An Jo’s Viewings (Updated)

Promising Young Woman
Carey Mulligan becomes, indeed, a promising young actress with an astonishing performance that borders on longing and psychosis. An absolutely disturbing film, with Mulligan, shedding her, oh-I-am-so-coquettish act from her previous films whether it be ‘Far from the Madding Crowd’ or ‘An Education’, delivers a no-holds barred performance for the ages. As a woman lost, because she couldn’t stand up for another woman, it is a serve-up for twiterrati-wokes. Unmissable. NOT. FOR. THE. FAMILY.

THE BODYGUARD
An absolutely engrossing and nail-biting series of an Afghan-returned British soldier who is now ready to serve the Home Secretary of the ‘Great’ Britain. A superb post-traumatic stress induced performance from Richard Madden elevates the series to an altogether high: Though, the series could have gone through quite as well, I felt, without the affair between the bodyguard and the body he is protecting. A fine watch.

PS1

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ALL QUITE ON THE WESTERN FRONT (German, 2022)

A somewhat ambiguous film; and I quite didn’t understand the adulation  this film got in some departments: It did deserve awards in cinematography and make-up – else, I found it to be done-to-death movie. T

he  principal actors and the so-called subordinate actors have done quite a fantastic job; the music/background is highly deserving of the award – it is stunning and captures the crests and troughs of a soldier who’s in double minds as to the purpose of the first world war and its implications…serene when amongst his fellow-soldiers, and brutal when one’s at the war-front facing a ‘machine.’ Ultimately, it is a lens through which one man, unwittingly, and unwillingly if I may say so, sees the horrors of war. A fine film, but not a great one per my limited understanding.

KUTTEY: Only Kutteys would love this derivative shite: Sad to see talented actors like Tabu, Kumud Mishra sharing space with a tongue-hanging lap-dog Arjun Kapoor. Such, is the nature of commerce. If Guy Ritchie saw this film, he would hang himself right on the clock of the London Tower. Tabu is one flickering light in the movie, just like the iPhone torch that flickers, as per its mind.

ANTAKSHARI: (Malayalam)

This is one great film, for the performances, but also an uneven one: Still it delivers the goods a la-‘Candyman.’ Top-notch performances from the lead actor, his wife, and his jealous peers elevate the film. It is quite witty, as to why the protagonist is named ‘Das.’ Highly watchable, on OTT. Do NOT let kids watch this, it is quite brutal in that sense.

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MUKUNDAN UNNI & ASSOCIATES (Malayalam)

A delightful black comedy with blatant disrespect to accident victims, this is a film that shows life, or rather, struggling to lead a life, at its starkest. Vineeth Kumar Srinivasan plays an aging unsuccessful advocate whose advocacy always fails. His superior sense of attitude is displayed with a no-holds-‘bard’ usage of the English language vis-a-vis his comments on the ongoing mundane things — which, for us mortal beings, is life — and for the accident victims, a time for repentance: With wonderful support from his co-actors, this is a terrific watch. UNMISSABLE.

SAUDI VELLAKA (Malayalam)

Another brilliant movie based on the Indian courts and their functioning, this is a damning indictment of the slow pace of justice, the metaphor for which, is an old lady who is charged with child abuse, and now who’s well into her ’80s, played by the brilliant Devi Verma in such a quiet, dignified manner that it is time to question one’s heart if it isn’t melted; her scenes with her son and daughter-in-law are so poignant, it is difficult not to weep inside of one’s hearts. Just watch the woman waiting, with patience the length of Mount Everest, visiting the courts day-in and day-out, and respecting the judicial judgements, doling out money to the the wonderfully blinking performance of Mr. Shenoy’s assistant, who can produce false witnesses with just an offer of B&B — no, not bread and breakfast, but beer and biriyani, is comical, but heart-wrenching at the same time. This is a brilliant, terrific, and most importantly, a very, very sad testimony to the painful legal procedures, the joys of which are enjoyed by the ‘Ek Tha Driver’, and suffered by an ’80 year old woman named Ayesha Rawther…

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Quite liked MAJOR. The initial portions regarding Sandeep’s formative years were, frankly, quite tackily done, though one can understand the spirit behind it. [Such scenes were shot better in SHERSHAH I felt.]

