Cinemascope

Tokyo Story [1953]

2012-02-12T19:59:00.005+05:30

Akira Kurosawa has always been the face for Japanese cinema to the international audience, but when it came to artistic brilliance his compatriot Yasujiro Ozu deserves equal acclaim. Tokyo Story would probably remain Ozu’s greatest and most famous work, as this quietly observant, deeply melancholic, and meditative film has come to be recognized as a landmark in world cinema. The film chronicles a few days in the lives of an aged couple who decide to visit Tokyo in order to spend a few days with their children. Unfortunately, their children have their own lives to lead, and though their displeasure remains subtle for most parts, it’s still palpable to them. The old and lovable couple has a good time at the bustling metropolis, but deep within they feel sorrow that their children have moved away from them from an emotional standpoint. The only person who cares for them during their stay at Tokyo is, ironically, the widowed wife of their dead son. The film’s elegiac tone and the inherent sadness of its content have the ability to move anyone, yet one can never call the film bleak or depressing. Despite the numerous sorrows that life puts in one’s path, the director hasn’t turned into a cynic and neither have the film’s two protagonists. Consequently the movie’s deeply-felt humanism and its willingness to appreciate the small joys in everyday life – like the serenity that the couple feels by quietly sitting in front of the beach, or the nostalgic throwback that the husband experiences by joining in for drinks with two of his old friends – made this lovingly paced and beautifully acted film a deeply affecting and emotionally resonating masterpiece.

Director: Yasujiro Ozu
Genre: Drama/Family Drama
Language: Japanese
Country: Japan

The French Connection [1971]

2012-02-11T12:11:00.003+05:30

The French Connection, with its gritty, visceral and action-packed tale of two unconventional, no-nonsense New York city cops taking the drug mafias down through their doggedness, craftiness and courage, became one of the most influential American movies of the 70’s and provided the template for many such buddy-cop action films to follow in later decades. However, what separated it from most of its imitators were its in-your-face display of brutality, its hard-edged realism in its depiction of the Big Apple and the ensuing grime and grunge, and its bleak and fatalistic finale (as opposed to happy endings where everything gets tied together properly). The two police detectives in this film, viz. Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle (Gene Hackman) and his partner Buddy Russo (Roy Scheider), were the classic angry cop/cool cop duo and their contrasting personalities provided a major drive for the story. The movie was shot in a near cinema verite style – the visuals are completely bereft of any form of stylizations, while the narrative too is suitably jagged and rough to complement the film’s proceedings, and its on-location shots provided the kind of portrayal of the city that was anything but romanticized. And not to forget, the movie comprised of one of the most spectacular and iconic chase sequences where Doyle, oblivious of the safety of civilians, makes a mad dash in a forcibly acquired car while trailing an elevated train with which a hired killer is trying to escape. The film is well enacted and very well paced, too.

Director: William Friedkin
Genre: Crime Thriller/Action/Police Detective Film
Language: English
Country: US

Meghe Dhaka Tara (The Cloud-Capped Star) [1960]

2012-02-07T23:40:00.005+05:30

Meghe Dhaka Tara, the first in Ritwik Ghatak’s “Partition Trilogy” which also comprised of Komal Gandhar and Subarnarekha, is considered the greatest masterpiece of the mercurial genius, and remains a seminal achievement in the history of Indian cinema. Ghatak took the otherwise pejorative melodramatic tradition of Indian cinema to stratospheric heights with this heartbreaking examination of the socio-political repercussions of partition, as he did with the other two films belonging to this landmark trilogy of his. The film’s central character is Neeta (a stellar performance by Supriya Chowdhury), the sole breadwinner of her impoverished refugee family. All those around her – her irascible mother, her hedonistic sister, her younger brother, and her spineless fiancé – are classic examples of self-centeredness and opportunism; yet Neeta silently cares for them with all her heart despite the enormous grief she suffers in the process. Only her erudite father and her elder brother Shankar (Anil Chatterjee), who aspires to be a classical singer, reciprocate her love and appreciate her sacrifice; unfortunately, they are either too weak or too preoccupied to really stand up for her. Music, as in all his films, plays a huge role here too in terms of emphasizing its downbeat mood and strangely liberating tone. It in fact boasts of one of the most incredible uses of Tagore’s song where whiplashes are used to stress upon, with devastating effect, Neeta’s inner turmoil and crushing grief. The scene where Neeta finally screams out to Shankar, now an established maestro, that she wants to live (“Dada ami banchte chai”), is not just powerful and debilitating, but transcendental too. The film ends with a darkly ironic depiction of the sad but inherent cyclicity of life.

