"Leaves of Grass" (2010) - Movie Review

Odd needs a definition after seeing “Leaves of Grass”. A film that never comes under any convention and takes a ride that goes with total unpredictability at every step of its way and comes out with a mystique of its own. What did Edward Norton see when he read the script written by director Tim Blake Nelson? Is it the in depth philosophical references and the esoteric nature of Bill Kincaid or is it the simplicity in the pot headed Brady Kincaid who is as much as brilliant as his brother succumbing to the land he grew up? How could you approach a subject like this and produce a performance out of it? I believe that is where Edward Norton distinguishes himself in taking odd films in odd characters and rolls on with it. You might not possibly fall in love with it but you know you have never seen anything like this before.

Bill Kincaid and Brady Kincaid are identical twins living separate lives. Bill is a professor in philosophy and has a promising career awaiting in Harvard law school to frame his own course and content. What a pleasurable post it would be for a professor? Brady is living in Little Dixie, Oklahoma and has built the most sophisticated and pure form of modern agriculture through hydroponics for growing weed. He built up a hefty amount of debt from a drug lord (Richard Dreyfuss) in the process and he is given an option to either pay back or expand the business, neither of which he does not want to do. This brings to the turn of events to use his brother as a ridiculous alibi for his crazy plan.

There is a plot and there is no plot. There is significance and there is insignificance to its details. There is a poetry and garbage. There is confused mix of everything and you have no idea what you are getting into. The treatment of the material is organic. It has a simple set up and ordinary people behaving in their defined ordinary manner. Only here it is a pot headed grower is in his out of mind attempt to get out of this fix as he is expecting a baby. Seeing Billy and Brady you can say how each of them opted out to be who they wanted. Billy knew too much in the early high school years to get out of this place and be consumed by its eccentricity. Brady embraced it with full heart and is left with debt and troubles. Their mother (Susan Sarandon) brought them up influenced by the culture of 60s. Talk about dysfunctional family and you get a true to the bone enactment out here.

Billy is the sophisticated and feared professor. He is lured back to Oklahoma only to find out he is the coin in his brother’s plan. He meets a beautiful and smart woman Janet (Keri Russell) from his child hood and is charmed by her erudite in literature and philosophy. His life before this film would have been solid teaching with student crushing over his handsomeness and not able to afford any time for himself. Here he is forced to smoke pot and let loose to not dwell on those conventional drug trip but to let Janet to him. Despite the fear of his home town taking his life away, he is liberated and free in the tricky situation he was tricked in.

Brady is the other side of the coin and he is every bit of Billy in mind and soul but is completely messed up in making decisions. He loves his brother and his family. He takes life at its face value and takes it as it was given to him. His buddy Bolger (Tim Blake Nelson) is loyal and this duo work in a weird sense of rhythm and understanding. They are what they are and nothing else. They are regular humans and every one is in their sanity but the choices and decisions define the uniqueness of failure and success. You would know which part Brady is.

I have so many questions for Tim Blake Nelson on what made him to write and direct this film. Resembling much of Coen brothers storytelling it still goes way away from them. Coen brothers in their films have a distant agenda of something. Either the mood or the way of life or simply the characters dissection in a surgical manner becomes their backbone. In “Leaves of Grass” it wanders with no purpose and here and there it lays the seeds of thoughts and profound realizations. It talks religion, god, existentialism, narcism, greed, desperation, betrayal, violence, hatred, comedy, tragedy, romance and everything in between.

The experience of watching “Leaves of Grass” is nothing short of weird and unique. It invites the viewer in the assumption of simple plot of mix up and then becomes into this monster of a chaos. People begin to do things unexpectedly expected and violence erupts from unknown corner. Tragedy cruises through with ease and all of a sudden you have no idea what you are watching. It might either irritate and confuse its audience or beckon for another viewing like this reviewer. The undertone of this film is subtle in unexplainable ways and I cannot possibly explain what made me like this film and what will make you not like this film. I think that is the beauty of this picture that stands there as a philosophical statement leaving its readers in a little confused state. It might be a germination that grows up into an epiphany or simply rot in the ground. Regardless, you will be infected.

"Handsome Harry" (2009) - Movie Review

Before we go any further into the review of “Handsome Harry”, can I say how majestically handsome Jamey Sheridan is? No wonder they picked the man for the titular role of this smooth and classy film directed by Bette Gordon. It has a rare nature as the several scotches and wines the characters sip in the film. You know how it is going to taste but it is the joy of sipping it for real makes it something unique in this common occurrence.

Harry Sweeney is living in a small town and gets a call from an old navy buddy after thirty years he comfortably forgot. Tommy Kelly (Steve Buscemi) is dying and he needs to speak with Harry about the horrible night where the two along with their friends in the navy did to a guy named David Kagan. Harry begins his journey to meet his navy buddies who were there during that night nearly killing a man. This will be his search for forgiveness and you know where it all leads to. Nothing surprising out here yet there are actors and the mood Bette Gordon sets that goes like a smooth drink.

Harry played by Jamey Sheridan is unquestionably magnetic. Looking like a stallion he commands an upper hand even before he speaks but he is a regular man with regular moves and regular regrets. He begins meeting his friends and in that drunken night of hate and rage he questions who threw the armature on David’s arm and crush it. The night they want to forget gets a visitation for real and outside of their mind. This blast from the past is not a happy reunion.

Soon we learn the obvious nature of the act they bestowed upon the poor man. David made a pass on Harry and evil birthed upon him through this mob. I can still remember a dark incident from my past that involved similar situation and bunch of kids having no idea other than getting an opportunity to show their bravado beat a confused kid. I will be honest and say that I was disgusted about the kid to make a move on a guy but somewhere in that time I knew that the kid did not deserve that and now this film brings up those crazy past. Everyone has grown out of it and I cannot honestly say what they think about it but I can only be thankful that the kid did not get hurt as bad as David in the film. Rage and hate are such a violent thing that the damage of it can never be undone. Whatever the life everyone would lead that incident would be there and nothing can be done about it. Life still though goes on. Harry’s life and other’s did go on. Harry is a divorced man with a son he cannot talk openly to. Life does go on.

Harry visits Peter Rheems (John Savage) who instantly remembers Harry and is so excited and cannot wait to boast his success to him. He invites Harry to his new home with his wife Judy (Mariann Mayberry). There they share a drink and a memory. Peter tells the time they went to Acropolis and how several years back he went there again. He says how he began to think “Me now and Me then” and that part is one hell of a scene performed by John Savage with a nostalgia and decades of regret, pain and forgotten dreams in small sentences written by Nicholas T. Proferes.

Harry then visits William Porter (Aidan Quinn) a professor who has erased that past he served in the navy and denies any claims of that life he lived. Harry begs for twenty minutes and at the end of it William asks whether he wants to come for dinner and Harry replies that it appears twenty minutes is the life span of these reunions. He then sets off to meet Gebhardt (Titus Welliver) who is a born again Christian trying to forgive. He is too wise to know that the talk Harry is expecting and takes him to a golf course than a drink in his house. Their conversation reveals little bit more into the state of Harry. “Handsome Harry” has these one off sudden lines and mystic that brings past like a delicious rum. I keep referring this film to the sweet bitter taste of alcohol and you will understand once you see it.

Despite some wonderful acting, writing and the mood, the film does not go for the skyline. But this is the kind of film that would have been drowned into chaos with such an attempt and I can see the path Bette Gordon took. Seeing this I remember one of my favourite films “Broken Flowers” by Jim Jarmusch with Bill Murray trying to find the woman who mailed him a letter informing that he has a son and how his journey goes to the serious relationships he had in his womanizing life. There it was more about the enigmatic, funny and profound settings of the director and the end that made a strange emotion to its viewer. In “Handsome Harry” there is the open suspense of how Harry sees his life and the lies he decided to live upon. The end is polishing and suave. And I had nothing much more expected from this film yet there is a yearning. May be I was subconsciously expecting more from a film that knows its characters and the ambience. Either way check out the shining men reliving their dreaded past through handsome Harry.

"Easy A" (2010) - Movie Review

Seeing Emma Stone in “Superbad” for first time, all I could think of is how this is one another teenage actor that will be stereotyped in several upcoming films. She kicked off all those notions in “Zombieland” with a knack for working her beauty into timed comedy. Here in “Easy A” she takes the lead and goes through it like a veteran actor. A tale which would have been otherwise tamed into a teenage soap opera turns into a heartwarming comedy.

Emma Stone plays Olive (what an interesting name for a movie character) a high school girl looking for an identity. Despite her notable beauty she has somehow missed the train on popularity. Her best friend is Rhiannon (Alyson Michalka) and Rhiannon appears to with Olive predominantly to look shiny amongst unpolished shoes. The film begins in what is a webcast by Olive confessing to her side of the story. She begins how a simple lie in escaping a camp trip with Rhiannon brought to the place she is. In a faint attempt to continue her reason for not going to the camp, Olive lies saying she went out with a guy and had a one night stand. This of course happens within closed doors of women’s room but an open one for gossips. Enter Marianne (Amanda Bynes) overhearing this conversation. How can I say her type with political correctness? I cannot. She is a Jesus freak.

