In Bruges (2008)

 There is something special in the old laid back town of Bruges. The streets, pavements, buildings, waterways all have stories of centuries hidden in them. Its existence in today's world is itself an irony  to start with. And the kind of nobility, wickedness, lightness and darkness within the realm, is also similar. The film is filled with ironies of many kinds, mixed beautifully with comedy, friendship and a surprise element of death waiting at each turn. This concoction is not unique to movies but the taking here is brilliant enough to warrant a specialty to this particular film

Colin Farrell lives up to the script, probably carrying it forward ably while standing alongside performers like Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes. The complex intertwinings of emotion in duty and professionalism are used very well by slow dialogue and body language, a not so common element in action movies. The character arc completes with Ray's atonement, thus cementing Ken's belief in him to be so. It somehow made me believe for a while that it is worth all the drama, that Ray is worth all that. A lot happens for worthiness in movies but there is always an easy balance in things that are so that drives me to it. I think Jimmy's role in this is a Deus ex Machina that is fitted to add more to the surprises that the movie's ending is filled with, just too many, too many that spoil the picture built carefully for such a long time. 

Gold stands for warmth in the movie.
Maroon is used to foreshadow a special character.

These morale highgrounds and their conflicts with human emotions are probably well played through the setting. The setting becomes the movie and what better way than this. Bruges is a lifeless monument of a town filled with rigid stone and sharp angles, a spectacle, a bemusement, where grey, dull yellow, and black in overcast skies form the day, every day. It stands for all that that happens in it except the unnecessary high drama of an action thriller at its very end. Out of the grotesqueness, the roads, darkness, tainted walls, glimmers of light, and everything around, bits of joy, of deep emotions seep in spreading out into the tale and us. A thoroughly enjoyable masterpiece for the head and heart. 

School of Rock (2003)

Genre: Comedy

Theme: Rock Music

Undercurrent: Self-belief, Team work

Language: English

School of Rock is an adventure film about a wannabe rock star Dewey (by Jack Black). He is an extremely positive person with lots of confidence upon himself and his music but fails too often to be taken seriously. He lives upon the generosity of his friend/former band mate Ned (by Mike White) and his girlfriend. Dewey steals a substitute teaching job from his friend and uses the talented students to form a band to win a local contest called 'Battle of Bands'. Here is Dewey, the opportunist who takes everything possible to enforce his will on his life.

This must be the role that Jack Black is born for. He lives it, literally. The fun never stops. The energy is vibrant and everywhere. There isn't a moment in the movie where the music or the vibe stopped. There is music, there is comedy that clicks, the jokes are funny, the sentiments are just enough, casting is good and the acting is awesome. The conversations are so well written that one doesn't feel the cliche moments taking off at any time. Screenplay by Mike White is simple yet very effective. All the kids are given roles that fit their age, thus keeping the 'cheering to innocence' part of the movie alive. This must have been a cult hit.

The classes called 'Rock Appreciation' and 'Rock History' show the profound respect that the makers have for music. To have such a scene for so long might be a director's vision but a producer's risk. All must be credited for the boldness and sincerity in what they believed is the subject of the movie. The risk is worth it and it helps connect the audience to the passion of the protagonist. We should have more such respect for the subjects in every movie, that helps understand the background better. 

Although the pre-climax is filled with cliche challenges, the music given by the band covers it up towards the end. The movie rocks full of smart humour that is enlivened by the performance of Jack Black. Being a rock artist himself, Jack Black must have felt the character to the heart as he eases through the general expressions and body language to great comedy timing and some personal touches in each scene that make a lot of difference each time. The Oscars may have overseen his work, as they do with most comedians, but that is their loss. This is comedy at its best.

Bad Ma Ra Khahad Bord (1999)

Genre: Symbolist
Theme: A rural landscape in Iran
Undercurrent: Contrasts of urban and village living
Language: Persian
Watched it with English subtitles

Behzad Dourani (as Engineer ) is a broadcast journalist and the lead assigned to cover an unusual funeral ceremony in a remote Kurdish village hundreds of miles outside of Tehran. He keeps his identity hidden so as to not appear like a person waiting for death in the community. As the Engineer lives in this remote village, Abbas Kiarostami (the director) takes us through the landscape in a journey that is slow and enchanting. The Engineer moves from his urban life to embrace a shy rural life, that is beautiful and protective of itself. This is symbolically shown in his flirting with the girl while she milks the cow in the dark. This contrast is shown through out and is used in a subtle way to show the vast differences in lifestyles and thinking, which both amazes and endeared me. 

