Oscar Contenders for 2017 - A Personal Moviefest

I watched three very different movies in this last one month and surprisingly liked all three. The first one was in Marathi, the language spoken in the state of Maharashtra in Western India, the second one was a science fiction in English, and the third one was also in English, but the movie was set across two continents. Diverse and widespread the movie making world might be, yet how similar its goal, that of appealing to the human imagination, suspending any disbelief the audience may hold, and weaving a story so real that real lives are put on hold. 

"Family Katta" the Marathi movie I watched, was much talked about, and the movie lived up to that reputation. Based on a play, the entire movie plays out within a span of two days, each day providing a unique flavor of unrelenting drama. The movie explodes long held myths about Hindu family traditions especially with regard to aging parents and gender roles. The movie has several climactic moments that baffle you yet keep you glued to the screen. Marathi theater has always been held in high esteem in India and abroad with luminaries such as Vijay Tendulkar and Vijaya Mehta to boast of, but after watching Family Katta, and Patekar's "Nattsamrat" in the past couple of months, I think Marathi cinema is fast becoming a force to reckon with as the movie "Family Katta" illustrates. Undoubtedly, a must see film, even if it's with close captions.

Villenueve's science fiction film "Arrival" is another movie I watched. Primarily for two reasons: one I liked Villenueve's last directorial venture "Sicario" a lot, and I like actress Amy Adams. Though not much of a sci-fi film fan, I was captivated by recent sci-fi movies like "Gravity" and "The Martian", and "Arrival" definitely belongs in this category as well. "Arrival" threads a very personal human story within a sci-fi interplanetary mystery which adds a unique ethos to the story. As a language teacher, I particularly liked how communication and language become the pivot for averting an interstellar conflict in this movie. Amy Adams plays a linguist, who with Jeremy Redner, a mathematician in the story, is made responsible for handling alien landings in different parts of the world.  "Arrival" is a movie you mustn't miss!

"Lion" is the third movie I watched, and this one is also a 'must see'. Though quite different from the other two films, it is just as engrossing. It deals with issues of identity and spans across two countries, Australia and India. The first half of the movie dragged out a bit, for me, but that may be a matter of opinion because the rest of the audience loved every bit of 'Saroo''s' sad and seamy journey through and in a corrupt and crowded Kolkata and surrounding areas. Based on a true story, I guess the writer director had to stay true to what actually happened, and that may perhaps be the reason that the movie seems like a documentary at times. Nevertheless, it's ability to capture one's imagination stays put, and Dev Patel, of the Slumdog Millionaire fame, may be the reason for that.  He does a pretty good job of being that young man who is  tormented by a past he cannot put his hands on; at least not until he embarks on a strange journey, one without a prescribed destination. Though this may be a give away, but I have to say that Larry Page and Sergei Brin should consider subsidizing the costs entailed in the making of this movie since the movie is quite the advertisement for the Google Earth app! All in all, Lion" is definitely a movie you should watch.

Night Train to Lisbon - A Philosophical Movie.

Night Train to Lisbon is a movie I'd recommend for those who are in the fall of their lives. The movie is an introspective yet random journey undertaken by  Raimund Gregorius, a close-to-retirement Swiss Classics Professor who has immersed himself, totally, in a world of philosophy and books. He is divorced, childless, and friendless, perhaps for a reason. It is a reason not known to him, but he is told by his ex wife, that it is because he is very boring, and students taking his class often corroborate that description of him. Professor Gregorius is undoubtedly lonely as the ongoing game of chess on his dining table suggests, where  Gregorius plays on both sides of the board into the wee hours of the night.

One day, fate turns a kindly eye on the Professor when a chance encounter with a woman on a bridge takes Gregorius on a journey of a lifetime. The woman he accidentally saves, was about to end her life by jumping off a bridge, but the Professor manages to stop her in the nick of time.  However, this woman is rather quiet and does not divulge much about herself even though she accompanies the Professor to his class after the incident. However, she does not stay there too long, and within a matter of minutes, rushes out leaving her jacket behind.  The Professor goes after her to return her jacket, but fails to find her. During this time he discovers a book in the pocket of her jacket and begins to read it. This random and clearly insignificant action of his turns Gregorius' life upside down as he then embarks on an intrepid venture to Lisbon hoping to find out what happened to Amadeu de Prado, the author of the book, who was a practicing doctor in Lisbon during António de Oliveira Salazar's dictatorial rule.

The movie is slow paced with a lot of narrative and very little action.  The little action that there is, comes in flashbacks, narrated by several different characters who Gregorius meets up with in Lisbon because they knew Amadeu. The camera does very little to compliment the beautiful setting, Lisbon. The actors do their part, but nothing very remarkable which would stand out. Then what is so special about this movie that made me want to write about it? Basically, what sold the movie to me was perhaps a personal connect I made with Gregorius' journey; a journey that happened from his out-of-character decision after a commonplace event which ultimately led to some dramatic changes in his life.  How many of us, those in the fall of our lives, get a chance to take on such journeys, like Gregorius'?  Those of us who do get that chance, pass it by, or procrastinate over it and then live in regret forever. There was a message in the movie for so many in the audience- to take chances, to try out a different way, and to not wait for something cataclysmic to change your life.