Director: Ritwik Ghatak
Genre: Drama/Family Drama/Social Drama
Language: Bengali
Country: India

Limelight [1952]

2012-02-06T14:55:00.006+05:30

Limelight, for all practical purposes, could very well be considered as Chaplin’s swansong, as it was composed in the form of an ode to his profession and his life, and was made at a time when he was a political pariah. An ageing former tramp-comedian, who is no more a name to be reckoned with, is desperately hoping for an encore and one final hurrah – the storyline, as can be easily appreciated, is highly autobiographical in nature, and is filled with dollops of nostalgia and melancholia. Chaplin himself played the role of Calvero, the drunken protagonist who dreams of his glorious past, that is when he is not taking care of Terry (Claire Bloom), a beautiful suicidal girl and former ballerina whose responsibility got entrusted to him by chance rather than by choice. Despite its rather melancholic and deeply affecting theme – hell, this was probably one of the rare films in which Chaplin dies in the end – it has no dearth of comic gags, witticisms and humour. The dream sequence where Calvero and Terry are conversing with each other in ironic one-liners was ample proof that Chaplin was still the genius with words and comedy that he always was. And the sequence near the end where he teamed up with Buster Keaton, arguably his greatest contemporary but now an ageing man himself, well, that sure took the cake for me – if not for anything, to see two of the great masters on the same pedestal. The background score, composed by Chaplin himself, remains another highlight of the film. Yes, the movie is unabashedly sentimental and a tad wordy too for its own good, and nowhere close to Chaplin’s best works, but it also remains a film worth savouring for all cinephiles.

Director: Charlie Chaplin
Genre: Comedy/Drama/Showbiz Drama
Language: English
Country: US

Pitfall [1948]

2012-02-05T23:58:00.004+05:30

The phrase ‘American Dream’ has historically symbolized hope for better times; yet, dreams can be dark, crippling and shallow, too, and this in essence formed the core theme of this excellent albeit underrated and largely unrecognized film noir. Like most archetypal noirs, the movie shows the slow but sure disintegration of a model happy family owing to a casual mistake (if I’m allowed to use that word) committed by the head of the family. John Forbes (Dick Powell) leads a seemingly contended life – he’s a well-to-do insurance man, has a beautiful wife and a cute little son. But, from his very first appearance it becomes clear that he’s not really satisfied with his routine existence, and as a logical consequence to his sense of ennui and dissatisfaction with his status quo, he ends up having an affair with a client of his – a classic damsel-in-distress (Lizabeth Scott). In a world as dark and doomed as in noirs, adultery is inevitably followed with blackmail and murder, and Forbes’ life to ends up following that downward spiraling path. Powell gave a startling turn as a man who, like classic noir anti-heroes, who strays despite having everything to lose – he perfectly managed to make his character both utterly believable and subtly tragic through his composed performance. The supporting turns, too, were noteworthy, especially that of Raymond Burr as a seedy and psychotic private eye with an imposing physical presence. This moody and compelling film painted a truly desolate and distressing picture of life, the ephemeral nature of happiness and how everything one cherishes can fall apart so easily courtesy just one inadvertent indiscretion.

Director: Andre De Toth
Genre: Crime Drama/Film Noir
Language: English
Country: US

The Joke (Zert) [1968]