But once the scene shifts to Major Sandeep’s first training assignment, the movie is just relentless and with a solid purpose and it reflects in each and every scene. The action scenes are fantastically shot, especially the ones in the closed corridors of the Taj. Not a single second feels over-shot or lengthy. The Pakistanis aren’t shown stereotypically but as bloody mercenaries with a purpose; cold-blooded and cold-hearted from a rogue government in our neighborhood. The scene at the end where Major just holds rests his hand on his knee and keeps shooting and is martyred is a master-stroke.

Each and everyone has acted well. Special shout-out to Revathi, Sai, followed by Prakash Raj [who, by the way, is bad in the finale when he talks of his son; hardly any sermon was needed there, by that time, the audience would have already felt the pain of the parents and Sandeep’s love for his country.]

Of course, Adivi Sesh is great as the focused and obsessed NSG. He captures the thought-processes of a man on the field very well and is excellent in action scenes. Kudos. [Loved the scene where he uses the media to screw the terrorists.]

Highly recommended. A film with razor-sharp editing and smooth flow once the action shifts to Bombay.

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RUNWAY 34: Surprisingly good movie, though very niche with airways rules and regulations involved. There is NOTHING here for the mass audience when the lead and the investigator are discussing wind knots, climate, gust, visibility in meters, fuel present to complete a landing etc., It was a gripping film for me. I won’t vouch for the engineering knowledge displayed by Ajay or Rakul; am assuming they have done their research when they throw in all the calculations when destinations keeps changing and the aircraft keeps hovering around.

Overall, an impressive film from India, and I least expected this from Ajay Devgn but the film holds one’s interest. AB Sr is a little out of place in this movie like he was in SHOOTOUT AT LOKHANDWALE [one of his WORST performances] when he is trying to impose authority. He should have tried to make it less authoritarian and perhaps, could have enacted that in a different way.

The passengers, and the cabin crew, they have all prayed their parts well. Boman with a tiny choti at the back of his head is bad and appears like he is working as a chaprasi in a bank from 9-5 and can’t wait to get out. The lawyer puts up a nice performance. Devgn’s wife is good. The woman who played Indira in BELL BOTTOM also puts up a nice performance.

I cannot vouch for the technical veracity of the scenes displayed. I hope good consultations were held before throwing in the aero terms and the pilots’ technical lingo.

Surely recommended. One of the rare movies I think, in Hindi at least, that delves into a very specific subject keeping all heroisms and the shenanigans to the side.

Note: The turbulence, the bad weather, the reactions amongst the officials of the ATC, are quite well-captured.

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Vice (2018)
This is one of the most damning films ever by Adam McKay and a scorcher of a performance by Bale as ‘Dick’ Cheney. Adam assembles his usual suspects – Bale, Steve, Amy, and delivers a hard-telling, KO punch with this movie where he spares none, including the senior and junior Bush.

I won’t write much about the movie itself but here’s a powerful film that displays America’s horrific foreign policies when it comes to so-called deliverence of ‘freedoms’ to other countries. Numerous countries and civilizations have been destroyed by this constant interruptions and excuses laid out by the US governments, be they the Dems or the Republicans. Observe how shrewdly focus groups, with people DUMB ENOUGH to not know the difference between Al-Qaeeda and a country, give thumbs-up to bombing!

Give me a name, says Dick, and a bomb is dropped where the children are playing in a park in Iraq. The arrogance with which Junior Bush agrees to bomb Iraq with his dirty cow-boy shoes hovering around on the table at the Oval office is a symbolic gesture regarding the respect that other countries he thinks deserve…

It’s a disgusting, uneasy watch, but warranted; one that exposes the so-called ‘noble’ intent of delivering ‘freedoms’ to the oppressed…

Stellar direction, writing, and great physical transformation and performance from Bale.

Must watch.