Having liked the movie, now I feel compelled to read the book on which it is based,  The book "Nachtzug nach Lissabon" written by Swiss philosopher writer Peter Bieri (pseudonym Pascal Mercier), was originally published in German and then translated into English and published in 2008. The book intrigues me in that I want to know how much, if at all,  the movie deviates from the original text.  Will Gregorius' journey in the book be like Marlow's in "The Heart of Darkness"? Was Bieri inspired by Conrad perhaps? Most importantly, will I find more poetically profound and soul searching dialogue to ponder over such as the ones in  the movie?

Amadeu: "Given that we live only a small part of what there is in us - what happens with the rest?"

Amadeu: "In truth, the dramatic moments of a life determining experience are often unbelievable, low key."

Amadeu: "But by travelling to ourselves we must confront our own loneliness."

Amadeu: "What could... what should be done, with all the time that lies ahead of us? Open and unshaped, feather-light in its freedom and lead-heavy in its uncertainty?"

I enjoyed the movie! Also, it is available on Netflix, so go for it!  Take a chance : )

Hugh Grant's "The Rewrite" - A Witty and Intelligent Comedy!

As winter storm "Octavia" blasted all across the North East and covered us in a blanket of snow and sleet, I couldn't think of a better thing to do than watch a Hugh Grant movie. I was pleasantly surprised to find a movie of his I hadn't seen! Given that I have watched all Hugh Grant movie numerous times over, finding a movie of his that I had not seen was like finding a treasure.

Hugh Grant's movie, The Rewrite, directed by Marc Lawrence, their fourth one together, was a low key release, which, perhaps, is the reason I saw it on Pay per View TV and not in a theater. After watching the movie, it became obvious why the movie didn't get much publicity; there is not much of a plot to speak of, and were it not for the brilliant acting of the two lead actors, the movie would have been hard to sit through. Hugh Grant, in his signature style, captivates the viewer with his charming indolence, and his accented wit. His impeccably timed dialogues are a delight as are his deliberate body movements that speak volumes to the audience. Hugh Grant plays Keith Michaels, a one-time-wonder of Hollywood, a screenwriter who is unable to make ends meet anymore, and is left with no other option but to teach creative writing in a remote Binghamton college, a far cry from the happening Hollywood that Michael's had been a prt of for the last several years. What transpires after Keith Michaels takes up a teaching position at Binghamton is what constitutes the plot of The Rewrite, which is not saying much. However, Hugh Grant's underplayed portrayal of Keith Michaels the teacher,  and his innumerable gaffes in a new and nerdy academic setting make The Rewrite a hilarious movie to watch. The erudite exchange between Keith Michaels and the English Faculty at the college is sheer wit, and with Hugh Grant's perfect timing, it becomes simply brilliant!  Marisa Tomei as the female lead with Hugh Grant does an equally remarkable job as the effervescent single mother and part time student in Grant's Creative Writing class who is ever optimistic about life's vagaries. Both, Grant and Tomei have literally carried this movie with the brilliance of their acting!

There is very little else to say about The Rewrite except that you should go see it if you wish to see an intelligent comedy. I enjoyed the movie very much, and during that time I even forgot the vicious Octavia that was battering us mercilessly.

Philomena Presents a Perfect Judy Dench in a Real Life Adoption Nightmare

A feel good movie that makes me want to forgive all the petty grudges I hold against people in my everyday life. Philomena, a movie based on a true story captured by Martin Sixsmith’s novel, The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, brings together two outstanding actors Judy Dench and SteveCoogan.  It is definitely their acting which raises the stature of the movie to something beyond a diatribe against an insensitive Catholic Church and a sexually myopic America. I thoroughly enjoyed the easy banter between Philomena and her journalist friend Martin as they ventured on an improbable journey from Oxbridge to a suburb of Washington DC to find Philomena’s son who she ‘gave up’ when he was a toddler, and she but a teenager!

 

The movie presents a situation that would be any mother's nightmare, but with Judy Dench as Philomena, the nightmare worked itself out toward a redemption. Having watched and enjoyed the movie, I now have a strong urge to read Sixsmith’s novel.  I’m also intrigued by the recently publicized reaction of the “order of nuns, the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in County Tipperary, who claim they were made to look like ‘villains’. Sister Julie Rose, the order’s assistant congregational leader, said the film ‘does not tell the whole truth, and in many ways is very misleading’.” Without a doubt, the nuns and the Catholic nunnery are the bad guys in this mellow yet heartwarming tale. Strangely, however their victim Philomena does not hold a grudge against them. A devout Catholic herself, Philomena believes the separation was part of the penitence she needed to do for having enjoyed premarital sex. The all forgiving Philomena is also very appreciative of the American family that adopted her son; she feels it gave him opportunities far better than she could ever have done, and for that she is grateful.  However, the audience is not as forgiving.  We cannot condone what the Sisters at the Nunnery did to Philomena, and we are also suspect about just how well life turned out for the separated son of Philomena in the United States, especially in the light of the fact that he was gay, and he was a part of the Reagan administration.  