2012-02-04T21:27:00.005+05:30

The Joke, adapted from the debut novel of the same name by the famed Czech writer Milan Kundera, and directed by Jaromil Jires, was one of the most politically charged movies to have come out of the Czech New Wave movement. That, combined with its subversive humour and sharp commentary on the then-totalitarian regime, ensured that it was promptly banned by the powers that by. The joke that the movie’s title refers to was an innocuous and a tad cynical statement made by the film’s protagonist, Ludvik, to his frigid and politically-bent fiancé during his college days in the Stalinist-era – and this had resulted in his expulsion both from the Party and university. Now, a couple of decades later, the middle-aged, embittered and even more cynical Ludvik (excellently played by Josef Somr) has returned Prague with the sole intention of exacting revenge on his buddy who had done him in all those years back, by seducing his wife. The narrative of this crisply timed film regularly alternates between the past and the present, thus deftly revealing the changed perspective of the protagonist as well as his inability to disassociate with the events – the betrayal by his girlfriend and his friends, as also his compulsory days in the army and forced labour in the mines, that destroyed his life, filled him with bitterness and disillusionment, and turned him into an isolated person. The allegorical story, filled with pinching wit and a rather bleak point-of-view of life, marvelously portrayed the dehumanizing nature of the Communist society, and how the diktat for optimism and emphasis on the community breaks the spirit of the individual. The director also made absolutely terrific use of music to accentuate the sense of loss, loneliness and sadness.

Director: Jaromil Jires
Genre: Drama/Political Satire
Language: Czech
Country: Czech Republic (erstwhile Czechoslovakia)

The Descendants [2011]

2012-02-02T22:46:00.005+05:30

Alexander Payne returned to the director’s chair for a feature film a good seven years after his last film, Sideways, with this one, but the end product is a proof of the fact that he hasn’t really lost any of his touch. The Descendants, which is a movie about one man’s vain attempts at coping with loss, tragedy and infidelity, that, despite its seriocomic tone, is filled with warmth, poignancy and a certain degree of exuberance – and this makes this film quite unique in his filmography since Payne is mostly associated with biting satires. Matt King (George Clooney) is a well-off Hawaiian workaholic who is on the threshold of earning millions by selling a piece of real estate. However, he’s struck by tragedy when his wife becomes comatose after a boat accident, which gets further amplified when he learns that his wife was having an affair behind his back. The fact that he has never spent much time with his two daughters, especially his teenage daughter who has had some issues with addiction, has made his situating that much more delicate and difficult. George Clooney has given a gently affecting and restrained performance as a family man who seems to be at his wit’s end at the sudden turn of events. Payne underscored most of the dramatic moments as a result of which one might feel a tad hoodwinked from the standpoint of the film’s emotional content, and neither did he take us to any great depths so to speak; but he also interjected the film’s rather serious theme with moments of wry humour and subtle jabs at social mores which nicely complemented both the pathos and the few moments of contentedness that the characters experience.

Director: Alexander Payne
Genre: Drama/Comedy/Family Drama
Language: English
Country: US

A Dangerous Method [2011]

2012-02-01T14:16:00.003+05:30

David Cronenberg has travelled a long way over the course of his eventful career – from shocking body horror and grotesque sexual imagery to the movies he’s been making in the last few years, which, in comparison, appear almost mainstream on account of their restraint and understated natures. A Dangerous Method, in which he’s chronicled the complex and deteriorating relationship between two legendary figures of 20^th century – Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen), father of psychoanalysis, and Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender), father of analytical psychology and a disciple of the former during his earlier days. To complicate matters further, the presence of the Russian-Jewish lady Sabrina Spielrein (Keira Knightley), initially a patient of Jung but later goes on to become a psychoanalyst herself, creates an uneasy and turbulent psychological triangle of sorts between them. The film is extremely verbose in nature thus necessitating undivided attention from the viewers; further most sequences that had dramatic potential have been deliberately underplayed in order to ensure that its darker themes remain well below the surface during the better parts of its length – these two facets have made this quite a different experience for Cronenberg aficionados. The fact that mental degeneration and sexual deviation formed two core themes of this film would perhaps be the sole redeeming qualities for those who still equate the Canadian filmmaker with his earlier works. These apart, the simmering tension and dynamics between the two scientific giants have been very well captured, thanks in large parts to the exceptionally assured and quietly powerful turns by Mortensen and Fassbender, the matured and cerebral treatment, and the layered script.