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MAVERICKS TOP GUN:
06/18/20222

This is the summer masterpiece of the last 4 years. PERIOD. One of the smartest, intelligently made movies that knows how to connect the dots back to that 86 TG movie. Each and every scene, dialogue is witty good old cinema, smartly written and executed brilliantly displayed aerial flights. UNMISSABLE, on the big screen, not cam-print. And Cruise rules the world and the banks, with only 200 million left to hit 1 billion worldwide.

Carefully watch the tensions between Rooster and Maverick…how it ends up in a reversal where the son saves the Dad who’s supposed to have let his wingman hanging in the air…again, MASALA.

Tom to Jennifer after making love: Rooster is gonna hate me for the rest of my life; I threw him out of the naval academy since I promised his mother [Meg Ryan] that he wouldn’t be part of the forces; Do you want him to resent her too for the rest of his life?

There are limited scenes that one can build around masala, but that thread is so strong, it can tie folks across multiple generations and heck, even geographically separated people’s emotions together…
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WINDFALL: A true tribute to the MASTER of horror/suspense/thriller Sir Alfred.

A wonderful, wonderful film that relies on writing and is a terrific tribute to the great one. All that it requires, is just 3 characters and a terrifically written story/screen-play with Jesse, Lily, and Jason. A mind-scape of a film, it is truly a Hitchcockian tribute in the sense that the film walks backwards, like in DIAL M FOR MURDER and REAR WINDOW. It puts the characters in fore-front; and you LEARN and yearn about the proceedings through the characters…Every line is a revelation, how much does Jesse earn? why is he hated by the working class? What is Lily’s contribution to all of these?

A BRILLIANT FILM…not to be missed.

‘I CARE A LOT’
A fantastic movie, that really shows the mirror to a so-called American citizen that claims that these United States have the ‘best’ facilities in health care. You see, a basic criterion that decides how great a country is with regard to its health program is the way the benefits percolate to the lowest strata in the pyramid. Alas, it is not so in the ‘greatest’ country, these United States.

What’s the point of having the most-advanced health-machinery in this world when it doesn’t reach the deserving; the most needed? And more dangerously, it is used for nefarious purposes!

A delectable Rosamund Pike’s Marla Grayson has an under-ground business going on where she is in cohorts with ‘Doctors’ to identify older folks and shove them into a senior-center and then usurp their properties to be sold to the sharks. Unwittingly, she encounters a so-called ‘old-woman’ that turns out to be more than she bargained for. The rest of the film follows the egoistic clashes between her and Dianne Fienstein.

A fine watch; with Pike and Dianne delivering fine performances.

A ‘must-watch’ especially for those that ridicule the India system of medicine and taking care of one’s parents and claim ‘America is the best’, when it comes to health …

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Watched SIR; a charming, superb slice-of-Bombay-life film. I am still marinating over it. If possible, will write on it. But an absolute brilliant piece of film-making with no condescending attitude whatsoever while addressing the class-differences. Highly recommended.

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Hostiles-2017

**Note in comment

Middle-Class Melodies – 01/25/2021
A beautiful, beautiful, movie about the intricacies of the parent-child relationship; the familial burdens; and of the child yearning to get out of the nest to build its own nest and fly on its own and reach greater heights. The ever-conflicting, ever-contrasting relationship between parents and the kid who wants to venture on his or her own, accompanied by the rush of youthful blood,
to make a name for oneself.

I do not want to reveal much about the story, but this is a fine, fine movie on the lines of the slice-of-life Malayalam movies that we are getting accustomed to and truly, salivating on. This isn’t as stabbing as C/O Kancharapalem but in the mode of a Hrishikesh Mukherjee film, only not as subtle as Mukherjee’s films on the middle-class but it sure does a great job.

Anand Deverakonda is a clone of his brother but can see why he is suited to this kind of genre and not his brother who women and probably some men lust on. [Better to include both, else, who knows what moniker one would be labeled with?] All the characters are extremely relatable and one can pick and choose the one amongst one’s relatives! You know, that lusty neighbor, that cunning mama or kaka all a part of the framework of an Indian family … A charming, charming film that has NO ending.

What a sigh of relief it is to see a film that’s so simple, but hardly simplistic, yet conveys the essence of life in India without resorting to using abuses just for the heck of it.

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