Synecdoche, New York

Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman ) leads a "normal" life as play director. His painter wife, Adele (Catherine Keener) feels disconnected from him and his daughter thinks he is a little strange. Adele takes off to Berlin for a show with the daughter in tow to get some alone time. With his wife departure,  Caden is welcomed with a genius grant to make a production of a life time. He proceeds to convert a giant warehouse in to a miniature Manhattan. This is when Charlie Kaufman introduces his trademark mind bend and things go to pretentious shite. Or maybe I have just outgrown Kaufman...

Rating: *

After Life

A way station where the dead sift through their memories to choose an ever lasting one. The counselors who are dead themselves help in earnest. A film that will cause introspection but there is something missing in its execution that makes it a hard film to stash away in long term memory.

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: *

Khadak

A magic realism tale set in contemporary Mongolia has a young shepherd Bagi (Batzul Khayankhyarvaa) at its center. Supposed to posses powers bequeath to him by his ancestors, he finds them manifesting itself even stronger in the mining village his family is uprooted to from their rural yurt. A lot of this is thanks to a beautiful coal thief (Tsetsegee Byamba) whom he literally finds buried like a diamond in a coal heap. A mythical story that is so abstract that I found it hard to keep my mind from wandering.

Rating: * +

The Taste of Tea

The Katsuhito Ishii film captures the the Haruno family at a time where all its members are at the peak of their quirkiness. In fact calling them quirky is an understatement. Young Hajime (Takahiro Sato) is in grips of teenage love and angst. Adolescent Sachiko (Maya Banno) can't seem to get rid of her giant self that keeps watching over her. Mother Yoshiko (Satomi Tezuka) is trying to get her anime career back on track with help from crazy Grandpa (Tatsuya Gashuin) who is a master of strange poses. Uncle Tayano (Tadanobu Asano), a famous DJ and music mixer, wanders around lost in his own world. The slightly normal member seems to be the hypnotist father (Tomokazu Miura). A Japanese film which has a very Wes Anderson like feel to it.



Rating: * * * +

Inland Empire

Nikki Grace (Laura Dern), a married actress lands a plumb role in a mystery film which has a checkered history. She soon finds herself attracted to her co-star. Devon Berk (Justin Theroux), in spite of her dangerous husband. But it is unclear if the attraction is fact or fiction. As the movie proceeds, the lines between the actors and the film within they are acting in begin to blur. Jeremy Irons is the director of the mystery film and he too seems to be left in the dark. The real force behind both films is of course David Lynch who seems to have imbibed way too many exotic substances when writing and directing this mindless, convoluted and obtuse piece of krap.

Rating: *

Tropical Malady

A soldier falls in love with a country boy in this mystical folklorish film by experimental Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul. A shade too abstract for my taste.

Rating: *

Akira Kurosawa's Dreams

My grandmother used to tell me that if it rained when the sun was shining, a fox's wedding was happening somewhere. This is the first of Kurosawa's vignette of dreams. Martin Scorsese shows up in one as Vincent Van Gogh. Then there were angels, demons and slowly I too entered my dreamland.

Rating: *

Pan's Labyrinth

The film is set in Spain during the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. It shows you this world through the eyes of young girl who's day and night fluctuates between reality and fantasy. The girl played by Ivana Baqero is ethereal in this role. Infused with Guillermo Del Toro's trademark grittiness, darkness and violence; this fairy tale is not meant for children. I just wish there was more depth to the storyline or maybe more magic than realism.

Rating: * *

Last Life in the Universe

There are certain books out there that suck you in and you end up living its world for as long you are reading it. This movie did the same to me. You gently float along with the tale of Kenji, a quiet, sensitive and shy young Japanese man living in Bangkok. He wants to commit suicide though not for the usual reasons like heartbreak, despair and loneliness. There are hints of Wong Kar-Wai and Haruki Murakami and having Chris Doyle behind the lenses definitely helps.

I really don't want to say more about the film. The feeling that I have cannot be translated into words. But I would only recommend this to Wenerd and Aromal...

Rating: * * * *

Suzhou River

I have read many books that are written in the first person. But this is the first time I have seen a film that does the same. Suzhou River flows through Shanghai and its polluted hues forms the backdrop for this film. The story is told through some deft camera work and a narrator. The narrator tells us his story of love with an acting mermaid at a club while weaving through the cobwebs of his imagination. His imagination parallels the love in his life. A lovely phantasmagoria indeed...

Rating: * * +

Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda

Watching this movie is akin to reading a book of short stories. It centers around the tales narrated by Manek Babu played by Rajit Kapoor (remember Byomekesh Bakshi). His stories have some fine characters played by even finer actors. Amrish Puri is excellent as a womanising sleaze ball. Nina Gupta shines as feisty gypsy. Manek tells his stories in an inter weaving Rashomonish fashion and the flow of the stories through space and time is reigned in well by Shyam Benegal.

Rating: * * +

Travelers and Magicians

This is Bhutan's first film to make it into the international market. It shows a breathtaking peek into the Druk Yul, Land of the Thunder Dragon, which is how Bhutan is referred to by its natives. The movie juxtaposes the journey of a civil servant in "real" life and that of a young man in a fairy tale, both in search of a better tomorrow. The story is simple but yet profound in its impact and message.

Rating: * * *