Within hours the rumour mill churns this and spits out to several mile radius around the campus. Olive despite the lie begins to like this new formed attention. People know her name and the idea of being watched and noticed is a drug like no other. Ask the reality show participants. But the reputation is not something to thrive for and the gang of Marianne gets in a tiff with Olive that gets her in detention. There she meets up with her closeted friend Brandon (Dan Byrd) and that leads to amplifying the reputation to next level. Before she knows the formed lies spread phenomenally while the unformed truth circulates amongst other students who wants to be associated with Olive’s reputation. She becomes a prostitute for fake reputations.

Through these serious steps of life director Will Gluck cruises through like Disneyland. Emma Stone is his girl who can bode those guilt and declining self esteem into lovely humour. Of course there are some snippets of astounding supporting roles from Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson as Olive’s liberal, free, hippie and yuppie parents and Thomas Haden Church as Olive’s favourite English teacher Mr. Griffith. Along with Lisa Kudrow spraying some of her talented charm of goofy wicked humour to provide the greatly needed cast for this film.

Olive parallels this course of events taking inspiration from her reading exercise “The Scarlet Letter” and do not worry as they give a crash course towards this fast paced impatient FB generation that includes me. She stitches “A” in her new scintillating edgy costumes to symbolize her pursuit of standing tall in a high school society of ostracizing and judging their fellow students. That adds a good touch and may be even make some of the people to reach out for the literary work.

“Easy A” has all the flavouring of a boring romantic comedy but takes inspiration from the classics of John Hughes 80s teen comedies. It refers to it and fantasizes on those romantic actions of the boys in it. What more than a classic romance than John Cusack holding the boom box? John Hughes indeed has set the standards very high for the teen boys and there are not many to follow those. There is one like that though in “Easy A” and he is Todd (Penn Badgley) who is a gentleman passionately dressing up as ridiculous school mascots and has nothing but non-judgmental crush on Olive. Even beyond my cynical brain he comes out well.

Emma Stone is now consecutively proving that she can take sensible scripts where she is not alone used for a stereotype but a brain and humour that comes along with it. She can be cute, attractively obnoxious, silly, sexy and a dork with no trouble. That is saying something for someone portraying teenage beauties in several films. Will Gluck provides a better film in romantic comedies with a cautionary tale as Tina Fey did in “Mean Girls” of course with a kick and fun to it.

"The Company Men" (2011) - Movie Review

The pragmatic thing about “The Company Men” is how they do not take a strong stands against anything because this is life and it has its uppity ups and bottomless downs. We breed and bring our little representations to the world for the matter of existence and evidence of ourselves. They grow up, study or do not study, participate or rebel, goto college or wander in the streets and continue their existence and leave evidences. Majority of them end up in a cubicle on what began as an industry built by hands now ended up in keystrokes into numbers. Security has been the cornerstone for success in anything and with that being disturbed tragically in the recent economy dump, “The Company Men” goes on multiple levels in the food chain and their reaction to this situation. This is a pulse on the health of the current system and it is going through some terrible times.

Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck) gets fired from a job that promised him his mentor’s position. His mentor is Gene McClary (Tommy Lee Jones) and he appears to be waken angel in the devil’s chambers. His best friend and boss Jim Salinger (Craig T. Nelson) has succumbed as the staple CEOs to the greediness of the market to make a merger successful. He hires the female version of George Clooney’s character from “Up in the Air” and she is ruthless as she has marketed herself to be. Sally Wilcox (Mario Bello) is the axe Jim uses and you can always find someone to do it as you do for any job. Another level above the ladder of Bobby is Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper). Old, rusty and afraid, Phil knows he will soon be next. This is the sample of several individuals who went through the tough times and some still are.

There are risks to be taken in life and life to be given to things and those things not necessarily will pay you back. Sons, daughters, brothers, sisters are all out there and shine out and rust down based on the times. Bobby is back home devastated and begins grilling. What do you do the day you get fired? I do not know. I am not sure how I would react either. The level of uncertainty that exists in my stay out here bothered for a while. Now I am just tired of being that way and have gone back to the old ways. Taking one day at a time. But I still have a job and income to continue this luxurious life. Bobby does not have that luxury anymore.

The simpleness of the “The Company Men” is its key to get in this mind of the country that appeared to have survived and is surviving on a false foundation. Bobby was earning six figure salary, been driving an expensive car, living in a house that can shelter dozens of people and last but not least support a family. His wife Maggie (Rosemarie DeWitt) understands what it means. She begins to cut corners and ask Bobby to be realistic on the situation they are in. Bobby has lived this life for a thorough number of years where not getting the right shots in the golf has been the only tough times. Here he is shoved with the real one. He struggles. There is Jack (Kevin Costner) brother of Maggie who is the good old American despising companies like Bobby’s and always has a knack to make a dinner table conversation into a political statement. He is though good at heart and helps his brother in law.

Then is Phil, looked as a dinosaur weighing the company and several others. While Bobby has an able support and sense from Maggie, Phil appears to not have those. He goes south and then further. He sees the world has moved on with the next generation and forgotten to acknowledge his slump. Even a desperate attempt from his buddy Gene cannot pull him out of this downward spiral. His outlook is another perspective some of the people took and I do not want to be in that zone. But what can a 60 year old executive who began his career from work shop do when the baby he helped built kicked him out of the door and left him there to starve? It is hard to pick oneself up when the age has slowed you down and comfort has pampered into the minds. He bites the floor pretty hard.

Gene built this company with this friend and colleague. Somewhere his friend got sucked and bought himself into the magic of leading king’s life as CEO while Gene went along for the ride but has residues of conscience left from the time they were simple men. He has an affair with Sally which is a side note than a side story. Still there is something that says about both of them. Gene has the guilt but not the ultimate push to do the right thing. He is too old and too tired and too rich to do something like that.

Written and directed by John Wells, “The Company Men” is a sad story said with a composed perspective. Stability is what we all want. Hell I go out of sorts when something outside of the routine begins to happen and these are people who have given their heart, soul and life to this organism. I am though in the generation wherein company is clearly a non-human entity and understood in that manner. Another wonderful strength of the film are the actors. Some of the best supporting casts do a subtle role with simplicity of a terrible situation. Nothing gets punctuated or overblown in the film thereby carrying a tone that provides a tragic lesson with soft gloves.

"The Conspirator" (2011) - Movie Review

Courtroom drama in films has certainly brought cynicism in this viewer. Especially on the new ventures of that genre in current films. I have not witnessed the thorough threatening entertainment Jack Nicholson provided in “A Few Good Men” in a long time. Nor have I witnessed a lawyer’s trouble with himself on the edge of justice as it did to Paul Newman’s character in the cinematic classic “The Verdict”. Robert Redford’s film though interesting and informative does not get its place on the shelves with the aforementioned favourites of mine.

Redford’s previous venture “Lions for Lambs” was critically panned but I admired it and mentioned it in my yearly reference to better films. His balance in the patriotism and the way of expressing it by different individuals intrigued me. In “The Conspirator” he asks us to look through the eyes of a confederate through the eyes of the union. Mary Surratt (Robin Wright) a Southerner and a confederate sympathizer is charged with conspiracy for killing President Abraham Lincoln. She had the members of the confederate staying at her boarding place. Her son John (Johnny Simmons) is nowhere to be found as he was the one bringing John Wilkes Booth (Toby Kebbell) the assassin of the President to her house. As the country sets upon its eyes of revenge towards the old woman there is Senator Reverdy Johnson to provide fair trial. He is played by Tom Wilkinson who invites respect by just being casted and he recruits a young man Fredrick Aiken (James McAvoy). Aiken served as a Captain in the civil war and gets to defend the woman the country hates.

The drill is the same. The defending man beckons to not believe in his client and as the movie progresses he slowly becomes drawn to the possible innocence of his client. Even Redford knows that the time is different but the plot is the same. The backdrop is the place where this film depends upon. Here we see the face of evil in the victorious union. They are angry and they need blood. To represent that side of darkness is Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton (Kevin Kline). As the opposite of diplomatic Senator Reverdy is warmongering Stanton or so it is put forth by Redford. We see Stanton’s justification on going to lengths to make sure Mary Surratt is punished. This is done with perfect execution in acting by Kevin Kline that pulls us to the pendulum of dilemma of where law resides when the country is in war but it is just too late.