The movie also moves by a first-person narration. The entire story is how the Engineer sees everything. But the director urges us to see the big tree on the side of the road, the curvy lengthy roads and the dry landscape in detail through narration and technique. The director uses unpredictability and mystery everywhere as nothing is certain. The humor comes from the clash of lifestyles, from the unknown and his way of being in a world he is clueless about. The plot is way too simple but the writing sticks strongly to a thriller style suspense over everything - even leaving some questions unanswered at the end because such is the way of life as we see it around us. 

The Engineer has to drive every single time to a cemetery to be able to use his cell phone and connect to his world, that is the city. Every time this happens, he passes over poultry or cattle. Each scene he lives has hills filled with crops, the friendliness of a sensitive village boy, woman bearing her 10th child casually, the fights between a couple who run a tea shop, food being sent over by everyone to the dying woman, women walking to the funeral in large numbers , kicking the tortoise around and so on. We also have the life perspective of a kind doctor which tells us of our inappreciativeness of nature around us and the beauty that we live in, which is exactly what the movie has opened up for all. My favorite scene is the conversation of the Engineer and the Doctor. The superb performance of Behzad Dourani brilliantly portrays the director's view while the rest of the cast is all of village people which can be felt strongly by their shyness in front of the camera which made it feel like a documentary with a thin plot. The movie is like a folk poem where the romance is all in the eyes that see the movie. This is a wonderful narration by subtle story-telling and conveying by symbols which is rarely explored.

Neadekvatnye lyudi (2010)

Genre: Romedy

Theme: Love

Undercurrent: Self improvement

Language: Russian

Watched it: On Youtube with English subtitles

30 year old Vitaly (Ilya Lyubimov) is a single guy trying to start a decent life, a life different from his normality. As he moves to Moscow to get over his guilty past, he befriends Kristina (by Ingrid Olerinskaya), a 20 year old girl. He also happens to be the find for his nymphomaniacal boss Marina (by Yuliya Takshina). As Vitaly and Kristina realize their love for each other to come over the hurdle of their age gap, they understand how they are different and embrace it. 

This movie moves upon conversations. The plot is neither rich nor does it have any special points of interest. All the scenes are shot in limited spaces - Vitaly's apartment, Kristina's apartment, Marina's office room, Vitaly's desk, a small pub, some shots of the office, one at a bar and 2 on road. This movie is on a shoe-string budget which can be seen at many places - the inconsistency with lighting, colorist's faults, inadequate music, lack of good background music, mistakes in recording etc., but the movie is a good treat. It was an enjoyable and happy watch. 

The innocence and quirkiness of a teenager are always happy to watch if one keeps out their attitude problems. As Kristina learns to interact and be positive about the world around her, Vitaly tries to forget some of his past and mend his ways to be a better person. Both become key to each other in this process and this blossoms into love. This change is so beautifully presented and well constructed that at any point, we just feel exactly what the line is - never a bit more, never a bit less - just that fine line from friendship to love. This is done keeping the insecurities and strengths of the lead pair intact which makes us feel for them and appreciate their growth. Screenplay, editing and direction are the highlights of this wonderful movie that keeps the elements of Russian art intact. 

As each character moves about to different changes through the line - as a mother appreciates her daughter, a psychologist understanding his patient, a girl appreciating people, a man finding love, a colleague moving through depression and so on, the elements merge into the story beautifully. This has been a feature that is common with most Russian dramas and is very endearing. My favorite scene is the last between mother and daughter - as the mother cries and moves her fears aside, her young daughter opens her wings into the world. To show change as it happens, the director uses subtle techniques with light, placing of characters, movement and body language. These are hard to depict as the actors just scrape through except the woman who played the mother's role, she stood way above everyone despite the brief role. While the innocence from her age carried Ingrid Olerinskaya half-way, she performed satisfactorily but the challenging role of Vitaly was a bit too much for Ilya Lyubimov as he failed to portray enough seriousness in many places, often being rigid at sensitive parts. The chemistry between them is missing in some places but is managed by using camera angles and nice dialogues. 

