Forty Shades of Blue

The film serves a warning to all those women who are with a man twice their age. What do you do when his cute son closer to your age enters the picture? :) This is the scenario Laura (Dina Korzun) finds herself. A Russian immigrant dating an rich older musician starts questioning her priorities when his suave son comes to visit.

The acting is passé and the story nothing to write home about but the film for some unknown reason is imminently watchable.

Rating: * *

The Weeping Meadow

The film opens in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Odessa in 1919. A group of Greeks are forced to return to their homeland. Among the stragglers is an orphan Eleni (Alexandra Aidini) who is taken in by a family. Growing up with the family's son, love blossoms. This passion is culminated with the couple eloping under strained circumstances. Rest of the film centers around this relationship admist a changing political landscapes of the 1930 and 40's.

In spite of the good intentions of the director, the film is unfortunately long, discombobulated and very hard to sit through. The lead actors are wooden and unimaginative. Apparently it is part one of a trilogy. A trilogy that I want no part of. The only saving grace was the theme song. But I really shouldn't take anything away from the director who has done a good job. I think this is a case of western sparseness clashing with Eastern sensibilities.

Rating: *

Music from the Inside Out

I love the feeling of saying something that only I can say

Director Daniel Anker spent five years with Philadelphia Orchestra. The period culminated in this documentary where he tries to delves into the soul of music. Deftly weaving the personal stories of orchestra members into questions posed since time immemorial... What is good music? What makes a good musician? Questions to which answers cannot be found but like the corny saying goes... It is the journey that matters.

Rating: * *

Platform

The changing face of China is reflected in the rhythm of the music troupe that the movie revolves around. The band begins as a Cultural troupe singing songs in praise of Mao in a sleepy border town of north China. The economic upheaval in the 80s sees the band take on rock 'n' roll blending into techno pop.

A love story is sprinkled in between too, among the band members with Zhao Tao looking glowing as ever. The historical changes that happen are shown with subtlety. So subtle that I wished I had someone from China watching the film with me.

Rating: * *

Keane

William Keane (Damian Lewis) lost the plot after supposedly losing his daughter at the Port Authority bus terminal in NYC. He now wanders the streets looking for her in a alcohol and drug induced haze. After half hour of the film I too lost the plot and started looking for the non-existent erase button on my DVD player.

Rating: +

The Goebbels Experiment

Josef Goebbels was the Nazi party's chief of propaganda. The man behind Hitler kept an uninterrupted diary between 1924 and 1945. The diary is brought to life in this documentary by the voice of Kenneth Branagh. Exposing a man enamored by the Fuhrer and constantly scheming his way through the Nazi party.

The film though was disjoint and jerky. Maybe a reflection of the protagonist himself. Branagh's narration sounded contrived and unnatural. But like most Nazi films it makes you shudder and cringe when you think about the pureness of purpose the Nazi government went about its chilling business. A business commandeered by the voice just one man.

Rating: *

Intermission

Half way through the film I realized I had already seen it. Sure indication that I am seeing way too many movies :-)

John (Cillian Murphy) decides to break up with his girl, Dierdre (Kelly Macdonald, the school girl in Trainspotting). The breakup sends out ripples which have far reaching and hilarious side effects. Colm Meaney takes the cake in his role as a tough as nails detective who leaves you in splits.

I am glad I saw this film again.

Rating: * * +

The Island

Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Djimon Hounsou, Sean Bean and Steve Buscemi all have two things in common. They are all fine thespians but also made the mistake of signing up to feature in Michael Bay's futuristic pile of pure unadulterated shite.

Rating: *

The House of Sand

A pregnant Áurea (Fernanda Torres) with her mother (Fernanda Montenegro) follow her mad husband's dream of settling in the deserts of Maranhão, Brazil. Death and betrayal soon leave the two women stranded in this remote paradise. Áurea gives birth to Maria and the sands of time sift through their fingers...

