Be Kind Rewind

Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover) runs a VHS video store in dilapidated street corner in Passaic, NJ which is in danger of being demolished. When he goes off on a trip, his trusted side kick, Mike (Mos Def) in charge. But disaster strikes when Mike's friend Jerry (Jack Black) shows up magnetized and ends up erasing all the tapes. In a desperate attempt to satisfy customers Mike and Jerry start to remake films in their own quirky and hilarious fashion.

The film is Michel Gondry's stab at the main stream film industry that is losing out on innovation and artistry to big budgets and technology. I prefer Joss Whedon's stab to this!

Rating: * +

Bab'Aziz

Bab'Aziz (Parviz Shahinkhou), a blind dervish, wanders across a desert in search of a mysterious gathering of dervishes. In tow he has his precocious granddaughter, Ishtar (Maryam Hamid), whom he regales with a tale of a prince who lost himself in his own reflection while contemplating his soul. On their journey they meet fellow seekers who partake with their tales too. The tales seem like parables from Sufi lore and I am sure there are hidden messages within them. While the film was visually stimulating, it did little else for me.

Rating: *

Transporter 2

Please place your brain in a petri dish before proceeding to watch this badly acted, scripted but enjoyable flick. Jason Statham reprises his role as the Transporter though this time around he is serenely chauffeuring a young boy back and forth from school. But then bad guys with needles and bio-weapons show up and the fun starts. Statham though might get sued by one Mr. Rajnikanth for copying some of his patented moves!

Rating: * +

Ashes of Time Redux

Wong Kar-wai's re-edit of his 1994 Chinese period drama centers around Ou-yang Feng (Leslie Cheung), who lives on the edge of a desert eking out a livelihood by acting as a middleman. He matches his clients with the right type of services, be it a bodyguard or assassin! A wide array of characters sift across his timescape each fleeting as the desert sand. They all seem to project a sense of loss causing them to seek the past and regret the future.  Kar-wai in his usual meandering style, tries to stich the disparate storylines together. It his failure to do so cleanly that makes the film endearing and magical.

Rating: * * +

City of Men

TV Series

Fernando Meirelles spun this Brazilian series from his deadly flick, City of God. The settings and characters are similar, juxtaposing the life in a favela against the backdrop of gangsters and poverty. The camera trails two gawky kids, Acerola (Douglas Silva) and Laranhinja (Darlan Cunha) and their coming of age in this harsh surroundings. I was strangely reminded of Malgudi Days when the boys end up in situation that kind of parallel those that Swamy found himself in. But then someone would casually walk by with a gun shoved into his trouser and the illusion would end there. In spite of that the series is light hearted and has a streak of humor running through.

Movie

The film takes off with Acerola and Laranhinja about to turn 18. But the unlike the series the mood here is more darker and the violence seen in City of God creeps into the characters and storyline as the young men find themselves helplessly being sucked into the vortex of a gang war.

Rating: * * *

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Billy a.k.a Dr. Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris), a up and coming super villain, lays out diabolic plots to get into the Evil League of Evil. But he is constantly thwarted by his nemesis, the self centered Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion). To make things worse, Hammer starts dating Penny (Felicia Day), the girl of Billy's dreams. That's when Dr. Horrible decides enough is enough and plots to kill two birds with one stone. The birds being winning over Penny and getting into the league...

The movie is a result of Joss Whedon and co's boredom during the writer's strike. An example of how you don't need tons of money to come out with something special.

Rating: * * +

Caramel

The movie wafts around a hair dressing salon in Beirut and the lives of the women associated with it. One is yearning for love in the wrong place, an other coming to grip with her identity and a few holding on to the past. Its narrative style is brilliant as it transforms the mundane lives of these women into something transcendental. Though it does show that the women in Lebanon have much in common with their species from around the world namely in their irrationality and lack of logic in places where it counts the most. But in spite of that, nothing should be taken away from Nadine Labaki who directs and stars in this feature. A quasi romantic flick that shows you a slice of Lebanese society that covertly continues to be progressive.

Rating: * * +

The Witnesses

It is the summer of 84 and Manu (Johan Libéreau), who is gay, makes his way down to Paris to live with his sister (Julie Depardieu). The sun and Parisian air sees Manu living his life up. He soon slips into the life of Adrien (Michel Blanc), an affluent doctor in the city. Adrien opens up his circle of friends to Manu and his social life starts to expand. But the joy of summer is short lived as the winter sees Paris hit by the AIDS virus, irrevocably changing and the lives of Manu and everybody that he touches. An unsentimental but startling look at the early days of the AIDS epidemic through the eyes of a group of friends with varying degrees of sexual leanings.

Rating: * * +

The Air I Breathe

A gentle stock broker (Forest Whitaker) bets more than he can afford on a horse. A underworld muscle-man (Brendan Fraser) who mysteriously foresee the future. A pop star (Sarah Michelle Gellar) at the mercy of mafia don (Andy Garcia). A doctor (Kevin Bacon) desperately trying to save the love of his life. These are the characters occupying the canvas of this film. The individual story lines each representing a feeling: happiness, pleasure, sorrow and love, and they intersect as the film proceeds in a very Crash-like fashion. Fraser and Gellar were impressive and stood out from this impressive cast. It is obvious that Fraser when given a challenging role like in The Quiet American and here, can deliver the goods. But other than for the acting there is very little to write home about. The film strains and heaves to be taken seriously as philosophical piece but the substance seems to be missing.

Rating: * *

The Woman on the Beach

Director Jung-rae (Seung-woo Kim) has run into the writers block, working on the script of his next film. To get over it he decides to head to a beach resort. He drags his friend, Chang-wook (Tae-woo Kim) along with him. Chang-wook's flame, Mun-suk (Hyun-jung Go) also tags along. Jung-rae like many of Sang-soo Hong's protagonists is a complete jerk which of course prompts Mun-suk to feel attracted to him. They jump into bed and the minute Mun-suk turns away, Jung-rae tries to repeat the encounter with another woman (Seon-mi Song). All the while he searches for that elusive script.

The film is well directed and filled with wry cynicism but there is nothing new forthcoming in this film when compared to Hong's prior films. He continues to harp on the fact that women have a tendency to fall for unmitigated assholes. Hong needs to get over that and move on.

Rating: * *