Philomena, the movie, is the story of a separation; yet, I came out  of the cinema hall with a warm and fuzzy feeling of having witnessed a reunion.  Intriguing as that thought is, I strongly recommend you watch this movie if you enjoy underplayed emotion, witty banter, and acting par excellence.

Alfonso Cuaron's "Gravity" Grounds the Audience! Can a Movie do More?

No surprise that Alfonso Cuaron’s movie “Gravity” has pulledin so much money within a few weeks of its release, and this even before it has reached cine goers in China and India! A captivating movie about two lonely astronauts adrift in outer-space surrounded by an uncaring cosmos.  I enjoyed the movie despite some spoilers on the plot and nitpicking on the veracity ofdetails associated with the science of outer space. Not only did the movie keep me at the edge, but it also raises some very philosophical questions about our existence on earth.

Watch the trailer here.
 

The visuals of the earth from outer space are an absolute delight! In the midst of the space disaster our blue orb of life, so lovingly held within the wooly white whirl of clouds, appeared a haven of comfort and joy.  I am sure that at various moments during the movie the audience felt immense pride for this planet we so often casually refer to as ‘mother earth’.  The deeper significance of the term is definitely better understood once you see this movie.

  I am told that several Hollywood actors were considered for the two lead roles in the movie, but Mr. Cuaron’s final choice was just perfect. Ms. Bullock as the cold but remarkable scientist is simply unparalleled. The investors must have had enormous faith in Ms. Bullock acting prowess and her ability to draw in the crowds since there is little else in the movie besides her, a couple of damaged space stations and a vast empty space.  To add to that, there isn’t much speaking either, and whatever little there is, is Ms. Bullock speaking to herself; yet, that does not take away from the rapture of the movie, if anything it enhances the thrill.  George Clooney as Ms. Bullock's co- star does his bit, but does not get a chance to show his caliber for reasons I can’t give away.

The movie highlights some very socially relevant issues that we seldom like to address.  For instance, the space debris build up that nobody talks about, but which may one day become as big of a problem as a polluted earth is today. Then, the movie also prods you to think of the existential question of what it means to be alive, and the responsibilities that come with it, and the next thing you know is the audience begins to introspects and ponders on its raison-d’etres. Now, can a movie do more?

Skyfall - What a fall it was...

....A post I forgot to publish!

James Bond movie ‘Skyfall’ was quite the disappointment. Not having watched a James Bond movie in the last so many years, I was looking forward to some classy entertainment. Sadly, it wasn’t.

The plot was tenuous with some glaring loopholes such as Bond carrying a detection device despite and after being patted down by the guards to the bad guy den of Javier Bardem. The characterization also has randomness about it. For instance, the seductive siren in the casino is totally expendable in terms of the overall plot. Even the antagonist is lacking the hard core evilness of a Bond villain. Javier Bardem as the bad guy battling an Oedipus complex with a Spanish accent evokes pity more than hatred. The action such as the explosions and the shootings seem contrived to the point of being senseless and the car chases in this movie are nowhere close to the signature ones in Bond movies.

Skyfall it was... of disappointment!
 

Anna Karenina - Stoppard and Wright's Adaptation of Tolstoy's Mega Classic Fails to Impress.

Much as I didn't want to watch another cinematic version of Leo Tolstoy's classic novel Anna Karenina, I did.  When the movie was released in 2012, I was intrigued by the fact that the vast landscape the novel rides through was to be captured in a theatre mould.  However, the movie did not make waves after its release, and I soon forgot about it until the Oscars this year where Anna Karenina won the 'Best Costume Design' award. Having seen it this week, my resolve not to see another adaptation of Tolstoy's classic Anna Karenina stands resolute, even strengthened.

I was impressed by the fusion of theater and cinema that Joe Wright brought about especially the scene where we along with Anna and the others watch a horse race on stage! However, this embellishment did little to redeem my interest in the movie which transformed Tolstoy's classic saga, his literary opus into a drama about a fobidden love that unfolds in glamorous Russia of the 1830s. Needless to say, Jude Law and Keira Knightly played out their parts well, but made no lasting impressions that would have raised the movie to the classic proportions of its literary counterpart.     

Ang Lee's Movie "Life of PI" Illustrates 'Life Will Defend Itsef, No Matter How Small It Is!'

The failings of the flesh are clearly more powerful than the refrain of religion, or so Ang Lee’s movie “The Life of Pi” appears to suggest.  A story within a story, the movie is definitely a must see, but I felt the movie, despite some brilliant acting by newbie Suraj Sharma playing the young Pi, did not hold up to Martel’s award winning novel, "The Life of Pi.". 

