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Dunkirk (2017)
Christopher Nolan's most visceral film till date
Disclaimer: Being a lifelong Christopher Nolan fan the review may seem biased to many, but Dunkirk is in so many ways not a typical Christopher Nolan movie.
A few words about the screening: It was 6.45 PM midweek on a Wednesday, booked tickets for the first Australian public screening of Dunkirk in its 70 mm glory. Imax Melbourne went to the extent of reinstalling their 1570 film projectors to project this movie as was intended by Nolan. Dunkirk would be screened in both the 1570 film format and its upgraded Dual 4K Digital Laser systems for the weeks to come.
Christopher Nolan has been making movies mostly centered on the science fiction genre. That is not necessarily a bad thing. The Dark Knight Trilogy, Interstellar and Inception are all deeply steeped in the genre and could be easily classified as Sci-Fi Action films, but very well made Sci-Fi Action films, some of the best in the genre it is created in. Whereas Memento, Prestige, Insomnia and Following could be roughly put into the Mystery genre. All nine films had something in common, the scripts were based out of works of fiction if not original fictional screenplays. Realism is not a genre Nolan operated in. Neither did he make a movie based on war. Operating in a similar genre throughout their whole career is not a trait of a director striving to be one of the greatest in his generation. Nolan tries to become one of the best in his generation with Dunkirk with one of the most realistic war films ever produced.
Dunkirk is a film about the epic struggle of 400,000 British troops trapped in the shores of Dunkirk as a result of a military disaster, probably one of the worst military disasters of all time. With the German troops closing in on them the only way they could save themselves is to somehow cross the narrow English Channel and reach home. As easy as this sounds the reality of the situation prevented the troops from getting home easily. The shallow shores of the beach prevented big ships to land and rescue the troops and the strong tides prevented small boats to be paddled. Nolan decided to narrate the story from three different perspectives inter-cut into each other- land, sea and air. Each perspective spans out over different time periods, the Land narrative plays out over a week, the sea over a day and the air only an hour. As usual with his films Nolan employs non-Linear narrative to tell his story. Editor Lee Smith plays a very important part in cutting between the three narratives to provide a crisp and expectedly perplexing view toward the story. Match cuts are used expertly to bring a visual coherence between the three perspectives. Nolan and Smith is successfully able to provide different vantage points to the same events taking place in the movie making the experience complete. Dialog is sparse in the movie, and character development very thin. The script is only half the size of his previous films like The Dark Knight which were all heavy on character development and narrative momentum mostly built through dialog. This was done by Nolan advertently as he didn't want the characters to be at the center of the action, he wanted the viewer to be. He also wanted to tell the story by what's happening on the screen rather than what was spoken. The same reason made him cast actors who are not famous faces with the exception of Tom Hardy (who had his face covered like he has for most of his films) and Cillian Murphy who played the character of a scared pilot afraid to go back to Dunkirk. He didn't want the audience to relate to the actors as heroes, just feel the experiences they are having being part of this incredible situation. The objective was to provide a visceral experience to the audience which can only be experienced to its intended extent in a theater. The bullets fired feels it's fired at you and you can smell the sea in the drowning scenes. The tension in the film is gripping. Nolan decided to cut the movie around the 100 minute mark because beyond that it would have been impossible to hold the almost Hitchcockian suspense. Hans Zimmer was masterful as always and played a massive part in adding to the visceral experience, the sound of the ticking clock (synthesized by Hans from a recording of one of Nolan's own watches) plays a very important part in the visceral experience. Van Hoytema shoots this mostly using 70mm IMAX cameras, I could only imagine how difficult it would have been for him to shoot using such a mammoth camera from such difficult vantage points. His wide angle shots are expansive and helps provide the scale of despair we were looking at.
Nolan and his production team delivers and hits the ball out of the park with Dunkirk. People walking into the theater expecting a Dark Knight or even an Interstellar may be disappointed as he shifts his genre and objective with this production. Although Guardian's Andrew Pulver's comparison to Kubrick may be a bit premature, but he is definitely on the right trajectory to becoming one of this generation's greatest.
