Face

Could not take more than half hour of the movie...

Rating: +

Shooting Dogs

Its based on a true story - a heart wrenching one set at the time of the '90s genocide in Rwanda - as the UN forces hopelessly watched.

But, please avoid the movie. Thanks.

Rating: *

Brick

A school based detective murder movie. Scream type. But nicely made with cool shots, cool acting, cool language and cool chick.

Nice movie to watch, if your eyes are only half-open.

Rating: * *

Millions

Two brothers find a pile of money in Pounds a few days before the conversion to Euro is going to take place. One of the boys who sees and talks to saints, wants to give the money away to the poor. The other wants to spend it all. A really lighthearted and hilarious flick. The take on the "bread and fish" tale by St Peter talking to the boy is brilliant. Though I have to take a star away for the cheesy ending.

PS: One of the scenes that I liked a lot was of the family moving to their new home. The boys are rushing to see their new place. The dad pauses before closing the door of his old home. You hear the sounds of the time he and his family had in there. He then shuts the door and leaves.

Rating: * * +

Inside Man

Theres a good guy and a bad guy. But they are both good. And as always in such cases, theres a bad bitch in between. Hiding. One keeps hoping that the good good guy and the good bad guy doesnt cross paths more than necessary. While the bad bitch gets sorted out appropriately. And one keeps wondering till the end.

A Spike Lee joint.

and this Clive Owen fellow is quality.

Rating: * * *

Layer Cake

Man sells some white powder. Man makes money. Man pays supplier not a day late. Everybody is happy and man decides to retires. Then man decides to do a favor and the shit hits the fan. What a movie!!! Crisp, neat and a one of the best gangster flicks I have seen in a long time.

Rating: * * * +

The Hidden Blade

This film has resounding echoes of the Twilight Samurai. But yet it holds it own. The film likes its predecessor is set in Japan just before the Meiji Restoration with the role of the Samurai changing drastically in Japanese society. The film centers around Katagiri Munezo, a lowly Samurai of the Unasaka clan. Rather than concentrating on the "sword is the soul" side of the Samurai, the film focuses on his inner turmoil and contemplations. The movie again highlights that Yôji Yamada too, like some of his Asian contemporaries has mastered the use of stillness to convey emotions.

Rating: * * *

Lage Raho Munnabhai

It is when you see movies like these that you realize that even an actress like Vidya Balan also needs to make some money. I can think of no other explanation for her to act in such a film. But she can soon stop doing this in December when I will propose sweet matrimony to this lovely Mallu goddess. It also has a peculiar side effect of making you hate MK Gandhi.

Rating: +

The Fashion Double-header weekend: The Devil Wears Prada and Tony Takitani

It was all very unconscious - the whole weekend that is - the fashion bit I mean.

So at the beginning, I thought I would watch a regular movie. Which elicited a regular response: hmm, zzzzzzz, hahaha, zzzzzz, what happened, zzzzzz, hehe, zzzzzz, what, zzz, why,,, zzz, ok ok.

But I remember Meryl Streep.

Rating: * (zzzz)

Then came this:

Its very strange how I stumbled upon it. On Friday I had learnt that this was the movie, or the first that I was aware of that was adapted from an original Murakami short story.

So I figured this is certainly a movie that one had to watch out for. I asked for it at the neighbourhood DVD store on Saturday. The fucker laughed at me. "Is that the name of the movie or the actor?" Chuth.

This morning I opened the newspaper and behold, it was showing at the Picturehouse. Couldnt believe my eyes and the surrealism of it. I broke the little Sunday afternoon nap to get to this place.

Was very conscious that it was a Murakami blessed movie and of how it would turn out on the big screen. I wasnt worried about the story itself, and I would leave it to you to figure out that.

Well, it was a very pleasant movie and I was happy with the way it was made. With a lot of narration / sound over, which I expected. The scenes slipped across the screen, from one to the other. Lot of close range shots of apparently nothing. Nice wide screen shots of the colossus that is the city. Shots of green foillage thrown in once in a while. The jazz music in the background was inevitable and so was the sparseness in everyday life of Tony Takitani. And there is fashion (once again) and the sickness it can breed.

"A story of love lost and found .... and lost again"

And loneliness.

Rating: * * *

Dependencia Sexual

The film tries to highlight sexual issues like femininity, masculinity, rape and virginity through five loosely connected vignettes. The screen is split into two and each part usually shows the same scene from different camera angles. The view looked interesting for a while after which it got annoying. The movie makes a brave attempt at hitting hard on those issue but does not translate into anything coherent.

Rating: * +

Clean

Whats most noteworthy is the fact that the Director was the husband of Maggie Cheung when the movie began, and by the time the movie finished, he was ex-husband. It could be the plausible explanation for the fact that something appears to be missing in the movie. A story of a junkie coming clean and spread across Vancouver, Paris & London.

