The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1

Katniss Everdeen makes her way back to screen after the disastrous end to the Quarter Quell. She finds herself deep beneath the ground in District 13th with the rebels. Advised by the rebel President Coin and cajoled by her friends and advisers, she reluctantly agrees to become the face of the revolution. Thanks to being a movie you are spared the whiny inner dialog of Ms. Everdeen. But the movie makes up for that with its boring pacing and uneventful screenplay. A book that easily could have fit in a single movie is dragged across two films with no real reason other than greed. The only saving grace is that you got to see Philip Seymour Hoffman one more time.

Rating:: * +

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A Most Wanted Man

Intricate, deliberate and a plot that takes its time - all the hallmarks of a Le Carre adapted film. Inevitably, Philip Seymour Hoffman takes centre stage. Everything about Gunther Bachmann - a heavyset, heavy drinking, heavy smoking, heavy betrayed German intelligence officer who runs an underground intelligence team in Hamburg - yearns for PSH.  The film, as it is with Le Carre's recent novels, is more about personalities than a scintilating plot. 'A most wanted man' finishes off with a scene that is eerily close to reality. Gunther parks the car, gets out, shuts the door, walks off the screen, we see cars driving by and as one expectingly waits, the credits roll.

Rating: * * +

Philip Seymour Hoffman

 

Much has already been written over the past few days about the actor that he was. I think I saw him first in '25th Hour' and thought here was a discovery. Some one, with the right role, who would be the finest. Then as I watched more of him I realised he was the finest already. 

It all got personal some time in 2012, as I contemplated the arrival of junior, that I came across an interview of him where he talks about his experience as a father, parenting - past and present. The relevant bits starts after the 5th minute I reckon.

And now he is gone. As a friend put it, he was getting prepared to bat out a day with some 80 bags of heroin, but then fell in the first over. Sad. I want to understand more about the man - the genius that he was as an actor and a person who eventually succumbed to all kinds of internal strife.

In order to commemorate the man, I have decided I am going to hunt down every movie of his.

Rating: * * * *

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A Late Quartet

The long partnership of the Fuge String quartet is coming to a close in their 25th anniversary with their cellist, Peter, being diagnosed with Parkinson's. Peter's imminent exit is almost like melting of the glue that held the group together. Old wounds resurface and egos over flow their cups. Through the unravelling you the viewer will be encaptured by this drama whether you like Western classical music or not. Such is the power of the screen play and acting of all the leads.

Rating : * * * +

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The Master

Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix), a World War II veteran, struggles with a post war world when he meets the enigmatic Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Dodd is the crack head leader of a new religion called "The Cause" and Quell falls under his thrall. Quell though sticks to his hard drinking and philandering ways and that forms the background of the film using it as a window in to the psyche of the cult. Brilliant performances all round that got all the main actors Oscar nominations. In spite of that and the well thought out script, the film fails to engage the way a film of this calibre is supposed to.

Rating: * * +

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: *

The Savages

Sometimes everything about life can seem overwhelmingly suffocating. Thats precisely what the brother and sister duo played by Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney find themselves in when they get a call saying that their father has started scribbling on the walls with his own shit. Dysfunctional personal lives slowly get dragged into a bigger, dysfunctional family situation. Funny in most parts, 'The Savages' is 2 hours well spent. Thanks certainly to the fantastic P S Hoffman and very capable Laura Linney (who usually grates with her acting - or is it just her consistent choice of roles?).

Rating: * * * +

Doubt

“Picket Fences”, from the early 90s, is easily one of the best TV series that I have come across. And its core strength was to repeatedly come up with 2 convincing sides to a controversial situation, leaving the viewer to make his own decision on which side he belongs. I think that's what the writer/director of ‘Doubt’ attempts to achieve – Is it true beyond reasonable doubt that Philip Seymour Hoffman’s character is guilty of the crime alleged by The Sisters? But the director/writer focuses solely on actor performances to convey the heavy guilt like feeling that Doubt creates – but failing in the overall objective as the plot lacks solidity. The performances were quite good overall – Hoffman was solid and reinforces his position amongst the best around.

Rating: * * +

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

Hank (Ethan Hawke) and Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman) think they have a safe and simple heist at hand . The plan is to rob their parent's jewellery store at a strip mall. But when it goes horribly wrong, the lives of the brothers start to unravel. Not that it was going well in the first place. Andy's wife Gina, played with aplomb by Marisa Tomei, is sleeping with Hank. That only adds to gut wrench that this film directed by Sidney Lumet induces. A very tight crime drama that completely hides the fact that Lumet was 82 when he directed it.

Rating: * * +

Charlie Wilson's War

A regular, insipid hollywood take on how the Afghanistan issue was first brought to the attention of Washington DC in the early 80s; the genesis of the Pakistan - mujahideen connection resulting in the defeat of the Russians. Tom Hanks plays the congressman Charlie Wilson - completely predictable and efficient - but a tad difficult to accept him playing a playboy, cocaine sniffing maverick wheeler dealer of a politician. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays his bit of a disgruntled CIA operative rather well. Good movie to watch on a flight.

Rating: * *