The two Fernanda's seamless exchange roles across generation. Seu Jorge plays a stoic role far removed the one he played in The Life Aquatic. The cinematography is breathtaking and the landscape soon becomes the lead actress.

Rating: * * *

Zodiac

This film was highly touted by ex-reporter K Kuppuswamy a.k.a the Vietnamese pimp 'Nek' and it indeed was a deadly recommendation. Based on the best selling novel by Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), the film chronicles the pursuit of the elusive Zodiac killer who terrorized the SFO area in the 60s and 70s. Good acting from the ensemble cast but the two who caught my eye were Robert Downey Jr. and Chloë Sevigny. Tightly directed by David Fincher with nary a wasted moment.

Rating: * * * +

Kamikaze Girls

Momoko (Kyôko Fukada) likes frilly things and has fantasies about the Rococo period in 18th century France. Ichigo (Anna Tsuchiya) a biker chick comes crashing into Momoko's life on her pimped our scooter. What follows next is part comedy and part coming of age tale with some surrealism thrown in for good measure.

Rating: * +

Captivity

A good time to introduce everyone to a possibly a new contributor to this meaningless site - ex-political reporter K Kuppuswamy a.k.a the vietnamese pimp 'Nek'. It was his choice that cost us dear and I leave it to him to describe the disaster that was 'Captivity'. I agree with everything except that the 'Mission' being a flop - it just kind of reinforces the fact that Roland Joffe, in the little 20 minutes that we saw, is quite tight in his film-making.

K Kuppuswamy from here on:

Recent weather had suggested that fishing would not be a good idea, so Wenerd and I decided to take my girlie and his fiancee out to the movies. Problem was that there was nothing decent showing in the cinemas. In the end, on my prompting, we chose Captivity, which turned out to be a literally puke-worthy film. (The hint was director Roland Joffe, whom, I later found out, directed The Mission, a De Niro flop...)

Although the film looked well made - it was shot quite inventively, with lots of jarring close-ups and a play on mirrors and lenses - the content was something else. From what we could tell, the film centred on the torture of a beautiful woman and the raping of everyone's senses. This was sadomasochism of a kind which made Irreversible seem almost like a Disney cartoon. I would rather have watched an action movie starring Woody Allen.

The four of us, we left the theatre after 20 minutes, together with a German tourist who was blue in the face. As we stepped outside, the crusty old uncle who tears the tickets was roosting on his bench, and he said to us, "Wah so fast ah--Couldn't take it is it?" There was something ever-so-slightly mocking in his tone.

Rating: *

Flowers of Shanghai

The film opens at a dinner table with drunken men playing drinking games and waited upon by stunning women. There is a still impassive face in that crowd. A face that over powers every scene. Coming across a Hsiao-hsien Hou flick featuring Tony Leung, I was predictably drawn to it. The flowers in the movie are obviously not him but the courtesans who live in the expansive brothels of Shanghai in the 1880s. The women scheme to buy their freedom and love using "feelings" as a currency. A well shot period drama.

Rating: * *

Children of Men

It is the year 2027 and humanity is infertile. Mankind has forgotten the sound of a child crying. The playgrounds are silent. The only music around is despair. The movie is about what happens when there is a ray of hope in this bleak landscape.

The bleakness of the landscape is reflected in the eyes of Clive Owen who has outdone himself. The ray of hope is seen in the smile of Michael Caine.

Rating: * * +

Games of Love and Chance

The first 15 minutes of the film shows a pretty girl showing off her dress talking endlessly. Then she argues endlessly with another girl. I decided to read a book.

Rating: +

Requiem for a Dream

A chronicle of the slow spiraling descent into the dark well of addiction. The reasons to look into the well may differ but in its depth there is only ugliness. It is a wonder that the actors (Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly) walked away from the film in one piece. The atmosphere created by Kronos Quartet adds to this deadly, spin chilling and scary phantasmagoria.

Rating: * * *