sanjay_varma Reviews

Dafa Metti (Difficult) (2020)

Written as a fairy tale

[7/10 · 16 March 2021]

This film is very focused on presenting the point of view of Senegalese trinket sellers who work in the vicinity of the Eiffel Tower. The narration is poetic. It is stitched together from interviews with a few different migrants. They tell a tale of being in exile from their homes, and trapped in limbo in a foreign land. We can hear the different speakers in their native tongue, at a low volume, while the narrator calmly translates their statements into English.

The visuals are a bit limited, they show variations of the same scene over and over again, a blanket resting on the city pavement with trinkets on it. It added a lot to the film when they showed a few shots of the flop houses where these migrants live, ten to a room.

Gunsmoke: Hung High (1964) Season 10, Episode 8

Amazing plot and guest stars

[10/10 · 18 April 2020]

Excellent story. This could have been a 2 hour movie. Each plot twist keeps upping the ante. By the time we meet a town drunkard who helps Matt spring a trap on the villains, this episode is coasting on sheer storytelling magic.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)

Best teen movie of 2010

[8/10 · 15 August 2010]

This is easily the best teen movie of 2010, and I think it also qualifies as Michael Cera's best role because of a strong script with lots of quips and natural sounding dialogue. Behind the movie's flashy production there are a number of relevant themes centering around dating and relationships. Cera's Scott Pilgrim is ready to start dating again a year after ex-GF Envy dumped him. But instead of dating someone his own age he aims low by dating a 17 year old high school girl, a choice that inspires both horror and pity among Scott's friends. Then he meets a girl with real potential, Ramona, who changes her hair color every few scenes, and has to fight her seven ex's.

Of course the main lure of the movie will be it's flashy production during the fight scenes. Michael Cera does a great job of performing matrix-like fight moves, while wearing a confused look on his face as 1980s arcade noises and effects commence. The fight scenes are all hilarious.

I might add that "Knives" Chou, the 17 year old high school GF, is probably the funniest east Asian stereotype since Long Duck Dong of 16 Candles. But Knives is portrayed in a way that is funny without being offensive.

The Blackout (1997)

satisfying

[1 October 2001]

I don't understand all the negative reviews at imdb about this movie. There are a lot of things I liked. First, the camera techniques are wonderful and capture that floaty feeling when a person is high, confused, and purposeless. Second, i love the idea of a person blacking out during a critical moment of their lives, and feeling the need to reconstruct the events in order to know themselves. This movie did a great job of using this device as the plot. Third, the ending came as a surprise...it is not revealed until the last 10 minutes and it comes as a surprise that feels quite right.

I might add that I loved the scene when Modine drinks again, alone in a hotel room, and feels that familiar, egotistical feeling, as if drinking and getting high are enough to make a person important or substantive.

The Glass Key (1942)

Great movie also reminds me of "Le Samurai"

[23 August 2001]

There have been a lot of posts that discuss the way the Coen brothers borrowed from the plot of the Glass Key to make Miller's Crossing. Very well. I noticed so many similarities that I consider it a remake. I'd like to point out that Alan Ladd's performance must have inspired Alain Delon's character Jeff Costello in Le Samourai in 1967. They both dress the same, and move exactly the same...stiff, precise movements with the back always straight. In addition, these characters see all the angles. I heartily recommend all three films.