We Are What We Are

The film starts with a lady struggling in a torrential down pour. The dull weather sets the tone for this moody drama and its eeriness seeps off the screen. You are shown the lives of a strange family that seems to be harboring a secret in a small town in the US. The pace is slow as the director counts on the atmosphere to keep you hooked. It does, except Netflix gave away the plot in the description. I wonder if my rating would have been higher had I seen it without reading the badly written synopsis.

Rating: * *

Poster licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia.

Bangalore Days

The lives of three cousins in Bangalore is the focus of this film. Kuttan lives in the big city, but his heart is back in his Kerala village. Arjun is the black sheep of the family working as mechanic and bike racer. Then there is Divya, a happy go lucky soul, who is newly wed to a brooding workaholic. Their loves, trials and tribulations are chronicled in a well nuanced manner by director Anjali Menon. However trying to draw out the tale of three couples made the film longer than it should have been. A scope reduction with a less cliqued climax would have definitely made for better viewing.

Rating: * *

Poster licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia.

Import/Export

Two parallel lives are shown in this movie. Olga struggles to support herself and her baby working as a nurse in Ukraine. When internet pornography does not help with the bills she leaves for Austria to work as a maid. Pauli is a young security guard in Austria, who is in debt to everyone and has little going for him. A job installing video game machines finds him in Ukraine. The camera weaves back and forth between their lives in a sort of bored haze. There are some moments of promise, but they are quickly extinguished.

Rating: * +

Gone Girl

Its official. Ben Affleck is the Ravi Shastri of Hollywood - overachieving and overrated at the same time. Credit where its due and all, but who gives a fuck. David Fincher digs deep, as always, to tell us the best-selling, diabolical story of Nick & Amy in a super smooth and engaging manner.

Rating: * * +

Gangs of Wasseypur

 

Was reminded of this * * * * movie when I saw Nawazuddin Siddiqui in The LunchBox recently. Plucked seemingly out of nowhere, NS plays Faizal Khan to perfection - a shadowy, chillum-smoking character who reluctantly transforms to become the lynchpin of one of the gangs involved in a bloody multi-generational tussle. GoW, the finest hour of Anurag Khashyap's career thus far, in a way is also a study of the evolution of India from independence to "modern" day. Outstanding soundtrack. And a brilliant cast of nobodies.

Rating: * * * *

Haider

Vishal Bhardwaj has always delivered impressive films - Omkara and Maqbool being good examples. The unfortunate bit about Haider is the choice of Shahid Kapoor as the main lead. Schooled in the Shah Rukh Khan school of acting, the film eventually succumbs to junior SK's theatrics. Despite the odds, Tabu, Kay Kay Menon along with some spectacular Srinagar footage keep the interest going. 

Rating: * *

Lucy

Lucy is forced in to becoming a drug mule that sees her turning in to something way nastier. The drug pouch that is shoved in to her intestines leaks in to her blood stream and makes her neurons fire between pathways undiscovered in the human brain. In the background you have a professor lecturing about the untapped power of the human brain while Lucy starts to kick ass. Unfortunately, neither Mr. Freeman's voice or Ms. Johansson's pyrotechnics saves this film from the shit pile. 

Rating: * +

Poster licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia.

Ploy

A Thai-American couple, Dang and Wit, checks into a Bangkok hotel after a long flight from the US. A death brings the two back to their homeland after many years. Jetlag has captured Dang while Wit falls prey to restlessness.Wit's entry to the hotel coffee shop introduces us to the other characters in the movie. The movie languidly wanders over the state of the couple's marriage while cutting to some bizarre disconnected sex scenes. One of Mr. Ratanaruang's earlier films that shows his silent promise.

Rating: * *

Poster via Wikipedia.