“The Conspirator” is a good film but not a better film. It is a victim of its genre but I am not going to take it as an excuse either. The public awareness of this reviewer’s dislike towards horror films is known but there are good horror films which I like. Redford of course lines up the best cast as he did for “Lions for Lambs” and gets their best. James McAvoy especially does the role with a thorough understanding of his character. He is idealistic but knows the imperfection of the system and tries to work so hard on it to get his client some time in the biased court appointed to crucify, burn and bury Mary Surratt.

Robin Wright plays Mary Surratt and she gets the lethargic lines penned by James D. Solomon. I could almost predict her lines and mine gives an illusion of being better. There are re-enactments of the witnesses testifying which provides no purpose than to give a visual witness for the audience. It should have been left to picture it ourselves as it was for the court and crowd. It merely adds buffer time with no interest to the viewer.

You may think I am slamming “The Conspirator” more than it deserves. Believe me that it is a much better film than several other mediocre ones but when a film has the perfect cast, an able director and a room for exploring the nature of extreme differences resulting in deadly behaviour, it has set itself for a dramatic and impressive film. Robert Redford does not hold the command he held in “Lions for Lambs”.

Regardless of the mediocrity, the film portrays how easy it is for to be angry and blind. More frighteningly it portrays how wise and able men like Stanton can strongly justify their act of revenge with a righteous feeling within them. It also states how people having strong differences in the way things are run sympathized and expected the same right as the one fighting for it. The cliched adage of “History repeats itself” again becomes true in the scary way of how time, technology and treatment changes but the character of people remain the same in trying situations both good and bad.

"Win Win" (2011) - Movie Review

Charlie Sheen has completely ruined the meaning of winning but “Win Win” brings back the word to its rightful place and plants the feeling of winning in its audience. It has a thorough understand of it because its central character Mike Flaherty (Paul Giamatti) has not tasted it for a while now. He has a successful family but a failing law business and a more failing wrestling team he coaches in the local high school. Thomas McCarthy goes mainstream and though it appears indie. You should see his last two films and you would know what I mean. May be because this has more reason to be cheery than the previous two films which had a poetic aura of slight happiness in deep sadness.

Mike is the Joe somebody with a cute family. A loving wife Jackie (Amy Ryan) who always knows when her husband has something bothering him though do not nag him to death about it. The point in which Mike is shown in the first shot as he runs through the trail to be overtaken by two young guys. He stops and just sighs. He needs desperate win in his life. Now he is not going through something different from us and that is exactly the reason it makes it all the more involved.

He has a colleague Stephen Vigman (Jeffrey Tambor) who also is his assistant coach for his losing wrestling team. Then there is his childhood buddy a wealthy recently bitter divorced Terry (Bobby Cannavale). Terry is played by Cannavale providing another flavour of charm and cuteness he did with McCarthy’s debut film “The Station Agent”. In any other film he could have been the jock and antagonizing character but here he is a good souled man trying to deviate himself from his personal fiasco in marriage.

“Win Win” could have been the cliched sports inspiring film. It had its goals set when the kid Kyle (Alex Shaffer) enters the life of Mike. It would step up to end in that major game to resolve the emotional and superficial problems of the characters. Yet it does not. Kyle has bleached blonde hair, tattoos in his back and an eerie terse response that goes with all this. He fled away from his Mom in Ohio and comes to stay with his grandpa Leo (Burt Young) he never met. Leo is suffering from dementia. He is the client of Mike whom Mike conveniently played the system to be his guardian so that he can put the old man in a retirement home the state planned to put in anyway and get the commission for taking care of him.

Kyle is a teenager and a spooky one but we come to understand him and see him at his best in the sport. He becomes the encouraging factor for the life surrounding Mike. See it is not alone Mike who needed a win but the people associated with him. I have been recently participating in decently competitive sport for fitness and fun. Being in it made me remember how it was to win something. During my college years winning a music competition meant the world. Not to be known or popular but simply the feeling of being basked in the warmth of achieving gets you up, running and kick the hell out of anything. While I have immersed myself into several of those brainless sports film against my brother’s passionate hate towards that, “Win Win” is the film which truly shapes it up inside of you.

This is Thomas McCarthy’s third film and he goes for merrier ride than his previous two films which I think is an information than a statement or criticism. He has a knack for lonely souls and he knows the happy souls who can kindle the vacated happiness in those solitary people. Mike is a family man with simple life and making ends meet. To him as like others including me being ultimately control of something. In the living ritual of furthering social existence it appears that the feeling has long gone without even leaving residues of its existence from the school days.

Ultimately “Win Win” is a film that takes sports as a backdrop for its front story. Alex playing Kyle becomes the sudden hope for the whole team of Mike. He plays Kyle with an easy casualness. When he plays his first match, he asks Mike to slap him on his headgear which becomes a routine and there you would see that he has more control over what is going to happen than any of the others in the room yet he is unbelievably cool about it. He is a fascination for many who aspire to achieve the best of the things in their life and he makes it look so easy.

Finally there comes Kyle’s mom Cindy (Melanie Lynskey) out of rehab and has all the judgments in the world shed upon by Jackie. We are revealed sparse information of the scenario Cindy, Kyle and Leo are in. Leo was not a great father from what Cindy tells while she has not been a great mother for Kyle and in between them is this young kid. He becomes Mike’s family and in the end when Cindy accepts a deal with heavy heart we do not despise her but understand her with a judgment. That is the beauty of McCarthy’s films wherein there are not branded bad people but humans doing small and huge mistakes to regret, repent and redeem.

"Blood Simple" (1984) - Movie Classics

Oh what a deadly noir thriller is “Blood Simple”? A threatening style of visual extravaganza in every shot Coen brothers and a stellar cinematography by Barry Sonnenfeld leaves you breathless and in shock after the drop of water hits you in the forehead leaving the credits rolling. Made in 1984 the blood is still warm and it is weird I am saying this but the violence in “Blood Simple” has a sensible taste. It does not glorify it but the realism in it somehow sheepishly charming and brings a visceral sense to the term “chill the bones”.

Set in Texas with an affair, a sleazy dangerous husband and a sleazier deadly investigator to make this a style that blossomed into several films of these two directors. This reviewer has been quite vocal in how the works of Coen brothers despite its technical finesse is full of emotional void and I think I am beginning to understand their sensibility in that form of presentation. They treat human beings with a clinical approach wherein conscience and emotions are nothing but sanitized instruments to cut through the skin. Here in their earliest work it is evident and it took this film to teach this reviewer on their purity in the style.

Frances McDormand is Abby, wife of bar owner Julian Marty (Dan Hedaya) and lover of Marty’s worker Ray (John Getz). Marty knows this and hires Loren Visser (M. Emmet Walsh) to kill these two for a prize of ten thousand dollar. The set up to this place is calculatedly lethargic but looking back it carried the same pace as it did during the deadliest scenes of thrill, fear and scare in the film. The gravity in the scenes oscillate it to make it appear taking a slow route but the energy is equal. What immense care these two take in making a shot work. This is a work from two extremely picky and OCD creators making sure the objects in each scene is placed at a particular angle with a certain shade and camera to project it in a measured distance.

“Blood Simple” has four characters and they are all creatures in a jungle. Ray and Abby are supposed to the better of this beasts but in reality they are the root cause of this situation becoming something else. There are words seeded in minds that sprout but not blossom as obvious suspicion. It becomes a small nudge in a character acting or believing in the direction one would not expect.

Loren is the sleaziest of all and begins to play an ugly game. He crosses Marty and does it bastardy clever way. Ray assumes more than he should which leads to the first classical scene in this film. There are no dialogues for a solid fifteen minutes and the grave violence in those fifteen minutes does not involve chases or fights. It has such a heavy nature to the entirety and the cinematography draws a dark photograph in every step it takes along with the scene.

“Blood Simple” is pristine art and the creators of that art are crazily precise. Rarely there are films that immediately strike you that they have not wasted even a single shot in the film. Feelings like that come from multiple viewings of a beloved film. You will realize the miniscule things in each scene and you wonder that without this scene there is no film and that goes on for the entire movie. To get to the point takes patience, time and great appreciation for the work. This gets then and there right after the film ends.

It is a surprise to myself that I have come to absolutely adore this work of Coen brothers. There is beauty in the ugliest scenarios in this film and there is thrill around everywhere. Not the kind of thrill where a cheap trick of jumping in from out of the screen but a sincere and honest sense of thrill that pumps your heart without even feeling it.

I know that I have not explained not even a single bit about the characters or their conscience battle but that is the sole reason “Blood Simple” is terrific. It is a display of fear, betrayal, violence and miscommunication at its best. It has actors leaving everything to the director and the magic is real. I can go on and on about several landmark shots in the film but those will be spoilers for someone who have not enjoyed this feature and I would not want to steal away that from them. This is class film making and Coen brothers have finally won my heart with one of their very early films.