Director: David Cronenberg
Genre: Drama/Psychological Drama/Biopic
Language: English
Country: Canada

Open Your Eyes [1997]

2012-01-31T22:10:00.004+05:30

Dreams, lucid or otherwise, make for darn interesting films, and the Spanish tech-noir (if it can really be qualified as one) Open Your Eyes sure remains a pretty good elucidation of that. This oddly compelling movie, boasting of a highly ingenious plot, is about Cesar (Eduardo Noriega), a young, handsome and insanely rich playboy whose life could very well form the dictionary definition for hedonism. However two incidents, in rapid succession drastically change his life – he finds himself falling for Sofia (Panelope Cruz), the pretty and charming date of his best friend, despite having just met her, and soon after that he meets with a debilitating car crash thanks to a jealous former lover of his that leaves his face horribly scarred. But then, are these all for real, or are they simply the figments of his imagination? Revealing anything more of the unpredictable storyline would be criminal on my front, so let me resist the temptation for doing so. Suffice it to say, this is a topsy-turvy ride and quite an interesting concoction of psychological drama, romance, mystery and science-fiction. Okay, the film isn’t the masterpiece that its fans have made it out to be – the acting is just about average, some of the plot twists could have been better dealt with, the psychological interplay between the protagonist and his friend ought to have been delved more deeply into, among others. But, that said, there’s no denying the fact this is one hell of an entertaining and engaging ride that deserves a watch – if not for anything, at least for the wildly original idea it has been based on. The film got an American remake in the form of Vanilla Sky which I plan to revisit and review sometime soon.

Director: Alejandro Amenabar
Genre: Thriller/Psychological Thriller/Sci-Fi/Romance/Mystery/Fantasy
Language: Spanish
Country: Spain

Play It Again, Sam [1972]

2012-01-29T22:30:00.005+05:30

Play It Again, Sam remains a quintessential Woody Allen film, what with it being populated with neurotic characters, its impish and sardonic take on love and relationships, and its self-deprecating humour. Yet, quite ironically, this wasn’t directed by Allen; it’s another matter though that whoever has seen his movies would know that only Woody, and no one else, could have written the its script – and that he most certainly did by adapting from his own stage play. The movie is about the relationship and consequently emotional travails faced by Allan Felix (Woody Allen), a film writer, upon his divorce. He is such a huge fan of Humphrey Bogart that the actor has become something of an alter-ego for him, guiding him through his various personal issues and turmoil. During his incessant and hilarious quest to find a fiancé he eventually falls in love with Linda (Diane Keaton), the lonely wife of his workaholic best friend Dick (Tony Roberts). The film’s title, which is a reference to Casablanca, is interestingly one of the most misquoted movie lines – the iconic final scene of the classic is screened during the opening credits and is wonderfully recreated during its climax. Though the slapstick content could have been toned down a bit (the only proof that the movie wasn’t directed by Woody himself), this does remain consistently funny and enjoyable. Interestingly, Annie Hall, arguably Woody’s greatest masterpiece along with Manhattan, could be considered a companion piece to it as it showed what would perhaps have followed had Allan and Linda got married at the end.

Director: Herbert Ross
Genre: Comedy/Romantic Comedy/Social Satire
Language: English
Country: US

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo [2011]

2012-01-29T01:58:00.005+05:30

Post the success of the Swedish thriller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, adapted from the bestselling Swedish novel of the same name written by the late Steig Larsson, it was a given that this would get remade in the US as well. Expectations were high since David Fincher took charge of the remake, and one must concede it has turned out to be a well-made and engaging thriller. The labyrinthine plot concerns how Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig), a disgraced but dogged journalist, and Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), a socially inept but brilliant computer hacker, team up to unearth a 40-year old mystery (the inexplicable disappearance of a then 16-year old girl) and a whole lot of murky secrets surrounding a famous business family. Fincher has always been known for the visual treatment and technical prowess of his films, and these facets are very much present here too. The film has also been paced well in order to ensure that the story moves forward at a near-breakneck speed, while also allowing the development of vital character dynamics and key plot angles. However, that said, I would have preferred had Fincher transplanted the story to the American context and added a more palpable stamp of his directorial touch, instead of merely going for a frame-by-frame remake of the Swedish original. He could have perhaps taken a lesson out of Let Me In, Matt Reeves’ brilliant remake of another highly acclaimed Swedish film, Let the Right One In. On the acting front, Craig has done a commendable job, while Mara, though quite good, couldn’t really match, leave alone outdo, Noomi Rapace’s unforgettable embodiment of Lisbeth’s character in the Swedish version.

