good job(tries hard to shed the lover boy image I am accustomed to in his earlier films) so does Rodrigo de la Serna who plays Granado. I exhort you to take the journey thru' Andean chill, the barren Atacama and the jungles of Amazon with Ernesto Che Guevera and his jovial companion, Alberto Granado(it was an interview with Granado in NPR which led me to this movie, it was being shot at that time and yes Granado is still alive and well at 82). It is a journey of a boy becoming a man of the world accompanied by a beautiful sound track, the story of a life that made a real difference. Salut! dear Che!

Robot Stories

An sci-fi anthology film composed of 4 stories, winner of major awards and the setting is Japan - duh..where else, could it be?

The Front

A funny take by Woody Allen on how Hollywood coped with the blacklisting of the McCarthy Era. Allen plays an insurance salesman who poses as front to real screenwriters who are prohibited to work by Senator McCarthy.

BW in Color

This Best Foreign Language Oscar Winner of 1976 tells the story of a small mismatched troupe of French expatriates in French Equitorial Africa during WW1 trying to stage a battle with Germans in the same place, to support the war efforts of their country in the real war raging somewhere far off.

In a way it is a sarcastic portrayal of the colonizers(French in this case), how primitive they are beneath the flaky superiority they tout based on their skin color. The film presents a universal manipulative play that has taken place in many battles and wars since time immemorial - the real war is fought by the people who are the least associated with the cause. Both the French and the Germans, the opposing sides in this movie has native Africans to fight for them, finally the British contingent which arrives bearing the news of the ending of the World War is led by an East Indian captain named Shashi Kapoor.

The film is a humorous take on what happens when a small group of expatriate Europeans overcome with national spirit tries to stage their own mini version of a World War in the heart of Africa. Their interactions with natives, the behavior of natives, the natives' interpretations about the white man and his culture are all subtly hilarious.

Hindi: Veer Zara

Melodrama and Shah Rukh Khan are twins separated at birth. A love story meant to bring together two divided peoples who are really one at heart - India and Pakistan, Veer Zara has some brilliant songs.

Frida

I saw Frida, a couple of weeks back in a torrent of films and forgot to write about it. Its a must watch if you like Salma Hayek (that means more than 80% of the guys out there), she looks beautiful as Frida and she has shown the nerve in this movie to go beyond the conventional western notions of beauty, like having a monobrow, as the real Ms.Kahlo had. Apart from that, it is a good movie, worth your two hours, traces the story of the life of Mexican painter/cult figure Frida Kahlo.

A tram accident at 15 leaves Frida bed ridden and opt for a career in painting, which was her hobby till then, instead of pursuing medicine, which she had wanted to do. Frida was a wild and independent spirit, who later married one of the noted painters of the time, Diego Rivera.

Every scene of the movie is like a painting and true to the Mexican theme, very colorful, trying to match the color scheme of Frida Kahlo's paintings. Her paintings were as colorful as the cheerful and active person she was and were mostly women oriented. The famed Russian philosopher-politician Leon Trotsky is seen being hidden in Frida's house, when he flees Russia to Mexico. According to history, Frida Kahlo was confined to wheelchair most of the time after the accident in her teens. Although in the movie, we see a lot of Frida, running around and being the center of attraction of Mexico's bohemian leftist parties etc. An honest opinion can only be made after I read the biography of Frida, which after the movie, has become real popular. Written by Margaret A. Lindauer, Devouring Frida : The Art History and Popular Celebrity of Frida Kahlo should be a good Frieda primer for those of you who want more of her.
in the pic above(The real Frida Kahlo)

Chocolate

Waste of a movie

Kinsey

You think you discovered sex? Wrong, the real sexual revolution happened at the time of your grandmother, thanks to some ground breaking research by Alfred Kinsey. The movie is an account of his life, work and times, where the title character is played by Liam Neeson.

AIFF 2005: Ellektra

A weird movie with a weirder set of character and their travails. The one thing that stood out though was the cinematography and the slick editing.