Ang Lee’s captures the drama on the high seas with the elan of a maestro. It’s almost as if the emotional and moral storm that rages within Pi, the protagonist, manifests itself in the angry waves that lash and virtually tear apart the boat that Pi is forced to share with a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded Zebra, and Richard Parker, the Bengal Tiger, in the aftermath of a shipwreck. 

This story within a story could pass off as a simplistic fable for children to watch on a 3D screen; however, it could as well embed itself permanently in the viewer’s mind as a story that defies closure. What did Pi do on that boat, and what was done to him will have to be decided by the viewer. Not a wonder then, Yann Martel, the 2001 Man Booker Prize winning author of the novel "Life of Pi" also leaves it to the readers to decide what they wanted to have happened to Pi on that boat and whether  "Richard Parker is more than just a tiger... Some people could say it’s Pi himself. Some people can, in a sense, say it’s like God -- we're afraid of God, but he brings comfort and he keeps us going, which is what the tiger Richard Parker did."

'Kahani' - Sujoy Ghosh's Classy Thriller

I have watched one too many Indian movies churned out of the Bollywood film factory where one size fits all, and one story reads all! 'Kahani' broke the status quo!  Indian cinema seems to be coming of age.  Sujoy Ghosh's two hour Indian movie, with English subtitles, had me glued to my seat enthralled.

The female lead, Ms. Balan has done a remarkable job! She is a very versatile actress and is to be commended for her outstanding performance as the overly pregnant Mrs. Bagchi from London looking for her missing husband, who came to Calcutta a month ago, at her insistence, on an assignment with the National Data Center.
A movie not to be missed!

"The Help" - Decries Yet Distances Racial Segregation

I like movies that transport me into a world distinctly different from mine, and Taylor Tate’s The Help, based on Kathryn Stockett’s novel, did.  It took me to Mississippi during the 1960s when the word ‘Negro’ was not a slur, and when all a black woman could hope to achieve was to be a maid in a rich white home. I also liked the movie because it presented white and black America of the time with equanimity that’s colored in candor, humor, and wit. The black and white characters both have their share of skeletons to hide, and Tate indulges these characters by letting them be exactly who they are: at times shallow, sometimes wicked, oftentimes insecure, even downright evil, but overall very real. There is Minny (Octavia Spenser) and then there’s  Skeeters (Emma Stone), two undaunted women, one black one white, both witty and winsome and who enchant the audience while making good of the worst of situations.  Viola Davis who plays the silent yet solid Aibileen, the black maid whose story is the first of many to go public in a NYC newspaper, whose stoicism is in sharp contrast to Minny’s effervescence; yet both so real. Not to be outdone, the ‘white’ characters are just as delectable; the overtly segregationist ‘Hilly’ and the socially ostracized bottle blond “Celia’ are a treat to watch, especially as they outdo each other in petty pursuits.

The movie, though set in the times of social segregation, deals with race relations in a lighter mode yet sends a clear message decrying racial discrimination of the 60s. The Help provides for two hours of witty and wholesome entertainment.

"Sita Sings the Blues" - A Storm (if even), in a Teacup?

"Horrible depiction of the most revered scripture of ancient India. Nina Paley has no rights to compare herself with Sita." (Reel 13)



Nina Paley's animation film "Sita Sings the Blues", released this month, was recommended by a friend who normally refrains from giving recommendations, and so I had to see this one.

As we all know by now, religion and the rendition of it in any artistic genre, comes under immediate and intense scrutiny. The Danish cartoons on Muhammad, M.F. Husein's paintings of Hindu gods, Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, or the most recent controversy about a "South Park" episode on Comedy Central, created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone; all of these have received unprecedented coverage in the press, worldwide. No surprise then that Ms. Paley has been receiving hate mail after 'Sita Sang Her Blues' in the voice of a 1920 jazz vocalist Annette Hanshaw. Moreover 'Sita', the much worshiped epitome of Indian womanhood, has a"Betty Boop Goes Hollywood' appearance in the film as she croons and swoons to the fickleness of love and lovers; a far cry from the sari clad traditional image of Sita in Hindu mythology.

Ms. Paley had several things going on simultaneously in the film besides the plot line of the Indian epic, The Ramayana. She inter-twined the story of Sita with the story of her own heart break in marriage, all within an 80 minute movie. Clearly, this was taking a monumental risk given our current day religiously sensitive audiences. Ms. Paley was obviously willing to take that risk and more because she introduced yet another controversial feature in this film; she had three commentators with pronounced Indian accents interpreting events in the Ramayana, and they did it with obvious uncertainty like that of second generation Indians living in the US. Those comments are made in a lighter tone like the one used among close friends, but to an avid Hindu they could easily sound blasphemous. Nothing the three say is really new or essential and yet Ms. Paley chose to have them in the film. The movie was certainly not ground breaking, in fact quite ordinary as far as the storyline was concerned; a lack-luster retelling of an ancient epic. Hanshaw's jazz vocals were perhaps the saving grace. Luckily for the movie maker, the Western audience, seeing an Indian Epic in animation mode, may perhaps be intrigued and then impressed by what Ms. Paley created because, “We see so many films, and when you come across one like this, you just feel like you’ve stumbled upon a gem.” (Alison Dickey, a film producer and one of the jurors at Spirit Awards).