Director: David Fincher
Genre: Thriller/Mystery
Language: English
Country: US

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia [2011]

2012-01-26T23:33:00.003+05:30

Acclaimed Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s latest offering might seem a murder mystery as per its premise, but upon watching it I realized it’s anything but one. Though presented in the garb of a meticulous police procedural, this is, in essence, a meditation on the dichotomies of human nature, a commentary on the socio-political milieu of the Turkish society, and a wonderfully captured odyssey that is as much physical as it is psychological. Based within a span of a day, the movie starts off with a handcuff-bound criminal, who has already confessed to a murder, being taken around by the cops through the Turkish wilderness in order to locate the place where the dead man’s body has been buried. Soon enough we are introduced to the three world-weary principal characters of the storyline whose innermost psyches and carefully wrapped dark impulses have been finely delineated – a police detective (Yilmaz Erdogan), a public prosecutor (Taner Birsel), and a doctor (Muhammet Uzuner). The film is deliberately paced and is extremely verbose in nature; consequently, one might find it to be a challenging watch. However, if one manages to glean through the seemingly irrelevant conversations, one would find this to be a surprisingly perceptive, darkly comic and brilliantly enacted film for the way the director has subtly managed to capture the various layers and mindsets of the characters. Ceylan’s love for breathtaking outdoor shots would be well known to anyone who has seen his earlier movies like Uzak, Climates, etc., and that trend has continued here too, as we are presented with such extremely well-framed compositions that have made it a visual treat.

Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Genre: Drama/Psychological Drama/Police Procedural/Road Movie
Language: Turkish
Country: Turkey

Moneyball [2011]

2012-01-26T02:12:00.004+05:30

Bennett Miller had shown incredible maturity as a filmmaker with his debut film Capote. Consequently it was but natural that Moneyball was greeted with considerable anticipation, more so for the fact that, this, which is only his second movie, has been made a whopping six years after the first. Adapted from a best-selling non-fiction, the movie is about Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), a washed out former player who, as the GM of just another pushover team, ends up reshaping the scouting process in big-league baseball. In this unconventional journey of his he gets a partner in the form of an Ivy League Economics grad, and the two, to the severe discontentment of all those around them, use analytical tools as opposed to intuition while signing players for their team. And the result of this radical approach turned out to be nothing short of a landmark. One reviewer aptly summed up the film with the words that, one needn’t be a baseball enthusiast to appreciate this movie, and I couldn’t agree more with that as I’m a classic example of a person who had a nice time watching it despite never having followed the game. The reason for that is actually quite simple – it is not so much about the game as what happens behind the scenes, and hence could have been equally relevant had the game in question had been, say, football (soccer), cricket or any other big-budget team sports. The film is leisurely paced and is largely devoid of any spectacular buildups or scintillating moments; it is, rather, quietly engaging thanks to the subtlety in the script and the understated nature of its emotional content. Brad Pitt is spot-on as the unassuming protagonist with the courage to deviate from the tried and tested path. Phillip Seymour Hoffman, however, might have been in the film only for old-times’ sake as his role didn’t really need to be graced by a powerful thespian like him.

Director: Bennett Miller
Genre: Drama/Sports Drama/Biopic
Language: English
Country: US

The Turin Horse [2011]

2012-01-24T03:12:00.007+05:30

In his final offering as a filmmaker, Hungarian maestro Bela Tarr has created a movie that is so complex, layered and rich, structurally and tonally, that one must put in some efforts in order to appreciate its power and beauty. This profound, minimalistic, quietly observant and deeply philosophical work is a bleak and distressing examination of pain and suffering; yet, quite oddly, Tarr imbued the film with an understated sense of humanism amidst all the gloom and despair. In Turin on 3^rd January 1889, as the opening voiceover instructs us, Friedrich Nietzsche witnessed the flogging of a horse by its driver for refusing to move, upon which the German philosopher intervened by throwing his arms around the stubborn animal. This incident is said to have deeply impacted Nietzsche, but unfortunately no one knows what happened to the horse, and this is essentially what Tarr attempts at. He extrapolates till five days after that incident, and thus we get to meet an aged farmer and his daughter who are struggling to eke out some form of survival despite their poverty-stricken lives – more so since their horse is refusing to even eat, leave alone work. With the harsh weather outside their home which is located at the middle of nowhere, what with relentless blizzard and biting cold, their world couldn’t get any more desolate. The film opens with a bravura long-take where we are placed right in front of the nose of the tired-looking horse, with an ominous organ-based background score further accentuating the mood – and this trend continues till the end as the movie is shot using slightly more than a couple of dozen takes. Silently roving cameras are used to capture the mundane and cyclical lives of the two characters (one can easily observe the arduous gruel that the two actors, especially the lady, had to endure while enacting their roles). Stunning B/W photography made Tarr’s masterful swansong look achingly beautiful despite its fatalistic vision.