Score - 3.6/5

AIFF 2005: Mirage (Ilusija)

A beautiful, well narrated and well shot film by the young Macedonian director, Svetozar Ristovski. The protagonist of the film is a 10-11 year old young boy fighting his own way in to life in the newly liberated former Yugoslavian province of Macedonia.

Like the new country, struggling to find its place, with hopes of a better future maybe in a faroff time, Marko - his hopes, ambitions and tribulations is a representative of his people.Incredible performance by the young boy who played Marko aided by a superb script.

Score - 4.3/5

AIFF 2005: Araguaya

Araguaya - A Conspiracy of Silence, the Brazilian film directed by Ronaldo Duque tells the story of the leftist uprising in the late sixties and seventies in the poor impoverished villages of Amazon Delta from the perspective of a French priest. The rebels are young city bred intellectuals who take up guns and live amongst the villagers while planning an uprising against the ruling military junta at the time.

Score - 4.1/5

AIFF 2005: Trona

Another movie about a dude bored out of his life in present day USA, who finds himself in the middle of a desert one fine day. His interactions with the locals and the views he takes in form the background of the movie.

Score - 3.9/5

AIFF 2005: Eighteen

Pip is a teenager who leaves home after an accident(caused by inadvertently by his own father) causes the death of his gay brother. On his eighteenth birthday he gets an audio cassette from his now-deceased grandfather describing his WW2 memoirs, himself a teenager of eighteen at the time. It is like parallel stories in two different war zones - one is a world war that changed the course of the world and the life of his grandfather and the other is Pip's lone battle, his experiences as a street kid finding a way out in the urban jungle of contemporary life.

Score - 3.5/5

Station agent

An interesting indie from Thomas McCarthy. The protagonist in the movie is a dwarf, played by Peter Dinklage, who is a loner with a passion for trains. He moves to a train station in rural New Jersey left to him by his best friend when he dies.

Moving in, to the train station, some other people come in to his life, who are as lonely as he is, with their own personal troubles and losses. The dialog is natural, free flowing and unintentionally witty. The photography is unassuming, yet speaks stories through the shots and the three characters - that of Peter Dinklage, then the Cuban American hot dog vender, all lively and chatty played by Bobby Cannavale and the lonely divorcee played by Patricia Clarkson are perfect for their parts. Human and touching without being over the top sentimental - it is a movie about ordinary lives shot in ordinary light.

AIFF 2005: Bitter Dream(Iran)

Khab'e Talkh (Bitter Dream)is a contemporary Iranian film directed by Mohsen Amiryoosefi which deals with the black comedy of death through the final days of a grave keeper, Esfandiar, in the historic Iranian town of Sadeh. It's out of the box subject, where a keeper and preserver of the dead bodies become concerned about his own death in his final days is both comic and meaningful in a mortal sense. The film also provides a glimpse in to the Islamic traditions of death and burial in Iran and the social interactions in their society. Starting off like a documentary with a TV camera crew, the film unfolds in a slow but steady pace and is taut throughout.

Score - 4.2/5

Spike Lee's films are a breath fresh air - usually about 'brothers' with a capital B. An African American director turning his camera on his own community and culture is indeed refreshing in the same way Chris Eyre does through his films for Native Americans.

Most of the movie is shot inside the bus, but that does not restrict its scope - analyzing a wide range of issues confronted by the present day African American society, like gangs of SouthCentral LA, homosexuality, Republicans vs Democrats, crime and punishment, so on and so forth. It has a surefire script that can give valuble material for quotes and bumper stickers and some pretty good charecterization.

AIFF 2005: Far Side of the Moon

Far Side of the Moon is a film by the French-Canadian director Robert LePage about the influences on growing up in the age of the space-race, 1950,60s & early 70s and the relationship between two siblings, now in the forties. Their mother's death(obviously a suicide) is the incident that brings the two brothers in to a single frame. The film is peppered by small but observant nuances on ordinary life, like the comment about gays having it all, ("but like most gays I know he's carefree, rich and lucky")the scenes at the gym and the visual language used by the director is intriguing.