I don't think I would recommend the movie though"Sita Sings the Blues" has definitely generated immense interest among staunch Hindus as also with Hindu bloggers who feel affronted by Ms. Paley's blasphemous presentation of 'their gods'. Consequently the movie will draw an audience, recover its making cost, and the artist Ms. Paley will not be faced with penury for having ventured into new grounds. No artist deserves that fate; certainly not Nina Paley, a respected comic strip writer.

" Entre Le Murs" or "The Class" - Different from Others In Its Genre

Thanks to berenice, one of my blogger friends, I rented Laurent Cantet's "The Class" a French film that had won the Cannes Film Festival in 2008. Frankly, I had very little expectations from this film; how different could be from a "Stand and Deliver", or a "To Sir with Love", and several others in that category. What could this French film maker tell the audience about inner city schools that hadn't already been said?

"The Class" apparently had nothing new to address ; Cantet "wanted it to be the story of 25 people - a teacher and his students - who didn't choose to be together, but are between four walls for an entire year." The movie is based on Francois Begaudeau's novel who "wasn't writing in order to get back at adolescents presented as savages or idiots" nor did he see his school "like a sanctuary, sheltered from the world, where children are taught wonderful things." His class comprises of unruly inner city kids that are mouthy, mean, belligerent, and stubborn. They "don't have simple lives. They're all different races, with different backgrounds." As a result there are no simple solutions to this failing inner school, and that is perhaps the message, if any, that one takes away from Cantet's docudrama. He exposes the exclusion that schools can create, and the school in the movie does just that in its portrayal of Suleyman or even an Esmeralda.

All the action in the movie is in the dialogue exchange between the students and the teacher. There is no one life changing event that takes place in the movie, neither is there a hero poised to win your hearts. It's the presentation of life as it unfolds each day in an inner city school in France where the socioeconomic realities and the ethnic tensions of a multi cultural society inhibit any kind of normalcy.

Despite the fact that the movie has no overt message to convey, it does leave the audience pondering over issues such as marginalization in society, education in a multicultural society, and immigration. For an educator or a student viewer, I would suggest you watch this movie at your own risk; it offers no answers, and this is not your usual feel-good-at-the-end-movie either; it is movie that slowly and steadily nudges you out of a comfort zone!

"The Hurt Locker" - Kathryn Bigelow's Dispassionate Lens Captures the Impact of War

Who's 'hurting', and why inside of a 'locker'? Ms. Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker" had a title that tantalized, and despite it being a 'war' movie I decided to rent it just so I could find an answer to the aforementioned question.

The movie is quite like a documentary on the US presence in Iraq during 2004 where the US soldiers were fighting a faceless enemy. There is no real story that Bigelow spins ; it is more a Cisneros style stringing together of vignettes that lay the blueprint for an analysis of what an endless war and senseless violence can do to soldiers fighting on foreign soils. The documentary features the Delta Company, a US Army unit stationed in Iraq that detects and defuses I.E.D.’s. It is made up of three very disparate individuals; Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty) an overtly sensitive and self deprecatory young man who is admittedly nervous and confused about being in this violence infested place. Then there is Sgt. J. T. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) who detests what he does, but is smart enough to keep himself alive so that he can get home. Staff Sgt. William James (Jeremy Renner), the most interesting of the three, joins Delta after its leader is killed, and is always suspect in the eyes of his other two comrades. The reason being James' recklessness and near enjoyment of the job he does; diffusing and sometimes detonating IEDs which have the capability to blow away lives and buildings in a matter of seconds. James is the one who, in close proximity to the IED, actually clips the wires that connect to the explosive. Yet, neither his body nor his face manifest any fear of or revulsion to what he does. In fact quite the contrary; there is exhilaration and complete absorption writ large on his face when he is at work, almost like that of an artist with his creation.

The movie presents multiple vignettes in which the trio handle missions involving bomb detection, leading to either disposal or diffusion of the bomb, and in some situations deciding on a detonation with casualties. Ms Bigelow presents war through her lens and follows the Delta squad around capturing each member's unique response to situations as they unfold. She also captures the way three interact when they are not on a mission and that is when the hurt shows; each of the three is 'hurting' as a result of the situation and it is this 'hurt' that appears to bind them. Of the three it is James who seems to realize that there is no 'out' of this situation; the 'hurting' will not go away, it is his for a lifetime, and he will not be able to share it with anyone other than with his comrades at war. They are basically confined to this 'locker' of 'hurt' for the rest of their lives because when they are not in it physically, then they carry it within their minds. They can never again lead normal lives as James has figured out, and that perhaps explains his complete immersion in and commitment to the morbid task he is assigned to.