Director: Bela Tarr
Genre: Drama/Philosophical Drama/Family Drama
Language: Hungarian
Country: Hungary

Rise of the Planet of the Apes [2011]

2012-01-23T20:10:00.005+05:30

Planet of the Apes has been amongst the longest running as also one of the most successful film series. The 1968 original spawned four sequels as also a remake by Tim Burton. Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the latest addition to the 43-year old franchise, is a prequel to the first film. The film chronicles how Caesar, the offspring of a genetically modified chimpanzee, which was secretly taken to his home and made part of his family by a scientist (James Franco) engaged in cutting-edge research on finding a cure for Alzheimer, eventually takes the evolutionary leap owing to his high intelligence; he becomes the leader of a revolution against the humans by the chimps, thus kick-starting a fight for world dominance. The movie boasts of spectacular special-effects and a number of scintillating set-pieces and action sequences. The superbly staged and choreographed face-off at the Golden Gate Bridge is worth watching. However, that said, this isn't that memorable a film after all. To be frank, it takes the narrative far more time than desirable to reach its crescendo; perhaps the director was at a loss as to whether he should go for a perceptive social commentary or make a muscular action film, and he got stuck at no-man’s land in the process. Including such elements as a power-hungry boss, a sadistic janitor, etc., too seemed clichéd. Nonetheless, the film turned out to be a reasonably engaging watch despite its failings. The relationship between Caesar and his foster father, and especially his changing persona and behaviour (from that of a friendly pet to the leader of a violent rebellion), have been very well captured.

Director: Rupert Wyatt
Genre: Sci-Fi/Action
Language: English
Country: US

A Separation [2011]

2012-01-22T23:34:00.005+05:30

A Separation, despite its seemingly simple storyline, has managed to be quite a few things at once – it is a sensitive portrayal of the breakdown of marriage, a powerful take on what that entails for the couple’s kid, an affecting depiction of the various nuances that define human behaviour, a pointed observation on the utterly relative nature of truth, and a subtle commentary on Iranian society and culture. An upwardly mobile Tehran-based couple had been planning to leave their country for good; but when the husband changes his mind at the last moment in order not to abandon his Alzheimer-afflicted father, the marriage breaks down irrevocably – their sensitive young daughter becomes the only common string the couple is kept hanging by. This is the event that sparks what is to follow – an unanticipated situation of deep crisis that threatens to tear the family apart and destroy the lives of all those concerned. Excellent, naturalistic turns by every member of the cast have helped in creating a tale of severe moral dilemma, not just for the various characters involved, but the viewers as well – there aren’t any good or bad people here, they are all utterly believable and real with all their flaws and shades. By deciding not to be judgemental, but just a neutral chronicler of the proceedings, the director has managed to create an immensely humanistic film with a universalist appeal.

Director: Asghar Farhadi
Genre: Drama/Family Drama/Ensemble Film
Language: Persian
Country: Iran

Bobby Fischer Against the World [2011]

2012-01-21T23:48:00.004+05:30

Some sporting duels manage to traverse beyond the confines of the concerned sport to become socio-cultural and at times even socio-political milestones. Mohd. Ali versus George Foreman, Bjorn Borg versus John McEnroe, Ayrton Senna versus Alain Prost, etc. are some of the ones that immediately come to one’s mind. But what would perhaps take the pole position, so to speak, would be what came to be known as the “Match of the Century” – American contender Bobby Fischer taking on the Russian World Champion Boris Spassky at Reykjavik in 1972 – a match that came to symbolize the Cold War faceoff for global supremacy between the two feuding world powers. With that legendary World Chess Championship at its forefront, this gripping documentary has taken a look at the fascinating life, both his meteoric rise and his tragic fall, of iconoclastic and forever misunderstood chess prodigy Bobby Fischer. Fischer took the world of chess by storm with his incredible gameplay and his anti-establishmentarian persona; however, he was also forever haunted by his troubled childhood and his increasing mental disintegration, which in turn led to his becoming a political pariah, his erratic behaviour and self-destructive career choices, and his ultimately dying as a severely lonely person at a far-off country. Filled with enough documentary footage as well as commentaries by people who knew him personally and/or professionally, this thumping HBO docu has managed to give us a peek into the brilliant mind of one of the most iconic and enigmatic personalities of the 20^th century.

