Existential crisis

O.K., you got to know by now that I am no Satre. My crisis is not gonna change the world, but you can bet it's bloody real.

A couple of days ago, I went to watch this movie called Vegam to review it. I can't begin to tell you how depressing it was for me. Having decided to review films to earn a few extra bucks, I felt that perhaps I should not be too optimistic about my career choice.

During the interval as I sipped my coke adulterated with extra water, I pondered a career change and realised my passion was for films alone. But if I had to watch two, three movies in a row like Vegam, wasn't I sure to lose my sanity?

What would I do if I had to watch 10 movies like this one?

Post interval, the frustration did get to me a bit. I wanted to jump on screen and knock some sense into the characters.

It took a couple of days to relax. I am cool again. Hope movies like that one never get made.

My review of the movie is somewhere around here. Read it if you have to.

Two lists of 100 movies

The links first:

The American Film Institute's updated list of 100 top Hollywood movies.

Eddieonfilm does list of 100 top foreign films

More on the lists later.

Rick Deckard a replicant

Never realised that Rick Deckard, the cop who catches replicants in Blade Runner, was himself a replicant. The film, which is seeing its 25th year since release, is being released in a new director's cut that reveals that Deckard, played by Harrison Ford, was all along a replicant. Darn, wish I had the sense to complete the novel.

My first lecture on film criticism

I recently had the opportunity to give a lecture on film criticism to students of visual communication at the Women’s Christian College in Nungambakkam in Chennai. A teacher at the L.V. Prasad Film & TV Academy recommended my name and I landed up at the college solely on the virtue of that.

As I had little time to prepare, I talked without the aid of any notes. I found this was a very bad way to lecture. Next time, I must remember to make some notes. This is because after the first 20 minutes, I found myself struggling.

But the really interesting part of the lecture was the interactive session that followed my lecture. Many of the students at WCC seem to come from ordinary middle class backgrounds and aren’t exactly geniuses. But they were enthusiastic and asked practical questions.

Film is something I am very passionate about and soon I discovered that I could really talk to the students. They warmed up to me and soon the atmosphere turned into one of joined learning. I discovered that with a little effort I can teach really well and loved the feeling. I am sure at some of the students took home something from my talk to them.

Next time I will write a speech out and post in on the blog.

Sopranos wins again

Sopranos has won the Emmy award for best drama series.

Actor James Spader, who won the best actor award for another series Boston Legal said,

"Oh my goodness. I feel I have stolen from the mob. And they are all sitting over there."

Spader was, of course, referring to the cast of Sopranos, which became only the second series to win the award after going off air.

Movie on Iraq war

I hope In the Valley of Elah ushers in a steady stream of movies on the Iraq war. Directed by Paul Haggis, whose film Crash won the best picture Oscar, this movie seems promising. Hope this is released in India soon. What are the films that you have seen on this Iraq war? Strangely enough, I don't remember a single one.

Check this (list of movies to be released this fall in the US) and this (awesome trailers).

Magic in film and book

Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix: The entire series is getting a little tired on film. The feeling that the books provided that one exciting night are somehow missing in the movies. And yet, make no mistake, this is a director at the height of his powers working with a cast at its peak. Did you know that the series has at point or the other engaged many of the top British talent in film and theatre? And yet something is missing in the movies. I dearly wished for a private moment with Harry. Like may be a shot of him just thinking. I never got it.

The Illusionist: Saw this on Kunal's suggestion. Pretty good thriller. Was disappointed when the ending was so predictable. It is about a magician. If I say anything more I am in danger of ruining the movie for you. But do watch it.

Deathly Hallows: Read the NYB review, pls. I am asking you for the second time.

Rajnikanth and reclaimation of lost things

I don't know if this is true of all revenge cinema in Tamil. But in recent Rajnikanth movies, the crisis involves him losing something - like say a house. In Annamalai, his "hut" is destroyed by bulldozer. In Arunachalam, he loses his identity. In Padayappa again, he loses his house. This also a key scene in Sivaji. It's not even a turning point in the movie when he reclaims it. That is supposed to happen anyway. The audience knows the superstar and fully expects him to get back every single thing he has ever lost. But the crisis does set up the climax of the movie and in some cases also lends the story its central thread.

My say on Potter

When people say the potter series is growing darker, what do they mean?
On seeing this section in the NYT, I could not quite figure out what the craze is about the darkness of the series. Of course, it's getting darker. What else could it possibly do? After all, in The Deathly Hallows, Potter has to kill Voldermort. What else could he do? Only question remain is will he survive?