Is Bigelow sending us a message as did many other movie makers who made movies about the US presence in Iraq and Afghanistan? There were numerous ones like Syriana that were made perhaps to bolster the morale of American soldiers fighting on foreign soils, but 'The Hurt Locker" is different as it has no hidden agenda except perhaps to capture in a matter of fact way the impact of war, both in terms of lives lost physically, and those lost mentally and permanently relegated to the confines of "The Hurt Locker".

James Cameron's "Avatar" - A Heavily Funded Docudrama From a Tech- Savy Film Maker?

"It’s an emotional story. It’s a love story. They’re not expecting that. The sci-fi/fantasy fans see the trailer and they think, Cool—battles, robots." James Cameron

I watched the much awaited "Avatar" last weekend. James Cameron's blockbuster apparently cost 230 million dollars to make and is Cameron's first film since "The Titanic". Not much of a fan of sci-fi movies or of animation flicks, my expectations from this movie were pretty low. However, the title, "Avatar", intrigued me as did the mammoth spending on the film. What would those many million dollars bring to the screen?

Well, the movie surprised me. It is a loosely spun docudrama that houses a chic lit romance that touts fable like messages. Cameron creates a world that is virgin, that is on the verge of a takeover by an alien species, the humans, who do not hold nature sacred and could exploit both the living and the inanimate to their selfish ends. They arrive on Pandora to mine and siphon out 'Unobtainium' that could fuel them on earth for generations. But, it would cost the Na'vi's, a native tribe on Pandora, their home, even their very existence. Cameron obviously had the Colonization of America and the tragic Native American saga on his mind when working on the script; the hostile takeover of a resource rich environment by a heartless people. So much for the documentary element in the movie, but that by itself could not have sustained the interest levels of the medley audience that the movie has attracted. The fairy tale romance between Jake in his 'avatar' and Neytiri, the Na'vi princess, made many hearts maudlin enough to suspend their disbelief for the entire stretch of the 2 hours 45 minute movie! Yet, there was still a part of the audience whose needs would not have been met if Cameron had not spent that 230 million and created the dream-scape that was Pandora; the 10 feet tall blue skinned avatars, the robots, the flying lizards, the barbie bodied Na'vi, the floating and luminescent flora fauna. The technical wizardry in the movie draws droves of youngsters daily to watch this film! Cameron with his 3D effects, the technical magic, and his masterful storytelling has all viewers glued to their seats; no questions asked!

As George Lucas did with his "Star Wars", Cameron too created a magical world of his own in "Avatar" and called it Pandora, amid which he spun a heart rending tale reminiscent of another from the annuls of human history. In the tale he housed an inter-species romance that tugs at your heartstrings while sending the searing message that we humans can and would destroy any planet, even our own!

I enjoyed the movie, and I would strongly recommend you see it because doubtless, Cameron would have made sure that "Avatar" has something in it for you!

"Three Idiots" - A Bollywood Block Buster that Baffles?

I watched this Bollywood movie 'Three Idiots' which apparently is currently as big of a block buster as is 'Avatar' in Hollywood.

These were some thoughts that crossed my mind while exiting the theater:

• Are Indian parents that heartless/naive to drive their children into depression?
• Do Indian youngsters never challenge their parents?
• Why is no action taken against students who cheat on exams or violate basic rules in India?
• Why was the Professor caricatured?
• Do Indians in India dislike Indians in the USA? Why is that?
• Are the Indians I see in the US a poor representation of India and Indian culture?
• Why does this movie that bashes Indian Americans so popular in the USA?
• How does a movie goer in India afford a ticket that on an average costs him Rs. 140/- (about $ 4), when the net hourly earning of an Indian is only Rs 60/- (about $ 1.5)?

I thought the male lead, Aamir Khan, is a really good actor, as were his two friends; the rest of the cast was a medley of caricatures who took away from the credibility of the story! The people around me appeared to be thoroughly entertained, in fact some of them had the songs and dialogues memorized! Apparently, the movie carries an important message to parents and teachers in India who stunt creativity and curiosity in young minds by forcing them to memorize instead of problem solving on their own. Whether this message finds it to the masses, past the slap stick humor in which it is so deeply embedded, is to be seen.

Your thoughts...

"Strangers" an IFC Movie Makes for a Strange Romance Against the Backdrop of a World Cup Soccer Final!