"Hanna" (2011) - Movie Review

It may be the zillionth time this character of bred assassin is filmed but to develop a hardcore soulless soldier will live through for next hundred years. Why does there always is a rogue agent or a director in CIA going for further clandestine questionable experiments and actions? “Hanna” though does not delve on the morality and other things that is picked up as a dragging human element in this inhuman state of merciless killing and execution. It concentrates on its stronghold. A very solid magical and surreal experience of a stronghold that lifts the film far and beyond through this ordinary tale of assassin chased around in that fated territories for the thriller director’s fetish through the European countries.

Something of similar visual tint was the under appreciated film “Push” which had a unique sense of clever screenplay with strange people in a stranger environment that got this reviewer interested. Director Joe Wright though perfected it in “Hanna”, a tale of a young girl brought up by her father in a forest living like a caveman. Eric Bana is Erik Heller and has been preparing Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) for a relentless running and endurance to last for three triathlons. She hunts, fights, swims, jumps and kills without an iota of hesitation. That makes her a potential target for Euro chasing Bourne kind of film. She is but it branches out of Matt Damon’s confused man and keeps it to the minimum. Add some complete rendition of The Chemical Brothers for the back ground score, you get one perfectly played aesthetic thriller.

The people in this film are soulless pseudo psychopaths. The kind these films rely on. They dispense human lives for their survival partly because their world has to have these damages. Hanna brought by an assassin spy agent provides that reasoning while Cate Blanchett’s Marisa is simply the “witch” Hanna has been trained to kill. Marisa outsources her work to Isaacs (Tom Hollander) and his strong sidekicks. Every one kills not with a passion but with a blank soul. If they are in the room alongside someone they will die either by them or someone who are about to kill them.

The best thing about the film is their knack for not going into explaining the character’s actions. They all act upon their survival instincts and everything else is a blur. Hanna of course becomes ready to face the world to kill her target Marisa. Erik leaves for their home while Hanna is captured as planned by the CIA. She kills the first person who calls herself as Marisa and escapes the highly secure CIA facility somewhere in Morocco. From there she goes through Spain and ends in Germany to participate in the final showdown. In between she meets a free souled family where she finds a solace in getting some taste of the real world and family.

“Hanna” is nothing but ambience. It has settings like “Alice in Wonderland” amongst the demons and angels. Her objective is defined from the birth and that is all she knows. She sees everything for the first time and experiences for first time. Her excitement and exuberance is mixed with fear and suspicion. She finds a friend in a teenage girl Sophie (Jessica Barden) and her family. Sophie’s mother (Olivia Williams) is still in the hangover of sixties going non-judging on a lonely white girl wandering in different countries while her husband (Jason Flemyng) has his doubts though does not want to be a part of it.

Saorise Ronan dedicates herself as Matt Damon did in the Bourne series with immense physical ordeal. She runs like a maniac and constantly wakes up to dangerous chases and bullets. Cate Blanchett develops an ordinary role into a complex battle of guilt, pain, angst and survival without speaking a single world. She goes to contact the past and each encounter puts a struggle into her heart on the personal opportunities she did not take and the mistakes she has to cover with blood. She is in every way the grown up Hanna and is fascinated by that.

I will not go into the mumbo jumbo of plot reasoning of why Hanna is stronger and without fear. All those are silly details that sets up this beautiful script for some excellent chases with thumping soulful sounds from The Chemical Brothers. I am not a great fan of electronica but as it does in Bourne series, it works the cardio rhythm with a synchronized love. The chase especially through the containers is something that sticks with you.

Stunt as choreography in musicals is an art. To set up those sequences in a format which promotes the energy and a mystical emotion of the characters is a task that gets overlooked in many films. Here there are several and promptly used. Take the combat sequence Erik does with the agents in the underground station where it appears to be a single shot with some high pumping killing. It keeps you gasping for breath and leaves you with a great experience.

“Hanna” begins with a slow note and ends on a ridiculously high note. Tom Hollander’s Isaacs with bleached blonde hair is creepy, scary and funny. While I mentioned the feeling of “Alice in Wonderland”, it is indeed a real world fairy tale homage to it with punches, bullets and blood. It brings out Hanna in the most honest fashion not to be funny but to be genuine. She is asked about her mother by Sophie’s dad and she says she passed away. For the question of how, she replies without any mockery or self aware as “three bullets”. Saoirse Ronan is thorough in her acting with a discipline and Joe Wright brings out a sort of ingenuity where these kind of films does not even fathom of presenting. “Hanna” is artistic, surrealistic, metaphorical and keeps your heart beating like a thorough workout.

"The Lincoln Lawyer" (2011) - Movie Review

“The Lincoln Lawyer” is so busy in setting up the intelligence of smart lawyer that it forgets the core part of a court room drama which is the swing of conscience and the emotional conflict with one’s belief system. The great films and the corny ones usually consist of an obligation in the personal war the key takers of this justice system they carry along. Either they are highly toned righteous fighters for the prosecutors or the brilliance in working in the system for the criminals, the trade off in this trade has been dealt in films with the eye for the right and the wrong regardless of the loop holes and whatnot in this system.

Matthew McConaughey’s Mickey Haller is swift, smooth and in a way sleazy. He is not charming rather a good looking dude who drives in an expensive ride dealing with the criminals in the way they have to be dealt with. He is a show off knowing that favours run through from top to bottom. While he can be cocky and mistake a court personnel’s name, he can come back and hit them with proper dealings to get his client’s bumped up in the proceedings. He can also work his magic with the public prosecutor to work along with him to post pone a case since his biker client can pay him for his work. He can mess you up if he wants to with linking the right people to do all the wrong things. He is that good.

He is divorced unsurprisingly from Marisa Tomei’s Maggie and has an amicable relationship with her that consists nothing but flirting and extracting information. “The Lincoln Lawyer” based on the novel by Michael Connelly has the perfect elements for a great court room drama but is vacant of any relatable experience of philosophical battle in its central character. Mickey is particularly requested by a young rich man Louis Roulet (Ryan Phillipe) for he is in a mix for what looks like a set up for extracting money of this man. A prostitute claims to have been attacked by Louis and now with criminal charges Louis wants Mickey outside of their company lawyers. Is it because Mickey is good at what he does in defending or is there a catch? Of course there is a catch.

What great supporting cast this film has? Marisa Tomei, Willam H. Macy as his trusted private investigator, his bondsman John Leguizamo, Josh Lucas as public prosector and all are spread across in a not so thankful roles. The battle between Haller and Lucas’ Ted Minton are laughable while there is nothing but sexual attraction that exists between Maggie and Haller. The only possible side we could have seen of Haller was through William H. Macy’s Frank Levin who gets whacked even before we get to know him.

The plot is clever on how Louis plays around with this boasting defense lawyer and plays him without any trouble. What is cleverer than that is how Haller comes back placing his coins on correct places. We almost see his tactics until it gets executed yet there is no smirk on our face on how this man pulled this off. McConaughey’s Haller needs more than disheveled hair, vodka and sweats to prove his stress level. Take my beloved film “Michael Clayton” wherein George Clooney’s titular character goes through the worst day of his life and yet he remains clean but makes us feel his internal pressure. His body language without any gimmicks resonates with pain, guilt and stress.

Seeing McConaughey’s faint attempt to bring some gravity to the seriousness of the situation in the film, I was reminded of this same actor playing something similar character of nature in “Thirteen Conversations about one thing” and how he worked the guilt and internal struggle with precision and dedication. He may not be the best actor in the business but he is capable of bringing out something like that and to see him sleep walk through Mickey Haller is little painful.

Regardless of the rants of this reviewer you will find “The Lincoln Lawyer” entertaining and has a brain. Director Brad Furman uses his main actor’s looks and talks to substantiate the presence of this person exist purely in the film. Working on the screenplay of John Romano it has the right ingredients to make a good Sunday not so brainless flick but lacks the great flavour these kind of films comes with.

"Blue Valentine" (2010) - Movie Review

“Blue Valentine” makes “Revolutionary Road” look like marriage made in heaven though there is a significant difference in the presentation. Sam Mendes film had a societal statement in the domestic disaster while Derek Cianfrance’s film just concentrates its entire energy on this domestic failure with surgical precision. For anyone planning to watch “Blue Valentine” I have to say that it is a sad sad film but I also have to say that you will be watching one of the best films of 2010.

Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams are Dean and Cindy. We meet at their day they begin to destroy this marriage to its brutal pieces with the ugliness it carries. We also reminisce their road to their wedding where Dean was a charming young man and Cindy a young woman enthralled by the presence of his charisma and being treated literally like a princess.