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
Defies all expectations
I have been shamelessly recommending their films to everyone I have met for the past half a decade, most of them gave them a watch and hated their films, now I have learned a lesson and try not to recommend their films to anyone. It's surely not everyone's cup of tea. I have been earnestly waiting for Inside Llewyn Davis from ever since I first saw its trailer about a year back. At first instance I shrieked at the idea of Coen brothers making a musical. Dark comedy and musicals does not really go together, does it?. They surely must have compensated on either the musical part or their staple dark comedy. After watching the film (twice) I am bemused at how they have proved me completely wrong. They made a film which is so very much a Coen brother film, and yet an absolutely brilliant musical. The dark comedy, although not that dark at times manages to get better on the 2nd watch and is fascinating. The film is about a folk musician called Llewyn Davis. It is set in the 1960s,an era which gave birth to one of the best country/folk musicians of all time, and ILD is surely a homage to that fact. Llewyn Davis is no rock star , neither is he astutely talented, rather he can be called an underdog, sleeping on couches ,kicked around by people and record companies. His music partner has recently committed suicide and he is failing to come to terms to a solo career. The film chronicles a week in his life. Llewyn Davis is played to perfection by Oscar Issac. The film has a fantastic ensemble cast which gives it the quirky feel it has got. Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake and John Goodman are the most notable of the small but interesting characters in the film. The music from T Bone Burnett transcends all realms and takes you back to the 1960s. As it is the case of many of their films, ILD also has no background music ,the only sources of music are from live performances from various characters in the film. They are mixed in so seamlessly that you don't even notice the background music missing. Cinematography is very well done here.Strangely enough Roger Deakins did not shoot this , hope their long collaboration with the Coens does not come to an end. Bruno Delbonnel shot this and the soft touch he has lend to the film added to the fact that this is in it's basic essence a musical. Deakins may have done a better job but Delbonnel did not disappoint, in fact at parts it was brilliant ILD is funny and depressing at the same time, a combination which can be devastating in the hands of people not belonging to the class of The Coens.You leave feeling amused and sad at the same time.As Peter Bradshaw from The Guardian rightly said the Coens have hit this one out of the park.
Gravity (2013)
Right up there with 2001: A Space Odyssey and Solyaris
Gravity manages to transcend the realm of film and leave you mesmerized with its fierce suspense and jaw dropping special effects. The film employs only two actors –George Clooney and Sandra Bullock, but it manages to say so much with so little .Majority of the screen time belongs to Sandra Bullock's character Ryan ,who played out her role with perfection . She finally got a role which did her acting prowess justice, and I could not see anyone else doing a better job than her in that role. Clooney with his usual flair plays out the outspoken Kowalski character to utmost precision. The role seemed to be sculpted for him. Cuaron's direction is masterful. The opening sequence itself is a 10 minute shot, without any cuts, and there are numerous other long shots in the film. That must have been really difficult to produce. The sound mixing in this one is fascinating. The sound mixing in itself managed to take the film to a different level altogether. The minimalistic background music is mixed right into the film, which is absolutely brilliant. Sometimes the intermittent silences spoke more than the background music ,and it is also the best 3D film ever made, and it wins by a long margin.The 3D managed to physically affect the audience,and it is not used only as a gimmick,but adds on the overall experience. The only thing on my mind when I left the theater was when will I again get a chance to go back inside to view this spectacle. Hats off.
Madras Cafe (2013)
First real Espionage Thriller from India
Madras Café ,directed by Shoojit Sircar ,whose Vicky Donor won the hearts of both the audiences and the critics, which is a really difficult job to do in our country. He, with Madras Café steers into difficult waters .Espionage thrillers are rare in Hindi, and the ones made do not even deserve to be called thrillers. Here he not only manages to deliver a gritty espionage thriller, but does that with non-actors like John Abraham and Nargis Fakhri. Rajiv Gandhi's assassination serves as a vantage point in this film and the build up to the event is shown in its gritty reality. The film starts off with Vikram (John) visiting a church in Kasauli and doing a confession there, and in the process acts as a narrator to this film.The backdrop of sectarian politics in Sri Lanka is explained ,the crimes against the minority Tamils by the ruling Sinhalese is shown with shocking reality. Then the film goes on from one point to another.Indian politics is shown inside out.Nargis acts out the role of a war journalist. The occasional tribute to Apocalypse Now was fantastic for the film lover. Acting wise ,only Siddhartha Basu 's role was noteworthy.
Man of Steel (2013)
Too much action spoils the day
In spite of Zack Snyder not being liked by critics in general, he is one of my favourite directors, liked both his Watchmen and 300, one of the reasons being I always found his visual style intriguing. When Man of Steel was announced with Snyder as the director and Nolan producing it, I thought that the Superman franchise was in for a big revamp. I have watched a few Superman films before, not being too much of a fan of the action genre, as expected did not enjoy them as much. With this film I had hope that maybe they will delve deep into the psyche of Superman, which they did to some extent, but the problem was that they did not stop at that. The first half started off in Krypton , with a little bit of the Superman backstory. Then two timelines were interlaced, one showing little Clark Kent inhibited to show his superpowers to the world, and another one showing a grown up Clark starting to show his powers to the world. The best part of the film is in these parts. His conversations with Jonathan Kent ,his father were powerful. Loved them. His discovery about his past and his subsequent conversations with Jor-El were also emotionally charged. The use of Zimmer's background music was probably the best thing about this film. Absolutely Brilliant. Then came in the 'Summer Blockbuster' 2nd half with the explosions and the action sequences, quite reminiscent of a Micheal Bay film. It's a Superman film after all, only an idiot will go in with an expectation that it will be Batman Begins, but still they overdid it and the script took a backseat .I would have been totally disappointed if it was not for the last 10 minutes, which managed to salvage some of the damage already done by the mind-numbing action sequences. It was not wrong for fans to expect a better output from a Nolan , Snyder collaboration .Although the best Superman film till date but clearly falls short of expectations, and yes there was no need to make this into a 3D film.