Having just watched the World Cup Qualifier soccer match between Mexico and US at Azteca, I couldn’t resist Erez Tadmor and Guy Nattiv’s “Strangers”, an IFC movie (watch trailer) that won the ‘Viewers Award” at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. It is a movie set against the backdrop of the World Cup Soccer Final in Berlin, but halfway through, the action moves to France, the home of Rana the illegal Palestinian immigrant, also the female lead in the movie. However, immigration is not the main focus of the film. The film is about a bond that develops between two unlikely lovers, who under normal circumstances would have had the Western Wall of Jerusalem dividing them. Eyal, the male protagonist, and Rana meet in Germany, where both have come to watch the Soccer World Cup final. A chance encounter in a foreign country, between two lonely soccer lovers develops into a passionate relationship which unfortunately gets cut-short when Rana has to rush back to Paris where she lives.

The movie is an easy watch with Lubna Azabal doing a remarkable job as the feisty liberal who lives out the belief that ‘we always have choices’. Leron Levo as Eyal, the Israeli tourist, has a lanky laid back charm that grows on Lubna as much as it does on the viewer as the movie progresses. Moreover, the camaraderie that the two share on screen is all pervasive and reinforces the underlying message of the movie, of love being all powerful. But that does not make the movie a preachy-mushy romance because every now and again we see reality intervene when Eyal and Rana watch harsh footage of the ongoing Palestinian Israeli conflict on TV, to which both react in their unique ways.

"Strangers", though no ground breaker in terms of its theme or its setting, is certainly worth watching for the simple reason that it captures both heart and imagination. If you are a soccer lover, you will enjoy the movie even more because “Strangers” also showcases the universality of soccer to bring together the most disparate and the most unlikely.

Pedro Almodovar's "Hable Con Ella" or "Talk to Her"

Communicating with another being alleviates loneliness; that is a well known fact, but if the other being happens to be comatose...what then? Pedro Almodovar's movie "Talk to Her" addresses this 'what then' situation in a plot that flits between the past and the present; yet, has the audience flowing along with the fluidity and ease of a participant.

Two men nursing two comatose women; both claim to love the woman they are nursing , but their ways of caring are vastly different. There is one who 'talks' to his beloved constantly and keeps her current on all that interests her in the outside world: the movies/ the musicals she loves and which he watches only to give her a feedback on them. He is a selfless caregiver who worships his lovers body by tending to it as a mother would. On the other hand we have the other man, a writer, caring for his bull fighter beloved with a distant and stoic silence that isolates him from the audience and perhaps also from his comatose beloved; something he has to be made aware of. Both men face the harsh reality that their beloved may never regain consciousness, and yet they continue to be there in the medical facility with their loved one every waking moment. The two men meet while at the facility and establish a unique bond that outlasts their roles as care givers.

The two comatose women are just as disparate as are their circumstances and basically serve to bring out some strong emotions from the men who love them. The women come across as predefined characters who are very physical and hardly develop during the course of the movie. It is the two men with their loyalty and passion that make for the pace of the movie. Almodovar in and through this movie seems to be seeking an answer to a primal question about whether love is really a need, and whether loyalty is in fact what is labeled as love. In finding his answers Almodovar creates a tragedy that has at its center a character who we can't sympathize with, yet, we come out of the movie hall with a complete understanding of why he did what he did. There is a repugnance for the act he commits, yet there is empathy for the rationale behind the act. A movie maker who can tear the soul of his audience so, has to be master artist, and Almodovar certainly is.

There are sexually explicit scenes in the movie that might shock and even drive away a conservative viewer. In this Spanish movie (has English subtitles), Almodovar explores the boundaries of physicality almost to the verge of near absurdity, but the scenes have an artistic ethos about them, as they raise philosophical questions such as whether love is but lust in genial disguise, and whether loyalty is neediness camouflaged. Admittedly, both my brain and my heart were on overdrive throughout the movie, and I'm still not certain I was entertained as much as I was challenged by Almodovar's creation.

"Hable Con Ella" is a movie that entertains as it intrigues, and it is not for an audience with predefined sensibilities.

Stephen Daldry's "The Reader" - Exploring the Ramifications of Illiteracy in Post War Germany?

The curse of illiteracy haunts Hanna, the female protagonist in the movie "The Reader", and it is a curse she is not ready to disclose to the world, not even to her 15 year old paramour Michael, with whom she establishes a relationship defying all social norms of the day. The fact that the movie depicts a post war Germany is important in so far as it gives a context to the heinous crime Hanna commits after she disappears from young Michael's life.

The relationship between Hanna, a forty year old illiterate bus conductor in Germany during the 1950s, and Michael, a 15 year old school boy, is driven by passion. However, the nature of their passion differs at both ends. For Michael, the teenager, it is about wanting to experience and explore his sexuality, and for Hanna, who is illiterate, it is about wanting to hear what is in those books and novels that she is incapable of reading. Both have different expectations from the relationship, and yet it flowers because of the intensity of their individual passions. I think Daldry, the director, deliberately introduced those torrid love making scenes between the two for the reader to sense how the passion burned within them. Since Daldry could not visually depict the cerebral passion that drove Hanna, he hoped the viewer would be able to gauge it by looking at what Hanna was prepared to do, to sexually gratify a 'kid', in order to live out her own passion for stories. Does that mean that Hanna was completely uninvolved with the 'kid' as she always refers to him? That's a question you'll have to figure out when you watch this movie based on Bernard Schlink's novel published in German in 1995.