Derek Cianfrance approaches the film with what I would call as intimate presentation. Intimate not alone in their love and sex but in their disintegration of the union. I have not fallen in a wholesome love and I have not gone through a complete legitimate heartbreak but if I do then it will be the scathing sharp blade “Blue Valentine” takes and cuts up the pair. At the end of the film when I witnessed this disaster I cannot help but tell myself the pain on these couple but sometimes that is the best thing in this horrendous situation. The worst thing than this is when there is a kid involved unable to differentiate this as her perturbed innocence of unconditional love for both the parents still remains ready to be slaughtered. There is Frankie (Faith Wladyka) the adorable young daughter of Dean and Cindy.

Shot in the purist form of indie film format, it combines two mercurial performances of the year. Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams go deep into the shattered dreams and burned hopes. They act out the misery with the grotesque nature it would bring in a marriage falling apart with its ups and downs. The day begins with their dog missing and Cindy hurrying through the morning to her hospital while Dean plays around with Frankie nurturing his inner kid. He begins his morning with a beer and works for painting company. He is completely content with the life he has chosen. Cindy does not.

They have adult discussions but goes to the land where each of the party makes sense in their own perspective. And then we see their high points in the past. Dean is the rugged young man coming to Brooklyn looking for work and landing up as hard working labour for a moving company. He is sweet, nice and utterly romantic as though every nook and corner there is a lovely lady waiting to see his act. It is not put up but it is too good to be true. He decorates an old man’s room just moving to an elderly home. He sees Cindy visiting her grandmother and plants the seed.

“Blue Valentine” is stubborn in giving a totally honest film regardless of the horror that happens in a terrible relationship. These are two people who began their life with nothing but unadulterated love and now are in this juncture of life where they make their effort to stay close physically and emotionally floundering. Cindy finds their missing dog dead by the roadside and both decide to leave their kid at grandpa’s house while they mourn for this lovely creature that represent their marriage. Dean suggests a night out of immense drinking and crazy lovemaking. Through the steps of that day right from meeting her ex in a liquor shop and then seeing Dean react to it we are close, up close and unavoidably on their face as they behave and pour dirt to the coffin of their marriage without a tombstone. Each navigate between being an asshole and a bitch with a perfect sine wave in timed frequency apart from each other.

What is so beautiful about a film that portrays a failure with so much care? Derek Cianfrance presents what every great directors sweat themselves to give the audience, an honest emotion. Does not matter whether it is happy or sad or erratic or crazy. It comes down to making the audience empathize more than sympathize. And Cianfrance gets two truly dedicated actors going above and beyond to symbolize that pain with a bloodied rose.

What can you say about Dean and Cindy? Were they great when they met? Were they completely swept by the love that unabashedly has rooted into the minds of current individuals growing up in the environment of sitcoms and hopeless romantic films? Was the unplanned pregnancy regardless of who the father was a good enough reason to tie the wedlock? What is that so much evident in the past of Dean and Cindy that they are making a mistake does not come through within them? The judgments of these kind Derek Cianfrance brings forth in his film question this institution with a fear and disgust like no other. Yet you know deep down inside that the happiest moment these two lived were indeed their best. The ultimate question is whether those memories are worth the hurt? You never know till you take a chance.

"Source Code" (2011) - Movie Review

Sometimes a preposterous set up is what you need for a great science fiction and it happened spectacularly well in “Knowing” (of course hated by many). Here comes “Source Code” another mumbo jumbo with quantum physics and what not with paradox written all over it that makes it good ride but struggles to create the emotional waves in its characters. Directed by Duncan Jones who enthralled me with his debut “Moon” who brought back the old school science fiction with a minimalist approach.

It is “Groundhog Day” for Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) or more like Groundhog 8 minutes. The film begins in a train where Colter awakes amused, confused and trying to get the sense of reality. He does not have a clue how he got there. He wakes up in front of this charming young woman (Michelle Monaghan) and is being called Sean. Before he could figure out the situation the train blows up waking him up in some kind of cockpit in a space shuttle resembling “12 Monkeys”. A military personnel Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) appears through a screen and provides little information on what is happening to Colter. It appears to be a simulation and Colter has 8 minutes every time he gets into this world. Within that span of time he has to find the bomber more than the bomb as this all appears to be not real. This would help Collen and team to find the next series of bomb threats looming.

Colter is of course in disarray and dismay as the details in the nature of reality he temporarily lives is too good to be a simulation. Duncan Jones appears to aim for multiple things out of this well funded second project. There is the human connection Colter is begin to have with Christina and immediately saves her in his second attempt. Then there is the whole mystery of Colleen and the nerdy scientist Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright) keeping the details from Colter. The latter part is intriguing but the revelation of the details almost becomes too easy to happen and the former part somehow misses beyond the good chemistry between Gyllenhaal and Monaghan.

“Source Code” is an intelligent film and a well made one with the way Jones moving on almost too hurriedly. While I am a great fan of keeping things short and simple sometimes when there is a meaty plot with some crazy possibilities to make the audience think and work their way out, I would enjoy the process of providing details over the top. “Inception” is the obvious example but the ridiculously messed up “Primer” and the cult classic “Dark City” comes to mind. Jake Gyllenhaal races against the time but he appears to be too relaxed despite the facial tension his dense stubble carries.

There is no doubt that I liked the film but somehow the love I develop rethinking and playing it back in my mind did not come out of “Source Code”. Drafted with some thorough planning in the script that rarely pauses snaps its fingers and gets the audience going on. After the third attempt Colter begins to get the feel for this world but consistently fails as he is battling with his own predicament of his existence.

The film brings tons of questions which does not provide great answers opens up the world of possibilities in the film’s multiple worlds. It does not go for the home run in giving that nostalgic experience when you leave the theatre witnessing a wonderful plot, perfect execution and cannot wait to go back to see it all over again.

In the current flow of mindless films in the name of murdering science fiction it is indeed an appreciating welcome change to see “Source Code” but with that promising beginning comes soaring expectation. Writer Ben Ripley has a tight screenplay but should have eased up a little space for developing more connection within the characters. Duncan Jones proves that he is a capable director even working with a script written by someone other than him. He has showed great variation in scale and presentation between his debut film and this one and this film assures that he can provide better films in coming times.

Very soon into the film we are exposed to the concept of alternate realities and the quantum physics thrown around effortlessly. Doing that invites nothing but strong paradoxical elements leaving unanswered minds. In that “Source Code” keeps at bay and leaves a door open with an interesting happy ending. But happy ending is not all a great film needs and in that it falls short.

"Paul" (2011) - Movie Review

An alien who has become more of cool human in the process of living in the Earth for some time now combines forces with two nerds for a ride back home. How does that sound for a premise? “Paul” is exactly that and Seth Rogen voices this CGI generated space dude. I think if they put up some funny looking alien make up on the actor itself and eliminated the CGI it would have been more energetic. Nevertheless CGI helps in lot of fast motions and invisibility stuff he pulls off making it a compromise for this hilarious road trip buddy film.

Greg Mottola the director of “Superbad” and “Adventureland” recruits the best in business of comedy. He gets Nick Frost and Simon Pegg penned script for starters and then get them to star in it. Then comes Jason Bateman, Kristin Wiig and Bill Hader to finish off this flick which has nothing but promises for great laughs. It takes a strong leftist opinion given the subject but does not take itself seriously enough to stamp it as an agenda.

Graeme (Simon Pegg) and Clive (Nick Frost) are two Englishmen taking a road trip through the Area 51 after completing their dream destination at Comic-Con convention in San Diego. Their travel is interrupted by a road crashing incident revealing the egoistic wise ass alien Paul. Clive faints while Graeme acts as if everything is fine and this is not unusual to see an alien talking fluent cursing English. That does not matter as this character will be the central play for so many laugh riots through the cross country adventure to make him catch his flight back to his home planet.

It is one of those road films where random chaos makes a fun ride but lately it has become a tore down routine. Films that could have made a real connection or real fun never comes itself on understanding what it wants. “Due Date” is one such example which despite its moments becomes mundane in providing too good to be true settlement in the end. “Paul” never takes itself seriously and almost resembles a marijuana drug trip than anything else.

It meddles around with Darwinism against crazy Christians and guess who wins and who is made fun of? Of course when there is an alien coming from a distant planet, you do not have much of an argument out there. And if you have the power to heal, become invisible by holding breath and transform the knowledge through the palm of your hand, you definitely know the winner of this great debate. Paul voiced by Seth Rogen is a hoot providing some unusual gigs. With Simon Pegg and Nick Frost the best buddies continuing their reign from “Shaun of the Dead”, “Hot Fuzz” through this one have no issues being the nerds and flair their bromance for each other.

Jason Bateman is such a cool actor. Any role he takes he fits in like a glove. Take it the blood sucking heartless boss in “Up in the Air” or the cool dude in “Juno”, he truly is the next door neighbour to be friended for good times even when he is a Federal Agent chasing the alien down. He is the MIB and is rightfully accompanied by two aspiring side kicks Bill Hader and Joe Lo Truglio. Hader and Truglio have been the best men to rely on these comedies wherein their support is as much as crucial as the main elements of the film and I am waiting for their main venture to employ their skills on central stage than being backstage characters.