Director: Liz Garbus
Genre: Documentary/Biography/Sports Documentary
Language: English
Country: US

Jar City (Myrin) [2006]

2012-01-20T23:55:00.006+05:30

Jar City reminded me a lot about the Norwegian police procedural and psychological thriller Insomnia – both accentuated their psychological contents and excellently juxtaposed the inescapable human and societal violence against the starkly beautiful Nordic landscapes and its harsh weather. This grim, moody, intricately plotted and brilliantly paced Icelandic movie has as its centre Erlendur, a weary, jaded and chain-smoking police detective who, while investigating the brutal, messy and seemingly pointless homicide of an elderly man, stumbles upon some murky secrets including some that go as far back as three decades. The movie is presented through two different point of views – one being the meticulous procedural upon the afore-mentioned murder, with the other, shot through washed out blue filters to give a distinctive tonality to it, being on what led to the murder. Meanwhile, Erlendur’s troubled and drug-addict daughter finds it difficult to keep clean, thus adding a strong human element to his otherwise placid exterior. Thus, the personal lives of the protagonist as well that of the mysterious young man who might just be the perpetrator added emotional undertones to what could have otherwise become just another drab and convoluted exercise in crime solving. The film has a number of cleverly penned sequences and character dynamics that added layers of quiet power to the script. One of the most memorable aspects of this bleak, well-acted thriller, for me, were the number of stunning aerial shots used to capture the incredibly beautiful locales in and around Reykjavik, thus making this a visually arresting piece of work.

Director: Baltazar Kormakur
Genre: Thriller/Psychological Thriller/Mystery
Language: Icelandic
Country: Iceland

Baishe Srabon [2011]

2012-01-19T13:12:00.005+05:30

Srijit Mukherji, whose debut film Autograph earned considerable popular success, has taken a completely divergent route with Baishe Srabon (the 22^nd day of the Indian month of Shravan and the great Indian litterateur Rabindranath Tagore’s death anniversary), and is a clear indication of the director’s growing maturity as a filmmaker. This dark and noirish murder mystery, and carefully garbed morality tale, is a brave attempt at exploration of the seedy underbelly of the city of Calcutta, otherwise known for its gentility and bhadralok culture. Members of the bottommost strata of the society are getting brutally murdered leaving the police confounded; the only clues they have at their disposals are, the carefully chosen dates for the murders, and scraps of paper containing poems by some of the greatest Bengali poets left beside each of the victims. On one hand we have a young cop (Parambrato Chatterjee) begrudgingly having to accept the leadership of a moody, rough and brilliant ex-cop (Prosenjit Chatterjee) infamous for his involvement with custodial deaths and encounters; a key parallel narrative strand focusses on an angry, bitter and perennially rejected poet (director turned actor Goutam Ghose) who is a self-anointed member of the “Hungryalist Movement” which had attempted to revolutionize Bengali poetry during the heydays of 60’s and 70’s. The screenplay is a tad uneven leaving the moodiness of the story diffused at places, Parambrato is quite disappointing, and the finale seemed quite forced. However, the terrific visual treatment courtesy the expressionist photography, and the intense and powerful angst-filled performance of Ghose made the movie worth a watch. Prosenjit, too, deserves a mention for his strong turn.

Director: Srijit Mukherji
Genre: Thriller/Psychological Thriller/Mystery
Language: Bengali
Country: India

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy [2011]