The film maker and the writer have been accused of trying to assuage the guilt of Germans who lived during or immediately after the Holocaust. However, I am not so sure the Holocaust was the real focus of the film; it is illiteracy that seems to take center stage: its far reaching effects, and what it can do to a life. What ultimately happens to Hanna in the story is self explanatory; there is no condoning the Holocaust or Hanna's part in it, but there is an implicit pointer embedded in the film telling us that Hanna's role could have been different had she had the ability to make informed decisions. Alas, it was her shame and misfortune to be illiterate and thus uninformed, and that cost her not just her own life, but also the lives of 300 others!

All through the movie Hanna is consumed by her shame of being illiterate, something which Michael is able to transform into passion at two separate times in Hanna's life. The first time he does it inadvertently while satiating his own juvenile sexual fantasies, but the second time he does it with the awareness of a friend who knows how much stories, and reading them, mean to Hanna.

Clearly, the writer wants to send a message here that reading adds new dimension to human awareness and is therefore crucial to our decision making ability. It is particularly important to those of us who live alone, or who are private/reserved by nature and share little with the world, except vicariously through books and other multimedia productions. In some of our 'developed nations' we often take literacy for granted, and this movie, "The Reader", takes us back in time to show us a horrific impact of illiteracy in Hanna's world of post war Germany. Illiteracy is definitely the villain in the story since it holds potential to bring untold shame and horror to those who house it; like it did to Hanna and the other prison guards in "The Reader".

I may have looked too long and too deep into this movie so you may want to watch it simply because Kate Winslet gives an amazing performance in this movie as a reluctant seductress, a heartless guard, and a confused war criminal with an indescribable passion for books.

Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino" - Suggesting a Makeover?

Gran Torino is a Ford trademark car, and given that the Ford Motor Company may be on it's last leg while battling the current US economy crisis, the title of this movie may carry a deeper significance. "Gran Torino" the movie, reminded me of a bunch of movies that I have enjoyed in the recent past, and in all of them I find a thread that binds. Little Miss Sunshine, Babel, Slumdog Millionaire, Crash, and now "Gran Torino"; all carry the message of reaching out to fellow beings who are unlike you: be it a dysfunctional family member, a people belonging to a foreign culture in a foreign land, a third world underdog who inexplicably earns a stupendous amount of money, or strangers who come together due to a chance happening. Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino" features yet another reaching out by and to a very disgruntled war veteran living in the mid-west, who having recently lost his wife of some 40+ years finds himself on the verge of misanthropy. The two things that keep him sane are his dog Daisy and his vintage muscle car, a Gran Torino that he cherishes more than his life. However, even this sanity is forever threatening to snap. The slightest provocation can have Walt reach for his gun while mouthing the choicest of abuse. The young pastor of the local church who insists Walt go into confession, local gun toting black, Korean, and Latino gangs, and his immediate neighbors, an immigrant family from Laos are some of Walt's victims that draw contempt, ire, and gunfire from the "all American" Walt.

"Gran Torino" is a movie about what transpires when disparate ethnic groups live in close proximity amid a socioeconomic reality that is dysfunctional but all pervasive as it defines their very existence. "Gran Torino" does not articulate any profundities, and neither does it boast a complex storyline, yet it makes the audience revisit the basics of what it means to be human, and shows them how camaraderie can soften blows and minimize pain of our everyday life. As for the title and it's deeper significance, Clint Eastwood may be suggesting a makeover for this country, a chance to redeem itself, and to revisit the faith on which this country was built:
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free..."

"Gran Torino" is a heartfelt story simply told!

'Taken' ...for a Ride?

I was given to believe that "Taken" was a 'thriller with a difference'. I was told this movie would make for an 'on the edge of your seat' kind of an experience. I also read that it was a thriller that would 'touch your heart'. Admittedly, the last comment had me suspect, but unfortunately, I got cajoled into watching 'Taken' where Liam Neeson attempts to rescue his naive 19 year old, on a visit to Paris, from the clutches of a flesh trading, Arabic speaking, immigrant-Albanian mafia. It was an ordeal to watch an aged Neeson fight ten thugs at a time and come out unscathed! Furthermore, it is become so predictable nowadays to have the bad guys speak Arabic, just as it is for the evil king-pin to be a sheikh! I could have perhaps tolerated all this, if I could have at least 'felt' for the 19 year old who had fallen prey. Alas, those were not the emotions she evoked in me; she was the stereotypical rich, spoiled, immature American teenager who is oblivious to anything beyond the reaches of her nose, and is therefore begging to be 'taken', and it is no surprise she is.

You can spare yourself the torture of being "taken', even if it's only for a hundred minutes!