Kristin Wiig does yet another SNL kind of parody on the Christian fundamentalists and then transforms into cursing free spirit to become the love interest for Graeme. As similar to being in SNL, she can go full on and willing to jump in the wagon and take us till we laugh crazily at her antics. Here she invents some awesome combo cuss words which requires to have a great imagination in itself to pull off.

“Paul” is convincingly hilarious because the fun is real. This is a fantasy world for the geeks and they are not alone heroes because of the script making them so but also because they make it on their own terms. Riding always on the wings of some goofy lines of Seth Rogen’s Paul, the film never suffers of a dull moment and even in the cliched sequences adds its touch of comedic bliss. While the film will not be taken serious like many under appreciated comedy films, “Paul” is very capable of becoming a cult film gaining DVD and Blu Ray popularity to be living like a legend.

"Sucker Punch" (2011) - Movie Review

Zack Snyder should be a video game designer than making “Sucker Punch” a hollow non-emotional film existing under the false pretenses of fantasy that fails to connect miserably with its audience. It has the glorious visual design of Snyder who won my heart despite the cliched and senseless violence in “300” and mistimed a miniseries to be a long film in “Watchmen” and now comes very short in settling for a low blow. He goes with the whole free the mind and invite imagination to the nook and corner of our brain and expects miracles as that he did from his special effects.

Many have tried and failed in providing the modern black and white outlook with tints of colour in the current cinema. Even the talented Steven Soderbergh could not invoke a life in “The Good German” and Snyder begins the film in this mode. Emily Browning plays Baby Doll that young actor from one of my favourite films “Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events” is still a young girl with naive looks and bleached blonde hair. She steps wrong again in this role after “The Uninvited”. She is sent wrongfully to an insane asylum by her step father after her mother’s death to be lobotomized so that the bad man could have all the wealth.

In comes the asylum creeping with neatly dressed orderlies and crazy girls lurking around to attack. In that is Carlo Gugino in another thankless role with a distracting and annoying accent as Dr. Gorski. And poof - Baby Doll is in the midst of a brothel run by the creepy orderly now manifested as the cruel and deadly boss of this place. The crazy girls are still crazy in a way and are gearing up for their dance numbers under their show coach with the stupid accent, yes, Gorski again. When she is asked to dance she stands still and as the formula of second attempts awing the crowd suddenly everyone glares in surprise and we never get to see Baby Doll’s dance because poof! she is transformed into this digital world of feudal Japan, World War - II battle zone and a train destined to destroy Gotham City, or something like that. If you think this is about the confusion, it isn’t. It is more about the denial to the audience in learning anything at all about Baby Doll and her crew.

“Sucker Punch” as Snyder’s previous films is made to be watched in a theater. I appreciate the man for that who uses the medium and recommends people to watch it in the way it is supposed to be seen. “300” or “Watchmen” in a TV screen as a first viewing would have been cruel and disgrace to the makers of those films. Snyder’s this film is the same but the charm and mind blowing experience of visual extravaganza is shoddy, unclear, loud and soon becomes obnoxious as we are not driven for these girls to complete their “goals”.

Baby Doll is deeply disturbed by the life’s events that has led her to end up in this particular place Snyder has created. Her mother’s death followed by the accidental death of her sister are good enough to get caving sympathy for this young girl. The world’s Baby Doll transforms does not reflect her character. That is one of my many attempts to read her mind. The threatening world she escapes from which most of the tenure of the film is the brothel does not pose a grave danger as the girls talk. Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens and Jamie Chung are attractive girls running around sexy and that is all Snyder shows about them. The scary boss Blue (Oscar Isaac) is not scary enough nor charming enough for these girls or Gorski to follow his regime’s orders.

Baby Doll through her mystic dance transforming technique to dissolve into this magical fantasy world gets some bullshit one liners from actor Scott Glenn who always has this one last thing to say (sigh) and horrible will be a light word to describe every one of those mistimed, misfired and moronic dialogues. If a teenage girl’s imagination is so bad than it is an insult to the upcoming and wonderful talents in the current generation.

The end which opens up the twists that should create immense amount of sympathy towards Baby Doll would have worked tremendously if we would have known her a little bit in the dangling minds she takes us through. Instead we have a distant misplaced feeling of a girl trapped in this film unable to get out and facing lobotomy as her only choice. Zack Snyder not alone misses this grandeur film but also has convinced himself of the complacency in running digital world over emotional reality as a killer strike.

"Mother and Child" (2010) - Movie Review

Rodrigo Garcia’s “Mother and Child” has women who are difficult, annoying, selfish and unarguably aggressive inside and out. And then they blossom and transform through the life they gave out and how it makes them into completely different beings by the that role and the responsibilities that comes along with it. The great fear, happiness and joy of a being growing inside of you and how it becomes something of their own cannot be even imagined. Garcia’s perspective is more on how flawed they can be and how reviving and redeeming that relationship provides for opportunities missed and grabbed by the pits and bumps of accidental life.

Annette Bening, Naomi Watts and Kerry Washington synchronize this relationship on angles that gets vandalized effortlessly by cliches and emotional cheesecakes in conventional films. Not here and not in the beautiful direction of Rodrigo Garcia who not alone provided excellent nine vignettes on women in “Nine Lives” but adapting the Israeli television series “Be Tipul” to American “In Treatment” with finesse detail on the human conditions up close, personal and threatening to yourself. Here he stretches out a bit from his short story approach and goes for a full length feature. He recruits best talents in the business to do that and cannot be more successful that this. You would also realize that Garcia purposefully makes this a mother and daughter bond than a mother and son as there cannot be more fitting full circle of life without the cycle of motherhood being passed on.

Annette Bening plays Karen a middle aged woman haunted by her teenage experience. She got pregnant at 14 and gave up her baby for adoption. Now on the road to be a spinster Karen is taking care of her mother. Their relationship has a tone and you would see why Karen is so bitter and downright rude. Karen’s baby girl is Elizabeth (Naomi Watts) a very successful lawyer laughing at the face of the society composed of family bonds. She is cut throat, exactly knows what she wants and makes all necessary nuances in discarding meaningful human relationship. You would also see why she is bitter and rude. Then there is Lucy (Kerry Washington) unable to bear a child with her husband Joseph (David Ramsey) goes for adoption and is brutally interviewed by a 20 year old Ray (Shareeka Epps). Lucy’s mother is Ada (S. Epatha Merkerson) who provides her touch of her own in giving that look and sighs to her daughter’s decisions and dilemmas.

You will see how they are connected beyond the obvious. You will also see how Rodrigo Garcia has a purpose for every actors. Each one of them even in their sparse screen presence is there to provide a view point on these women. Karen meets a very kind man Paco (Jimmy S mits) and she manages to stupendously piss off even him. And then Karen’s silence in her house goes one step down when her mother dies. Her mother was closer to her caretaker Sofia (Elpidio Carrillo) and her kid (Simone Lopez) whom Karen dislikes due to the ugly reminder of her loss. Annette Bening plays this woman and boy do we dislike her with a passion. Despite her struggle and pain we could not come to embrace her soul and we slowly begin to respect her when she admits to Paco how difficult she is. Then she blooms into a different person under the care of this noble and respecting man Paco. When the dusts settle in her dry life to spring happiness, she is reminded in one of many wonderful scenes that may be she has to look for her kid.

Naomi Watts is deadly in this role. We are introduced to her Elizabeth as she interviews with Paul (Samuel L. Jackson) and she is an open book with definite paper cuts to slash your hearts. Paul likes her and Elizabeth likes him in her own bossy distant manner. Both begin an affair and even in her seduction she conducts it like an exercise with a goal in her mind. Her neighbours are a lovely couple Tracy (Carla Gallo) and Steven (Marc Blucas). Tracy wants to befriend her neighbour which only results in Elizabeth seducing Steven. She is unabashedly cruel towards this system of family and the disappointments it presents. She becomes a tool to prove her point even if it means destroying a family. Paul surprises her in an unexpected way but the real surprise comes when she learns she is pregnant. She visits the doctor’s office where there is a tense and bitter scene with Amy Brenneman as her doctor.

Lucy played by Kerry Washington is the one which stands out of this story but soon finds its way. Lucy desperately wants to be a mother and is constantly challenged by her mother. She sticks to the goal and goes through with her hesitant husband. There is an opportunity for them in this 20 year old Ray so sharp and cuts through the crap for such a young age. She might grow up to be Elizabeth unless her mother Leticia (Lisa Gay Hamilton) has a say in it. Lucy’s adoption guide is Sister Joanne (Cherry Jones) who is also involved in helping Karen find her daughter Elizabeth. She becomes a witness to this whole story which has its crazy ups and downs. I feel sorry for her.