No doubt it's a fantastic series, but the criticism on TV, print and other media is going a little crazy. Even in otherwise good newspapers like NYT. You can see the critical starvation that Manhola Dargis and A.O. Scott undergo while trying to come up, oh, desperately come up with anything to justify a dissection.

To my mind, a proper dissection of Potter would be a waste of time. Some things in pop culture are best left alone.

New York, New York

They are showing Martin Scorcese movies on Sony Pix this month. I saw New York, New York a few days back. I hate musicals, even the funny ones. But this is one of the few musicals I have liked apart from Moulin Rouge. Robert De Niro plays a jazz music composer running a band in which his wife played by Liza Minelli is the lead singer. He has a nasty temper and is, as one character puts it, "a top pain in the ass." But he has enormous talent. There isn't much of a plot or a story, but the screenplay is gripping. The song sequences are excellent and so is the acting, not just by De Niro who is great in every movie he does, but also by the other actors. Admittedly, De Niro's acting is a bit over the top at times. But I wasn't very irritated by that. I suggest you catch this movie on DVD.

RTFF, the second edition

On Saturday night, I attended the second edition of the Roof Top Film Festival. After lounging around all day, making pointless and lengthy phone calls, I finally moved my butt to Sid's place in Mandaveli, which has a great rooftop, where the festival is held. Sid is one of those perfect host types, discreet and genuinely hospitable.

A quick guide to the festival for dummies: RTTF is an all-night festival of films held on a roof top. The march version of RTTF being a success, the second edition was held on the day of the cricket World Cup finals, April 28. Details of the movies shown are here.

What's right with the festival:

Enthusiasm of the participants. Even when a boring, pretentious movie like Elephant was shown, about 10 people survived. A few even wanted to discuss the movie, despite Kiruba's threat that he will throw me off the roof for choosing the film. I was ethu, in case you are wondering, because of the similarity of the film's story with the Virginia tech massacre. Great roof. We seem unable to move the event to another roof. Sid's is so good. Discussions. I love them. I learned that I like to show off too, like everyone else. I flatter myself that I am subtle about it.

There are a good many other things that come to the mind that is great about the festival like its lack of stuffiness. But let's get to the points that we may have to correct the next time around.

Organise it better. Start at 9 pm and end at 4.30 am. Show only three features. The rest should be shorts. Even show old ad films. Download films from U-tube you find interesting. A sequence of Rajnikanth dancing to Rock can lift the spirits of the audience and make them ready for the cruelly boring, but rewarding films. Show films that are not seen widely. Stick to the theme of the edition. Don't lean towards cult films. Strike a balance between the classic and the timeless and the contemporary. Invite more people to come and participate. Even if they are not part of the in-crowd. We could also host a veteran film critic for a day, who may stay, if he/she wants to, only for the first feature.

At the end, Syed called out for a theme for the next edition. No one volunteered. Half of them were sleeping. Some were watching the match. No bother, can we have a weekend of CGI movies? Syed seems to think Twister is a great choice. I watched this movie in Coimbatore with my cousin. There is a moment in which a cow caught in a twister flies past a jeep. Pure, unforgettable CGI moment. I still hear the cow moo in Dolby. Lately, CGI movies have taken a rap in Hollywood because it dishes out so many of them. I remember A Perfect Storm being very good, while I hated Day After Tomorrow.

Sagaro has written about discussion with the CNN-IBN reporter. I don't agree with him completely, especially when he credits BlogCamp as one of the reasons why Chennai is the blogging captial and when he says it became so due to the IT boom. I thought about the issue as I was driving home last night. I really don't have the foggiest idea why this city is the blogging capitial of India, if at it is. I really don't have the figures either - like say how many bloggers are there in Delhi and Mumbai as opposed to Chennai. But couple of contentions made seemed absurd. One is the link between the peninsula's history of never been invaded and blogging. What's that again? I kept blanking out each time this was discussed.

An even stranger thing happened. This reporter had called up and we had what she said was a detailed conversation about blogging. I arrived at RTTF without recalling this conversation and after she mentioned it, I realised she was right. Calls that you attend in the middle of your precious daylong sleep are that way bizarre, I guess. About four months ago, I had a fairly serious and almost career-deciding conversation with my editor. Didn't recall it when I arrived in office the same day. She was so angry.

And finally a reminder, those who took photos at RTTF please upload them on Flickr. I would like to add them. At the moment, there are some photos here, including of course, some of mine.

Can you light petrol with a cigarette?