2012-01-18T23:15:00.004+05:30

Tomas Alfredson, whose previous movie was the brilliant deconstructionist vampire tale Let the Right One In, changed his milieu from icy Scandinavian winter to gloomy British winter with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Adapted from the famous John Le Carre novel, this Cold War-era thriller is a complete antithesis of the kind of slick and kinetic spy thrillers one is mostly accustomed to. Alfredson has been largely faithful to the source while bringing to screen the labyrinthine cloak-and-dagger tale of deceits, conspiracies and subterfuge populated with undercover agents and double agents grappling with a complex world order. The story is about George Smiley, one of Le Carre’s most famous creations, being compelled to come out of his forced retirement in order to conduct the hush-hush job of identifying a Russian mole who has infiltrated right into the top echelons of MI6, referred to in Le Carre’s novels as the Circus. Narrative inter-cuttings and frequent flashbacks have been made ample use of in order to present Smiley’s meticulous uncovering of the resident secret agent. Gary Oldman has given a pitch-perfect performance as the glum, detached, taciturn and world-weary Smiley, as has the series of talent character actors who are part of the exquisite cast. London has been portrayed here as a perpetually wan and gray urban jungle courtesy the moody photography, and like his earlier film, this too is rich in atmosphere and is leisurely paced in order to ensure a slow but compelling buildup to the climax. Further, excellent detailing in terms of the characters’ looks, attires, art decoration, texturing, etc. to present a fine zeitgeist of the era. The unspectacular nature of the proceedings, the dry tone and the inherent bleakness of the story might make the viewing experience underwhelming for some, but they worked very well for me.

Director: Tomas Alfredson
Genre: Thriller/Spy Thriller
Language: English
Country: UK

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows [2011]

2012-01-16T18:03:00.003+05:30

Guy Ritchie was credited to have brought to screen something new and unique with his zany reinterpretation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary creation. Even though his first edition of Sherlock Holmes cannot be qualified as a great artistic achievement, it at least acted as a breath of fresh air; further, it wasn’t difficult to visualize the beginning of a new franchise. Unfortunately, and quite surprisingly, the novelty factor took a sharp downward plunge with this film despite it being only the second edition in the series. The antics of a jaded, acerbic and martial arts expert Holmes was both distracting and bland – only the presence of Robert Downey Jr. infused some life into Ritchie’s version of the super sleuth and hence managed to be one of the very few reasons for sitting through it. Further, while the first part had loads of mystery in the plot, here the principal focus was on the duel (and that too not a very cerebral one) between Holmes and his arch-nemesis Professor Moriarty – consequently the storyline was predictable, largely bereft of any surprise factor, and quite akin to any run-of-the-mill thriller. Thankfully, it does continue to boast of exquisite set-designs and cinematography, thus managing very well in capturing the Victorian era. It also has enough hyperbolic action sequences thrown in to keep the audience involved – the final showdown was especially good in its reimagining of the classic Reichenbach Falls finale in The Final Problem. But, these apart, the movie was mostly forgettable and disappointing.

Director: Guy Ritchie
Genre: Action/Thriller/Mystery
Language: English
Country: UK

Down by Law [1986]

2012-01-15T23:39:00.005+05:30

Jim Jarmusch attained instant renown with the seminal Indie film Stranger than Paradise. Down by Law, his follow-up to the earlier film carried forward a number of thematic strands – the general sense of aimlessness among the protagonists, the rambling narrative, the idiosyncratic tone, an odyssey of sorts taken by the whimsical characters, among others. This unlikely buddy film has three principal characters who have incidentally ended up in the same jail-cell in New Orleans – while Jack (John Lurie), a pimp, and Zack (Tom Waits), a former disk-jockey, have been imprisoned for crimes they haven’t committed, Roberto (Roberto Benigni), a cheerful Italian tourist who, ironically, happens to be the only one among the three who isn’t wrongly accused. Though initially dismissed by Jack and Zack for his nerdish behaviour and oddly funny demeanour, Roberto, or “Bob” as he prefers to be called, turns out to be the most resourceful of the three; he doesn’t just help them escape from the prison, but also provides them with one hell of a lucky break post their directionless travails in the Louisiana bayous. The movie’s distinctive aesthetics was another reason that made it a companion piece to the groundbreaking Stranger in Paradise – the glorious black-and-white photography, the excellent yet low-key background score, the dry and deadpan humour, the fascinating character study of the three rudderless drifters and oddball anti-heroes, the languorous pacing, the strangely infectious character dynamics, so on and so forth. All the three lead actors really owned their characters in this brilliant Jarmusch film, with Roberto Benigni being most delightful to watch for his carefree and malapropism-laden role.

Director: Jim Jarmusch
Genre: Comedy/Existentialist Comedy/Buddy Film/Road Movie
Language: English
Country: US