Garcia is a master of studying women or he makes us think so presenting them in such flawed and blatant manner. They are full of complications and full of surprises but are undeniably the single most force that can bring every one together in the most unexpected situations. That makes them the gold mine for dramatic subjects Garcia undertakes though Garcia is the only one who seems to have the knack and precision to give them unrelentingly in their honest form. “Mother and Child” is full of great performances and you would not notice it as they blend like a smooth ice cream in this perfectly put together film. There are several other small performances which makes up this beautiful film. You can always read or learn about the emotional bond between a mother and child but “Mother and Child” lets you absorb it revealing their mistakes and moments of greatness.

"Monsters" (2010) - Movie Review

What can “Monsters” be called? What kind of film does it bode to be and promises to be? Why is the premise of sci-fi aliens needed for a film like this? None of these can be answered because we have been attuned to a judgment before seeing a film. We have dissected the art in genres and the expectations are made and in good director that is handled well enough to provide a better film than one hoped for. But films like “Monsters” emerge out of nowhere, unheard and then makes you wonder about the process of filmgoing. Except for the title there is not much to be known about this gem and soon as the film ends there blossoms a lovable romantic film amidst this crazy science fiction.

Written, photographed and directed by Gareth Edwards this film begins with the information that a NASA space probe collecting alien life forms gets broken and spread across the US-Mexican border. The controversial border is now declared infected zone and US has built an enormous wall to protect against the creatures that manifested out of this. The film begins with a night vision footage of an army vehicle getting attacked and exploded while we see this enormous creature looming upon for attack followed by launching of an air strike. Off we go to Mexico where photographer Andrew Kaulder (Scoot McNairy) is getting ordered by his boss to escort his daughter Samantha (Whitney Able) to US.

So what starts as a story of extreme action in between these threatening creatures becomes into concentrating on the relationship on these two people. Both completely different in their background and situation. Sam is engaged and for reasons unknown she is having trouble talking with her fiance. Kaulder we learn only later that he is a single ambitious photographer and has a story of his own personal fiasco. They travel together through the roads that are less taken and forbidden but monopolized and capitalized by people who can milk more money playing dirty games and high risks. They make it to the coast without any issues as Sam can catch her ferry to US and Kaulder can return to his work of taking tragic pictures. They party up the night before the departure. Things happen that leads to miss the ferry and take the dangerous route of penetrating right through the infected zone.

Gareth Edwards takes a foreign approach to this not so foreign backdrop. The focus so much so is on these unknown creatures is about these two odd couple. Both well aware and complete. Their silent quarrels are so realistic and in a way adorable. Their romance untold in a way I have not seen in films before. They do not hold hands or enact those premeditated and molded Hollywood yearning faces. Kaulder and Sam are there at that place, in this fictitious backdrop with a not so fictitious Mexico. The people whom accompany them are nice, helping and desperate while the business running managers do their talking to extract the maximum out of the foreigners on their no option situation.

“Monsters” is not a horror film but has thrills. It is not a romantic film though it has love. There are no obligations to the audience. We are left along with these couple and the knowledge of the creatures or their behaviour is not explained to us purposefully as it is not so much useful in the current scenario. The scenario is to see these two people reach US and nothing else matters.

Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able were real life couple (now married) and I am sure that helped in modulating those untold chemistry in unforeseen places effectively. Whitney Able is the cute blond and shows a character of a strong woman struggling to contend with difficulties up with this reality and the future that awaits her in the country. McNairy portrays Kaulder as a pragmatic photojournalist and knows Sam’s hesitation in both her future life and in between them. Their communications both silent and spoken forms the basis of this film.

The closest that I can picture to people about this film is “Cloverfield” but in that film they tried to manufacture a love story out of this beautifully original formed technique into painfully overdone and executed exercise. Here the link between these two has a beautiful tone of a melody in this scary journey. There are panic moments which are very real and tragic. But the best about “Monsters” are the locations and the scenery of this foreign existence making its way through the daily affairs. There is a pain to it and the darkness of it brings up so many emotions of this possible reality.

Majority of this film was shot guerilla style with seven people crew traveling in a van and getting the locals to act and improvise. That adds the authenticity Gareth Edwards was going for. The monsters are kept at bay when it comes to projecting details of their appearance and Edwards saves it for the last. As Sam and Kaulder witness those creatures up close and personal in a perspective I am sure many would have forgotten to even perceive when these attacks happened, it opens up the audience into an unimaginable experience. With able hands in special effects from Edwards himself and a mesmerizing emotional score by Jon Hopkins we realize what Edwards was going for in it and how he combines that great feeling with a hidden tragedy to leave us smiling with sadness. After all this I still bring up the question but with admiration - What can “Monsters” be called?

"Biutiful" (2010) - Movie Review

If anyone is crazy about the new movie of Alejandro González Iñárritu that would be me and as much as I can convince myself “Biutiful” has some courageous and moving performance by Javier Bardem and the beauty and poetry Alejandro’s films carry, it did not engulf and swept away my soul. When I saw “21 Grams” the experience blew away the notion that there are certain kind of filmmaking which are not alone different but can reach to your heart and squeeze it thoroughly with an emotion you cannot overcome. I witnessed the magic of “Babel” and it became the catalyst for the obsession of mine to begin writing movie reviews. So you can see why I set such a high standard for Alejandro and while “Biutiful” is an extremely well made film, its core does not come out as a nature of a human his previous film carried effortlessly. Nevertheless this is a film that lifts itself through the time and ends in a known tragedy with heavy heart.

Uxbal (Javier Bardem) is the middle man in a dirty business of cheap labour of illegal immigrants. He works with the Chinese for resource and trades with the local construction site heads. He also helps out illegal immigrants from Senegal in setting up illegal shops on the side walks. When you have so many different people working on numerous tasks and do not understand the effort this man is gelling together, it becomes a job under appreciated in this big scheme of criminality. Having prostate cancer does not help his situation either and having a bipolar wife with alcohol and drug problems definitely not help. Get a brother who is sleeping with his wife and the cops breathing down his neck, Uxbal’s life is not alone a mess but a well designed mess.

Alejandro again wants to underline the human nature spread across the globe acting in mysterious yet similar emotions. Uxbal is the connecting spindle through the axis of these people turning each other’s lives. There are no coincidence games as it is a familiar territory Alejandro has in all his films. Here it is simply the spiraling of a man who is dying very quickly. He wants to set things straight before he kicks out of this world. The only thing he wants to set things right are his children Ana (Hanaa Bouchaib) and Mateo (Guillermo Estrella). From the outlook they do not appear to have a great upbringing once Uxbal dies. He knows that and he has to act fast.

The film is not about him racing time but his inability to even sink in that fact that he is going to die. As someone hearing those words of doom from a doctor no one can believe it till it is happening. It is always the belief of one even in the dangerous world of Uxbal that the worst things in life are supposed to happen only for others and in films. The reality that anyone is vulnerable to this chaotic world takes more than one could think of to dial in their minds. Such is Uxbal’s case who continues his life knowing the disease and wandering clueless in his chores.

He has a gift too which is to talk with the dead if they cannot leave this world. He guides them in providing that peace which in film only takes marginal significance but pays a poetic end. Uxbal’s only options in leaving his kids in good hands are their mother Marambra (Maricel Alvarez). Marambra is a walking and talking disaster. Cheery, fun and unbelievably unpredictable Uxbal reunites with her as it appears as the only option. With this the few happiest things are nothing but momentary lapses in tiniest events in Uxbal’s daily life. This film takes hold of sadness, despair and hopelessness in this colourful town of Barcelona. We become desensitized to these perils within minutes as the world Uxbal survives is nothing but disappointments.

There are two other people apart from Uxbal finding abyss and slight hope as the film progresses. Uxbal’s good friend Senegalese Ekweme (Cheikh Ndiaye) gets caught by the police and gets deported. Ekweme is separated from his wife Ige (Diaryatou Daff) and his new born baby. Ige continues her life in Barcelona as Uxbal provides his rental apartment. Soon enough Uxbal will be back out there with his kids and hope for a peaceful death leaving his kids in safe hands. That is wishful thinking.

His Chinese client Hai (Taisheng Cheng) runs a sweat shop in horrific conditions. His secret lover and associate Liwei (Luo Jin) is authoritative and wants to run things in his terms. Uxbal also has another friend of the family in babysitter from the sweat shop Lili (Long Sofia Lin). All these little characters surrounding Uxbal tells something about this man. He is a nice man in this not so nice business of exploiting illegal immigrants. The sweat shop keeps the workers in a basement all sleeping alongside tight and closed woken up by their drill master sharply at 6:30 in the morning. The sight is inhuman and Uxbal is all aware of it but goes by the way the world he manages to get by. There comes another tragedy in that hell hole and soon we begin to believe that the only solace Uxbal is going to find is in his regretful death.