How many times have we seen petrol lit with a cigarette in the movies. It begins likes this: there is a running car which is leaking petrol. The hero, who has already ensured the leak, lights up a cigarette and waits with screwed up eyes till the car has almost gone out of the frame. Then with a stylish flick of his hand, he drops the cigarette to the ground. And then you get this close up: Of a cigarette turning in slow motion and falling on the black tarred road. It lights up a long line of fire leading up to the car, which is usually a white Ambassador in Indian movies, and bham: the whole thing goes up on fire. Usually the sound effects for the entire sequence is carefully composed to give us an impression of reality.

But scientists have now proved that this is impossible. Go here.

I can remember this happening in the Malayalam movie starring Mohan Lal, Vandanam, and the Mel Gibson-starrer Payback. How many more can you think of?

The Departed wins

Much to my delight and surprise, The Departed won the Best picture Oscar, while one of my favourite directors Martin Scorcese won the honour long due to him for Best director. The Departed also took home the Best adapted screenplay award. Read more here.

A pale shadow of his former self

At the time I began watching Hollywood movies critically, Oliver Stone used to be a favourite. I consider JFK to be one of the best political thrillers of all time. Likewise, Platoon too is undoubtedly one of the best Vietnam films ever made.

Also consider some of his other movies: Salvador, Wall Street, Nixon, U Turn, The Doors and Any Given Sunday. Take a minute and think of the cast he commanded for any of those films. With such an impressive list of films starting from the mid 1980s, Stone must take his rightful place in any list of top American directors working before Quentin Tarantino.

Stone was the quintessential American director. You may have heard the ‘Greed is Good’ speech made by Michael Douglas in Wall Street. It wasn’t as if Stone was only technically perfect. He could make actors deliver too. James Wood in Salvador was nothing short of electric.

For the ordinary viewer, The Doors may seem ordinary. But consider the possibilities for the potter. Even without any artificial stimulants, I was quite tripped by the time The Doors ended. Also Val Kilmer delivers a stellar performance, even singing all the songs of Jim Morrison’s.

Also, consider the genres Stone straddled: the rock movie (The Doors), the political thriller (JFK, Salvador), the war movie (Platoon) and the sports movie (Any Given Sunday).

And yet Stone has now slipped. His last two films Alexander and World Trade Centre has not only failed at the box office, they have also been panned by critics.

I saw Alexander on a very bad DVD. But one shot of those chameleons and that soaring eagle was enough to turn me off. I recently saw WTC. It is a reasonably good film, but does not live up to the huge expectations of any movie made on 9/11. I haven’t seen United ’93, but going by the Academy nominations, it seems that ’93 is altogether the better 9/11 film.

Why do directors slip so badly? Why do they from their rarefied heights fall so pathetically? Will Stone regain his lost glory? I am plainly worried for him. I hope and pray that he, one day, makes a comeback as superb as his critically acclaimed movie, Platoon.

Read more here.

Guru

Mani Ratnam’s Guru ends with a polemic against the ‘Licence Raj’, the period prior to the reforms of the 90s when bureaucratic red tapeism was high. Since the reforms initiated by Dr Manmohan Singh in the Narasimha Rao government, this argument against the License Raj may have become irrelevant. Today, it appears that starting and running a company in India is comparatively easier. This is a conclusion I arrive at by the sheer proliferation of software and automobile companies in recent years.
If as reports say, Gurukant Desai is Dhirubhai Ambani, then it is wrong to side with Reliance, which is a well-entrenched power centre. It’s also wrong to convince the viewer that his sympathies should lie with the biggest empire in Independent India.

The movie meanders in the first half and really begins in earnest only with Guru entering the textiles market in Mumbai, demanding a membership in the union. Until then, the movie was largely forgettable except for the scenes between Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan, which assume significance mostly because of their off-screen relationship.
Why Mani spends the first 15 minutes of the movie in Turkey is an unanswered question. Some viewers may argue that it is here that Guru makes the important decision not to work under the white man. But still as a portrayal of a businessman's early days, this portion of the movie is unconvincing.

At times I also felt that this is hardly the movie a director should be making 15 years after Nayagan, acclaimed as the best Tamil movie of all time.

But Guru is not at all a completely shoddy work. The song sequences are excellent. The songs by A.R.Rahman, I felt, were among his best. The background music though leaves much to be desired. Abhishek's performance, like many have already noted, is his best since he first appeared in Refugee. But my quarrels with the politics of the movie remain. Any comments?