Score - 4.1/5

AIFF 2005: Dr.Ravi and Mr.Hyde

A comedy about an Indian(not as in Native American)physician with a good practice in Pittusburg, afflicted with a mid-life crisis which in his case manifests as a wild dream of making a movie. The film pretty much follows how the doctor tries to achieve his dream.

Score - 3.2/5

AIFF 2005: The Coat Room

About a guy bored out of his life who takes a up a job in the coatroom of Philadelphia Mueseum of Art, where his collegue, the daring Miss.Claire with her pluck and sarcascm breathes a new life in to our hero.

Score - 3.3/5

AIFF 2005: Erosion

An interesting movie from Ann Lu, where the protagonist engages in the risque experiments of living other people's lives as his realizes his own life as he knew it is slipping away from him. Erotic, intense and engrossing at the same time, the film is technically tight and has succeeded in bringing out memorable performances from its actors.

Score - 4.1/5

AIFF 2005: Flowers

From director Jeff Woods, a human essay on the great divide between the college dream and the reality after graduation. Jeremy is a recent law graduate who plans to start his own law firm sometime in the future, but for the time being he earns his bread working in a flower shop.

Score - 3.9/5

AIFF 2005: After Roberto

Visually compelling film set in the historic cities of Italy like Genoa, Pisa and Venice, especially when seen through an architect turned director's eye it is indeed a feast, especially when you are an architect yourself and the camera pans to the exact spots in the landscape you want to look. Louis Fusco, the director himself plays the part of the main character who is being pursued in a physical and metaphysical level.

Score - 3.9/5

AIFF 2005: Land of Milk & Honey

A bizarre comedy about mothers trying to murder their own kids after having genetically altered cow's milk. Under the guise of a darl comedy it also takes on contemporary relevant issues like genetic research, motherhood etc.

Score - 2.7/5

AIFF 2005: Lacklustre Syndrome

A lackluster movie.

Score - 2.2/5

AIFF 2005: When Do We Eat

A family reunion on a Jewish Passover which turns awry when the patriarch is slipped a dose of ecstacy by his young son. An interesting look at the dynamics of large families in a cliched setting of a family holiday.

Score - 3.3/5

AIFF 2005: In Memory of My Father

I started watching it thinking it was a documentary, realized it was not after the film ended. It definitely is very real to life with the its hand held camera, the story and the actors. But the film didn't sit well with me because of its I-Me-Myself perspective, my cultural alienation from the story made it harder for me to understand what it was all about - except an hour and a half of dramatic self indulgence.

Score - 2.8/5

AIFF 2005: Navarasa

Directed by acclaimed Indian cinematographer Santosh Sivan, Navarasa(or Nine Emotions) looks in to the back of beyond - to a third gender, not recognized by Indian society. I do not know whether we should call them transvestites in Western way, they themselves have christened themselves Aravanis taking cue from a story in the Hindu epic, the Mahabharata.

The movie is more of docudrama than a feature film, with a story woven to its edges maybe in an attempt to humanize it and make it more interesting.

Score - 3.8/5

AIFF 2005: Kaadhal(India)

The film opens with a Tamil folk song providing background to the moving images of everyday life in the South Indian temple city of Madurai.

The theme of the film has been the lifeline of Indian film makers since the dawn of the industry - love. The difference here is, the story is based on a true story and is shot in a true-to-life manner. The camera as well as the script(although if you are dependent on subtitles some of the essence of the script is lost.) is above par. I think the movie is a commercial release but the finesse of the film makes it a class apart.

Score - 4.3/5

True Crime

A film from Clint Eastwood, a Hollywood persona who I've no qualms about placing in my personal pantheon. An innocent on deathrow and an aging casanova news reporter is the only one who has some clues about his innocence. Will he be saved or won't he? It is a tight film, in usual Eastwood style and is guaranteed to keep you at the edge of your seats till the end. Good one.