Rating: * +

The Other Side of the Street

I first saw Fernanda Montenegro in "Central Station". There she does some amazing acting as a school teacher who helps a young boy search for his father. Her role in this movie does not live up to that one. Here she plays a 60 year old lonely woman who moonlights as a police informant. One night she spies her neighbor killing his wife. The movie follows her investigation of her neighbor and the romance that unfolds. And by God I could not watch those scenes of the two of them making out :-)

Rating: * * +

PS: For some reason the phrase "The Other Side of my Life" is stuck in my head now. I wonder what if it means anything...

Chungking Express

Couldnt resist putting this one up. its got everything about the movie in it.

Courtesy: a certain Jung-Hoon Seo

Rating: * * * +

In Cold Blood

Watching this movie makes Capote look like a pointless piece of exercise: albeit the take being different and all. Spine chilling deal vs pussy cat shit.

Rating: * * *

Courtroom Trilogy: Anatomy of a Murder, 12 Angry Men and Find Me Guilty

I have had this fascination for courtroom dramas for a while now - and it doesnt seem to wane. All the compulsive watching prompts me to second guess every time I see a new one - which doesnt bother me.

The most recent one being 'Anatomy of a Murder', starring James Stewart. The movie is based on a very successful novel and is quite an elaborate court room trial. James Stewart, as ever, provides an ore the soulful performance. Tight and strangely enough, its quite witty in parts. Theres good bit of 'tooty frooty' jazz of Duke Ellington thrown into the film as well, with the man making a bit appearance as well. It marks the debut of one George Scott as Mr. Dancer (the cruel prosecutor) - impressive. This Scott fellow went on to perform in the TV series of '12 Angry Men' years later.

Rating: * * +

Which brings us to '12 Angry Men' - another classic. This movie begins with the jurors adjourning to come a decision - Henry Fonda as the rebel juror. But the truth is, I have come across various parts of the movie (evidence related stuff) in hoardes of hindi, malayalam and tamil movies. The whole movie was one Deja-vu trip, which did indicate that it is a bible of sorts when it comes to this genre.
Rating: * *

The '12 Angry Men' was directed by Sidney Lumet in 1957. And nearly 50 years later, Vin Diesel appeared in his latest venture, 'Find Me Guilty'. A true story apparently - but not that exciting or gripping. Was impressed by Vin Diesel though - a la Sly Stallone in 'Oscar' - muscle men who can make you laugh.

Rating: * *

Up and Down

Two men smuggle a group of Indians across the Czech border. One of the refugees accidentally leaves her baby behind in the truck. This sets off a chain of tragic comic events that takes us into two different strata of Czech society. At one end is the soccer hooligan who's wife is craving for a baby. At the other end is the professor who has been diagonised with a tumor and his dysfunctional family. Both the stories intersect in a very tangential but yet natural manner and then go their separate ways.

Even though the movie deals with serious issues like crime, immigration, racism and the growing divide between the rich and poor, the cunning screenplay uses dark humor to bring the point across to the viewer in the most hilarious manner.

Rating: * * * +

Chandini Bar (Hindi)

Tabu gives a very strong performance as young woman who is forced to become a bar dancer in Mumbai. You would think that this being a Hindi movie about bar dancers would have dance sequences every ten minutes. But NO. It portrays the dancers in a very deglamorised fashion.

I put this on my list of movies like "Akaasha Dooth", "Deshadanam" and "Million dollar baby". Movies that reflects life and reality a little too closely and drive you to despair.

Rating: * *

What Time Is It There?

A very introspective and beautiful film set across the cities of Taipei and Paris. A girl buys a watch from a street watch seller in Taipei and flies to Paris. He walks around Taipei resetting watches to Paris time. She floats all alone in the city of Paris. Weaved into this storyline is the watch seller's mother who is awaiting for the return of her dead husbands spirit. The common thread is each character's inarticulacy, loneliness and despair.

Rating: * * +

Midnight Cowboy

This ones figured in my list for a while - its been considered a cult movie of its times. A good watch indeed - panoramic insight into the NYC underbelly of 1969.

The movie apparently was and is the only the X rated flick ever to win an Oscar for best picture. Besides it being a story of a wannabe hussler who is confused over his sexual identity, its also another one of those guy bonding story - a theme often used in movies, before and after this one. Ironically, the movie that this one knocked off to win the Oscars was the other famous brudder movie - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

It starred couple of relative novices at that point - Jon Voight as the Midnight Cowboy and Dustin Hoffman as the crippled peddler of anything. Have never seen a performance of this sort from Dustin Hoffman - which I now realise set the pattern for his contemporaries for time to come. Which includes, Mr. Al Pacino. Watch the movie, and you'll know what I am talking about.

Rating: * * *

Noi Albinoi

Its not often that two different stories from two different men from two different parts of the world talk about the same thing. In their own unique way.

Whilst one of them wrote the following,

It's not a question of better or worse. The point is, not to resist the flow. You go up when you're supposed to go up and down when you're supposed to go down. When you're supposed to go up, find the highest tower and climb to the top. When you're supposed to go down, find the deepest well and go down to the bottom. When there's no flow, stay still. If you resist the flow, everything dries up. If everything dries up, the world is darkness.

the other made a very real story of a boy who is a loser, but yet not one.

Rating: * * *