Oscar nominated movies

Babel, which I saw about a week ago, is the concluding part of the trilogy that began with Amores Perros (Love's a Bitch) and 21 Grams. Two siblings accidentally shoot at a bus in Morocco injuring a passenger. From this incident, two more stories are traced making it four in all - the siblings, the passenger, the passengers' two children taken care of by their Mexican nanny and the owner of the rifle in Japan. Some of you may be familiar with the story of the Babel tower. If not look here. Like the previous two films, this too is in non-linear narrative. But this is a much more mature film from Alejandro González Iñárritu. Amores Perros inspired Ayutha Ezhuthu. Wonder if Babel too will show up in Tamil one day.

*******

Little Miss Sunshine is a little movie of a family of eccentrics, who hit the road, so that their nine-year-old kid can take part in the beauty contest. There is a moral in the end about losing in the winning crazed nation of America. Probably the most funny movie nominated for this year's Oscar.

*******

Apocalypto,Mel Gibson's story of the decay of the Mayan civilization, is a gas bag. But it has interesting and extremely violent action sequences. Has to be seen in a movie theatre to enjoy the stunning cinematography. May end up winning the Oscar for best make up.

Your Oscar goes to...

You have probably seen the Oscar nominees' list. You probably have guessed who will make the cut. I have seen a few films - among them Babel, The Departed (reviewed here), Little Miss Sunshine, Apocalypto and Blood Diamond. I am planning to run an Oscar week on this blog. If you have reviewed any movie nominated for any Oscar, please leave a comment and link and I will feature them on this blog.

Over the weekend

Open Water is an excellent example of an independently made film. A couple took time off during weekends for over a year to shoot the film featuring only two major actors. The story is of a couple that is left stranded in the sea during a deep-sea diving trip. The boat that carries them accidentally leaves them behind. After about 20 minutes into the movie, we find ourselves alone with the duo in mid-sea. It's an amazing little movie that puts movies like Jaws to shame. The terror is real and gripping unlike in the Spielberg classic where terror has Hollywood written all over it. A scene in which the shark attacks the couple is a highlight of the movie. Watch it if you do get a DVD.
*******


All The King's Men features Sean Penn as the King. He plays a real life Governor of Louisiana, who after siding with the poor dangerously tests the power of the oil and power companies in the region. Jude Law plays a journalist-narrator who plays the dirty man of the governor. The movie to its credit never reveals if Governor Willie Stark is a good or bad person. Not bluntly at least. Penn plays him like a bull-headed, godly character that Stark probably was. Sample this quote from the Governor's campaign speech:

"Listen to me, you hicks! Lift up your eyes and look at God's blessed and unfly-blown truth. This is the truth! You're a hick. Nobody ever helped a hick but a hick hisself. Listen to me, listen to me...Here it is, you hicks! Nail up anybody who stands in your way... Give me the hammer and I'll do it."

The movie was first made in 1949 and became a classic. I usually don't review movies not released in India. But after my yoga camp, I am out of sort with the release schedule. If you wait, you can probably catch this one in the theatres.

Original sin

What revolting trash does Hindi cinema throw up your way these days? Dhoom 2 must be the worst movie made last year, and the one before that. If movies were until now organic, this one is plastic and looks as if shot on plastic. Look at Aishwarya's body for example. It isn't so hard to notice her. She struts abouts in barely enough clothes. Has anything except Barbie ever looked so plastic? And to think that this trash ran at Satyam for over a week. Ponder on the miniscule intellectual powers of the morons who enjoyed this movie. Who do people love movies which are logically impossible. Watching it was an exercise in self-degradation for me.

*******
The Saint is an old favourite. It can be adolescent fun, especially when Elizabeth Shue takes out the papers in which she has written the top secret notes for nuclear fission from her bra. Val Kilmer, in his hey days in this 1997 film, cakewalks through a role oozing of charm. The movie is so named because Kilmer assumes identities of saints as he travels around the world stealing expensive stuff. Why couldn't the makers of Dhoom 2 learn from the makers of The Saint? Did they even watch The Saint? I doubt it. Footnote: The Saint in itself isn't so great.

Salaam-E-Ishq

The story is about a set of six couples facing different problems in their relationships. Salman Khan and Priyanka lead the pack. Stories are like the movie Love Actually adapted to the Indian situation. Rex Theatre in Bangalore where I watched the movie was empty except for a couple who were holding hands and smiling in a lost kind of way. They left soon after the interval. The movie was really bad, though it did have a few funny moments. But when the plot gets serious, the ensemble cast, including Anil Kapoor and Juhi Chawla, overdoes it. Stay away from this flick unless u enjoy mindlessly stupid movies.


Meanwhile, JJ has been writing about new age jazz. Have a look.