As the movie is made on a $100,000 budget, which is what some short films spend, it projects the talent of Roman Karimov (who made a brief cameo as a barman). And to do so in the budget, he has donned many caps including music, writing, and direction. I am eager to see what this talent can deliver, given better budget and technology. This movie reminds me a lot of Gautham Menon's works. 

Creed (2015)

Genre: Sports Drama

Theme: Fighting against odds

Undercurrent: Accepting oneself

Language: English

Watched it at a multiplex

After 'The Expendables', Sylvester Stallone is written off as a spent force. But Creed (call it Rocky 7) proved otherwise by superb direction from Ryan Coogler and cinematography/camera work by Maryse Alberti. I was so happy to see Stallone deliver emotion and raw pain so beautifully - you can feel it and sympathize with him instantly. Rocky is back but the punches here are from Adonis "Hollywood Donnie" Creed (played by Michael B. Jordan). Like the first Rocky, this movie also has a sweet love story that explores the softer side of what is otherwise anger, work-out and ferocity. Bianca (by Tessa Thompson), as an ambitious singer, probably signifies a changing role of leading women since the time of Rocky. She also stands along with the theme of positivity in pursuing a career in music despite issues with hearing. The movie's feel is a rip-off in all ways from the original Rocky and that is what is expected of it. Just as in the first Rocky, "Conlan won the fight, but Donnie won the night" says the commentator at the end of the match. 

Donnie is an ambitious youngster who is brash. He fights against half his identity but finds his passion in the same. He want to know his father and boxing, and reaches out to Rocky Balboa who is now left alone after the death of his wife and friends. This part of the movie is set up slowly, almost as a drag. As the personality unfolds later and the dynamics kick in, the drag seems worthy. It was courageous of the writer to believe in the strength of his characters to take such a time building them in a sports drama - like a full length drama, almost. 

Donnie finds love in Bianca and a mentor in Rocky who shields, guides and trains him. He throws around him the right people and the Rocky attitude. This has to be seen by the personality of Donnie in the final bout. Special mention must go to the fight sequence shot in a single scene, written by Ryan Coogler and Aaron Covington. It felt raw and took me right into the ring - spectacular. How did the cameraman get the scene so perfectly? I am also surprised at how authentic it looked despite being a hard experiment.

Alongside Donnie who learns to embrace his identity, Rocky is a man in pain whose ever-positive attitude has changed. He must learn to fight a different battle with cancer. As he fights his cancer, one to which his wife succumbed to, he gets to be a better man. There is a happier smile on him by the end and that is good to watch. The movie's finish at the steps of Philadelphia Art Museum is nostalgic and is my favorite. It is Rocky's pain that I felt most and his joy was what I cheered for. Stallone always excelled in portraying pain within but here he takes it to another level. Rocky is back very strongly. 

Maheshinte Prathikaram (2016)

Genre: Comedy

Theme: Love

Undercurrent: Revenge

Language: Malayalam

Watched it in a multiplex with English subtitles

If you see yourself through your youthful days, how many times will you laugh or smirk at least. Are there moments of pain from a break-up that are washed out by fresh love? When did you first discover the artist in you and what have you done with that art? Do you have good friends? Are you really serious about promises? Can you forgive the girl who cheated on you with a whole heart? If the answer to the above are true, you are almost like photographer-lover boy Mahesh Bhavana (played by Fahadh Faasil), our protagonist. The only difference is that you wouldn't have probably taken a humiliating beating for no wrong of yours. Even if you did, you wouldn't have been egoistic enough to say that you will walk bare feet till you avenge it. Even if you are crazy enough to do so, have you taken kung-fu classes to do so? If you watch the movie, you will know how Mahesh Bhavana takes all this to the next level. 

The storyline is simple, as simple as the characters and the place Idukki. The movie starts with a song that says how beautiful Idukki is and the cinematographer Shyju Khalid and the colorist excels in blending the colours and beauty of this quaint village in the hills with the story excellently. You would feel fresh but not from out of the context of daily life in a village. Good music with some sweet lyrics set up the love stories very well. There isn't a moment in the movie one is bored and all the credit goes to the editor (Saiju Sreedharan), scriptwriter (Shyam Pushkaran) and director (Dileesh Pothan) of the movie. Costumes by Sameera Sanish probably had an easy job making them pitch-perfect to each occasion and character. The tight teamwork by all the departments has succeeded in elevating the story to a good movie and not as a link-up of pretty shots or short films as is the trend today. 