Sideways

stromboli

Stromboli

Ingrid Bergman is one of my favorite actresses from the yesteryear. Directed by Roberto Rossellini, a great director of neorealist cinema, the then-paramour of Bergman and the father of her illegitimate child(later he married her), this film was overlooked and thrashed by the critics not for its lack of quality but because of the illicit affair between the director and the lead actress. The affair almost ended Bergman's career in Hollywood, before she resurfaced six years later with a major hit.

Back to Stromboli, the title is the name of one of the most active volcanoes on earth, situated on one of the Aeolian Islands of Italy. I think the film was made there as well. It is the story of a young woman(played by Bergman), a foreigner and a war refugee who gets married to an Italian man and sets up home at his village in Stromboli.The clash of cultures is apparent from the start, the villagers don't like the new bride and she, in turn despises the claustrophobic nature of the island community.

A natural film, probably because it was originally made in italian and not exactly tailormade for Hollywood, Stromboli is a cultural and cinematic education for the viewer.

shattered glass

Shattered Glass

Another brilliant underrated film. Directed by Billy Ray, Shattered Glass is the real life story of a reporter, Stephen Glass who worked for The New Republic Magazine in Washington DC in the late nineties. His fall from grace after being the whizkid of the newsteam has been perfectly reproduced in the movie. The script credits go to the director, Billy Ray himself. Together with some classy performances by Hayden Christensen(as Glass) and Peter Sarsgaard as editor Chuck Lane, Shattered Glass is worth a watch for people who like serious cinema.

Mumbai Express

One thing you have to give to Kamal Hassan as a writer-producer is, he chooses novel themes for his movies, right from Apoorva Sahodarngal, Kuruthi Punal, Nala Damayanti to this most recent - Mumbai Express.

Mumbai Express is the story of a guy who rides motorbike in the 'Well of Death', (you know the circus act where a person rides a motorbike along the walls of a deep well like construction)and his nickname in the profession is Mumbai Express and this character is played by who else but Kamal Hassan in the movie, afterall he is the producer.

It is a comedy caper about a heist planned by three guys and one of them is hospitalized a day prior to heist Mumbai Express is called in to take his place. The story goes from there. Vijay Raaz(he is such a natural actor), Om Puri, Manisha Koirala (btw I forgot to say, I saw the Hindi version, Tamil version has different actors.) and other actors in their supporting roles are at their comic best, all credits to Kamal Hassan's story and script, although Saurabh Shukla did the Hindi dialogs the gist of the script came from Kamal, I think.

The only problem (found in all Kamal Hassan movies) is Kamal tries to become the good samaritan and the invincible hero in all his movies, but then when doles our the dough it'll be that way, right. Come to think of it, that's what superstars in commercial Indian movie industry are supposed to do, that's what the junta wants to see.

Imaginary Heroes

Still waters run deep - so does serious cinema, Imaginary Heroes is one such film. The suicide of the star swimmer, the much adored elder son sends a suburban American family crumbling, there are unspoked secrets waiting to burst out and loyalties are under scrutiny.

Directed by Dan Harris, Imaginary Heroes is about ordinary people, the Travis family, in the wake of a tragedy. But I'd say the movie belongs to Emile Hirsch, who plays the younger son of the Travis family, the about-to-graduate-from-high school, Tim Travis. Hirsch lives and breathes as Tim throughout the film, a commendable performance. As disenchanted parents, Sigourney Weaver and Jeff Daniels are good in their roles too. A dark film about the darker shades of family.

Employee of the Month

An unexpected surprise, a twist to the tale which came out from the blue. It is the movie in which the story shows us only what we should see and hides other important bits of information till the end to facilitate a ninety degree turn in the plot.

Matt Dillon plays a bank employee who gets fired from his job and on the same day his fiance, played by Christina Applegate breaks off their engagement. Thats all I am going to tell about the story and the story hasn't even started here! Steve Zahn has the role of Dillon's longtime buddy, as the wacko, Jack who steal stuff from corpses. The movie has a dark sense of humor and is totally unpredictable. From director, Mitch Rouse, this is an underrated, overlooked, real cool flick which came out in 2004, but no one seemed to have noticed it.

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