“Biutiful” is about people migrating and living in a strange world to make a simple life as their home country denied even that meager existence. But it is not alone about that as it is more about a father trying so hard to make his kids remember his face and not vanish in smokes of the time. I think “Biutiful” does not have a destination in emotional closure as one would expect from this film. This is simply the life condition of a human being in that situation and acts like one will and makes the realistic best of it in the worst case of the environment. There is a hollow feeling as the film ends and that may be what Alejandro aimed for. As much as this does not live up to the standards I set up for this director, this is a film performed with great determination by Javier Bardem to portray the state of humans in a not so human body shop.

"Limitless" (2011) - Movie Review

Now I know what my mom was meaning when she kept on repeating to my brother and myself that we are not using our full potential. If only she knew that there will be a pill manufactured in “Limitless” that would enable us to access every tiny parts of our brain to the fullest extent then she would have had the sons she always wanted. I am kidding, it was only me. Neil Burger’s film takes a wild spin on this stellar premise and rides on top of it without any struggle. It is not here for glory but for thrills. And thrills it has.

When you do something that you never really thought you were capable of, you are in the midst of a fear of losing it. Eddie Mora (Bradley Cooper) comes to that fear. The film begins him wandering in the city as a bum. Oddly enough Eddie accepts his failure and the blankness of his future. This they do effectively in the few scenes we get to know him when he is not at his best. A failed marriage, failing relationship, a writer’s block which surprises on how he got a contract in first place and finally he is broke too. All constitute to a finely prepared dish of destitute and despair. At the pinnacle of his misery comes in his ex-brother-in-law Vernon (Johnny Whitworth) and offers something to show his power and attitude than anything. It opens up the windows and doors inside Eddie’s brain and shatters the walls outside of it. He mesmerizes himself. This is pure knowledge ready to receive and retrieve pumping up unstoppably. He is hooked and I do not blame him.

The neatness in the technique on how they penetrate the audience’s mind with this effect makes all the difference in an otherwise very ordinary film. The camera work which begins right in the title credits zooms beyond boundaries and keeps on going. It rains words when Eddie sits for his write up and the simplest philosophy of how he is brilliant buys us into this myth. The pill does not provide super powers like telepathy or some extraordinary mind trick. It simply finds the routes to access information that has been read, seen or absorbed in his entire life. The things that are already known are readily available and it happens faster than he could even think.

Eddie obviously completes his book and attains his immediate goal. He gets out of his misery but now what? What would the smartest guy think of wanting more? Power, money? Eddie never expresses those as the motivation is obvious. He tells he wants things more than books and attacks the place where rapid soar of success is so believable and unquestionable, day trading. He is a super rock star and he steps up to meet the tycoon of the industry Robert De Niro’s Carl Van Loon. Robert De Niro convincingly, deservingly and powerfully provides a much and long awaited supporting role wherein his presence means a lot more than the character itself. This is not his greatest but this is how he rolls and it is great to see him kicking the screen.

People reading this review should not mistake it for a stamp of saying it as the best film so far. It is a seriously good thriller. It is smart enough to know its ground and play within the rules and snaps its finger to keep going on. Bradley Cooper though is not a splendid actor is a hard working one. Clearly I do not see the capacity I saw in Christian Bale and Ryan Gosling when they began their career in their earlier films. Cooper though works laboriously in building his character and for some reason I could see it without that hindering the performance. In his pre-pill Eddie Mora, he gets to the basics and goes shabby and makes us not even sympathize much for the guy because he seems to have come to acceptance with his poor destiny. Then he charms off as this intelligent power magnet going around and talking his way in and out.

In this mix is his girl friend Lindy (Abbie Cornish) who comes and goes as the script treats her to be. The film does not lose its way in romance or emotions as this is a thriller running high on highway and not stopping for refueling. It knows that their pill lasts less than two hours and hence take no risks. They conveniently leave off murder trails, put some power writing for explanation than actual reasoning but never goes of track. Neil Burger uses the fast screenplay by Leslie Dixon basing her writing off “The Dark Fields” by Alan Glynn. Burger also gets good supporting technicians in cinematographer Jo Willems and editors in Tracy Adams and Naomi Geraghty knotting this entertaining thriller.

The process of Eddie going on high and low depending on the pill intake is something I will leave it up to you to see as that is the thrilling part. But I do have to tell the part when De Niro as Carl blasts Eddie with sheer truth and anger. It is not about his control over Eddie but about this nobody rocketing his way up within months as Carl worked his butt off to be where he is. If anyone could make that grinding look entertaining and place an offer and make his audience and Bradley Cooper see him in awe, that can only be De Niro.

"The Adjustment Bureau" (2011) - Movie Review

“The Adjustment Bureau” does what “Frequency” did or any film bringing unrealistic scenario as a tool to enable a better story does. It knows the capability of the innovative premise. This film adapted from the short story “The Adjustment Team” by Phillip K. Dick is a romantic thriller with the tint of lovable drama. Constructing with much awareness of the great questions the audience’s mind will bring upon, they answer it either instantaneously or it becomes insignificant seeing the lovely chemistry between this couple. It is a blissful experience to see a film taking romance with such a finesse touch and give an intelligent film in the process.

David Norris played by Matt Damon is a charmer and hence a great politician. With a million dollar smile and the attitude of youth bubbles in his presence. Yet he loses the senate election, thanks to his bad boy antics in a bar. He is devastated and practices his concession speech alone in the men’s room. Suddenly comes out Emily Blunt retaining her English accent and they strike a chemistry like no other. Close to what “Say Anything” and “Before Sunrise” did. It cannot be more obvious than this that this pair should be together. No questions asked. As usual in the hurried business movie pairs they do not exchange numbers in their first meeting and it becomes one of those moments the protagonist has to meet her again. They do. The very next day in the bus he takes for his work he sits next to the lovely and adorable Elise. The bureau has other plans though.

The premise of the film is that there are these handsome men in suit who follows a plan. Monitors their subjects and aligns the plans in the suggestion of “upstairs” to set things right in the world. Apparently we have been screwing up with the free will they have given us. In this comes David Norris the sunshine boy to step into senate and then to eventual Presidential run for a better world. As the movie rule suggests that US dictates things around the world. Anyway, this revelation is done with the capable and elegant Mad Men John Slattery as Richardson, the boss of Harry Mitchell (Anthony Mackie). Harry has been monitoring David and his family for a long time and who was supposed to not slip things by letting David and his dream girl meet up. Harry is the moral compass in this bureau and Anthony Mackie is the perfect man to do that. They do not have a choice as David witnessed the clean up crew of this bureau freezing his friend (Michael Kelly) to alter a bit of his mind to suit their plan. The band leaves David with this choice that he should never hook up with the mystery girl and continue his life not talking about their existence to anyone or lose his mind forever. Or as they call it “reset” his mind.

David asks what we want to know. Why they focus on these two people and what is the worst that could happen on being together with the love of their life? Slattery’s Richardson and Mackie’s Harry are truly unaware of that as they all are worker bees with great power to make simple moves in everyday life to change the course of life. I think this is what makes “The Adjustment Bureau” a very good sensible film as they make these bureau people a step above humans but not so much above them. They are frustrated in a more reasonable way and vent in a more usual manner. When Richardson says SOB, we can relate to his trouble and chuckle at it as our main man finds simple loopholes and emerge victorious. Terrence Stamp adds to this list of handsome men in coming as the best of the best in the bureau and he indeed is best.

What can I say about Emily Blunt and Matt Damon in working with very little time and splash their love convincingly over the audience that they are truly the perfect couple? They work literal magic as I have witnessed in few romantic films. The scenes of them sparkle with energy and attraction in its truest form. I was just talking with my brother on the splendid street walk scene in the overlooked independent arena of “Me and You and Everyone We Know” and while David and Elise do not reproduce that caliber of sweet romance in every scene of theirs, they are nothing short of spectacular in bringing out these two wonderful human beings who cannot be more comfortable in being with each other.

George Nolfi wrote and directed this film and it has the resemblance of Christopher Nolan’s structured dream world from “Inception” and yet carries great originality to the tone. I hear the background score of the film and instantly I identify that my favourite music composer is tuning this movie up. Thomas Newman not creates a signature piece to ring upon but evokes these yearning sensibilities of separation, pace and deep love in his tunes.

When I saw the trailers I cannot wonder why the men in this film are dressed up immaculately and are particularly handsome. Nolfi understands that human nature’s instant shallowness always associates angels with beauty and these people commanded by the “chairman” as they refer to has to look good in suits. But as Damon’s character points out in his inspiring and honest concession speech that altering miniscule things in the way one appears aids the chances of winning the audience. David Norris does not win the election while the “The Adjustment Bureau” wins its audience hands down.