Fahadh Faasil's failure in Bangalore Days disappointed me. I went with not much expectations on the lead, I was wrong and pleasantly surprised. Here is a guy who is capable of acting at elevated levels with ease, some one who is headed straight to the level of Mohan Lal. He fits the character so well that at no time can you see him make a mistake - every look, move and expression works out very well. Despite his relatively small frame, hands and feet, he has done these raw action scenes convincingly. I just kept looking at the sync between his body and his face features - as shoulders droop when his face goes down slowly and his back arches with it along with improvisations like looking away and not straight down and so on - brilliant work. This is followed by some amazing comedy timing from him. He is well assisted by Alencier Ley (Baby) and Soubin Shahir (Crispin) who produced enough dialogue and situation based comedy to match that of the towering performance from Fahadh Faasil. Aparna Balamurali (as Jimcy), Anushree (as Soumya) and K J Antony (as Mahesh's father) were good in their limited roles. The energy brought by Aparna to Jimcy's character helped the second half stand up to the first half as it is not easy to watch two different love stories back-to-back. 

My favorite scene is that of Mahesh getting inspired from his father's work as he develops a wonderful picture of a bat flying towards banana flowers that he photographed by patiently sitting in a banana grove for hours in the night - it was both surprising and sweet. The specialty of the movie is all in its ability to produce those little smiles and gentle humour throughout without losing strength in the main character. The drawback is also nearly that, the movie just moves around the main character whose arc is simple but distinctive while the rest play supporting roles. All of these generate so many types of comedy that you will feel fresh and laughing throughout - be it farce, sentiment, manners, satire, general humour and romantic comedy. Such a whole set of comedy is a big plus for the movie, a wonderful work by Shyam Pushkaran. A big applause should go to the effort taken to use only the elements of everyday life that can be formed from the main plot to generate that humour. As the story takes 5 unexpected turns, there is plenty of room to create plots for all types of comedy. Every bit is what we do or see in our daily life and there is nothing too artificial about it except a couple of farce scenes. The surprising thing is that it worked so well, despite trying so much in so little, that shows in Hyderabad have been running full since its release but Hyderabad's language is not Malayalam. As Dileesh Pothan appears in a hilarious cameo (the pic above) - "chin up, shoulders down, chin down, eyes open, ready", smile. 

The River Why (2010)

Genre: Coming of age
Theme: Fly-fishing
Undercurrent: Relationships
Language: English
Watched it over the internet at 1080p

I always wonder how screenwriters believe that they can convert a good novel into a film. In a book, the author has the advantage of time, the audience's imagination and the kind of readers who are willing to spend days to get to the feeling. The last part is the most crucial for novels like 'The River Why' by David J. Duncan, who is a conservationist and an outdoors person. It takes time to connect with nature and a lot of patience to understand that connection. By staying true to the pace of the novel and that feeling, the director and editors have made a gamble that I appreciate. For the first 20 minutes, the movie moves at a brisk pace only to set up the slow style of fly-fishing in scenic locations - minutes seem hours, but never boring.

Leaving a family of fishing-greats, Gus Overston (by Zac Gilford) finds his spiritual self in the woods by living and fishing solo. He lives in a secluded cabin to pursue fly-fishing with great passion. Occasionally visited by outsiders, and his romantic interest Eddy (by Amber Heard), his interactions with the world and with himself in this journey make a deeply philosophical movie that needs lot of patience to appreciate. The climax twist, which is my favorite scene too, is very special as it elevates Gus beyond a good fisherman and into a league of irrational men who have felt the heart of adventure and life. The act of fishing is a self-contemplative passion where the silent journey is the reward than the destination itself. At times, it reminded me of 'The Old Man and the Sea' by Ernest Hemingway. 

The beauty of such a movie relies heavily on its photography. As it is to be shot near water, deep woods and in shade many times, the task was not easy. Cinematography by Karsten Gopinath and the camera crew takes us to amazing places all over Oregon. Such is the impact of it that I felt like going off for months to a place like that because the scenery is amazing. Such commendable work is associated with a mediocre plot where the family ties go no where. Music seems too repetitive and is just about acceptable. Among the actors, except the lead, the rest just fade away. Overall, this movie is a good watch because of the honesty and respect given to the sport of fly-fishing. The character development of Gus makes an excellent coming-of-age movie that will be as memorable as the efforts put in to understand it.