Bombay Talkies (2013)
Coming of age of Indian Cinema
It's ironical that a short film is the best thing that Karan Johar has churned out in his entire career. Initially I was apprehensive that a completely commercial director like Johar might find himself out of place in such a melange of fantastic directors like Anurag Kashyap and Dibakar Banerjee,but he managed to deliver. The subject matter of homosexuality was bold and deftly handled. Kind of depicted the coming of age of Bollywood. It was the first story and easily a 8/10. The second short made by Dibakar was the best of the lot. Nawazuddin who has managed to carve out a niche fan following in Bollywood, caught the eye of the viewer with his completely lovable performance as a lower middle class family man, with the gift of acting. 9/10 The third short directed by Zoya was a kind of let down. Specially after watching the last one, although the story was heart warming but it did not manage to touch the heart as much as one could have expected. 7/10 The final short directed by the maestro himself Anurag Kashyap was up there competing with Dibakar for top honors .It had comedy and drama ,and the last five minutes was especially beautifully made. Typical Kashyap stuff 8.5/10. As we were trying to leave the hall as soon as the last short ended we were warned by the usher that there is still something left to see, we waited and was greeted with a huge song with montages of famous films starting from the yesteryears down to the modern age of Bollywood.Then the silver screen was greeted with the so called Bollywood "Stars" and the crowd was screaming at the top of their voices.If we can leave this last part out this turned out to be one of the better films to come out of Bollywood recently.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008)
one of the best holocaust movies
to start with this movie is a out and out holocaust movie...it shows all the things the Jews had to go through during the holocaust....but the perspective is very different...the whole holocaust is shown through the eyes of a 8 year old kid,Bruno...who is innocent and is completely unaware of the whole situation in Germany...and to complicate things the father of this kid is a highly placed Nazi officer...
at the start of the movie the characters are introduced in Berlin,they are shown as a happy and self sufficient family..Bruno has friends in the locality and is very happy with his life...he also has a 12 year old sister and a very understanding and compassionate mother..his father is a very dutiful officer but is also an understanding but stern parent...soon after wards their father breaks to them the news that they must shift to another place...Bruno is naturally very upset..now the family is shown to have shifted to their new house...there is a concentration camp nearly a mile away from their house..the boy develops curiosity regarding the concentration camp and their parents somehow manages to dodge his questions..their parents even keeps a tutor,who teaches the kids history in which Bruno is the least interested in,the only thing he is interested in is adventure...his sister however starts loving the subjects and gets addicted to the Nazi mentality and develops anti Jew sentiments...Bruno soon befriends a Jewish boy of the same age who is equally innocent..and they play along the barbed wires of the camp...this friend is a friend which he never had in his life...the confusion in his mind about the teachings of his teacher,IE-all Jews are bad,and they are bad for the country... and its vast difference with reality is brilliantly shown and i think is one of the strongest points in the movie....generalization is in fact an offense!! i wont divulge more facts from the plot of the movie..but i must tell u the climax is really hard hitting!!
i have deliberately not compared this movie with other renowned holocaust movies like Schlinder's list and the pianist..because this movie is really one of its kind..and the movie did not have any scope for powerful performances...all the performances were given in perfect doses..
No Smoking (2007)
the best Hindi movie ever
for the past one year i have been avoiding Hindi movies..mainly for the reason that these movies have failed to strike a chord neither with my heart nor with my brain...but this movie brings my faith right back into Hindi...i have read many negative reviews about this movie,but i somehow felt that the movie must have something in it to provoke such a reaction,so i finally saw it to find out...
yes this is one of the movies in which you will think u have solved the puzzle and the next moment u will be disappointed that this is not the correct solution,and you will be made to think again... and yes this movie has many possible interpretations,this is the most brilliant thing about this movie....
this is a David lynch kind of a movie,but it somehow seems to have really struck a chord even more than lynch movies...
the acting was absolutely perfect,they did not overact,they did not underact!Paresh Rawal's character was very strong....man this person can act,you will listen to him,even if you don't understand a single word of what he is speaking! then there ...another gem of a performance,and john Abraham....no one could have done the role better except may be Christian bale or tom cruise..he has that suave look and narcissist approach which was needed for the role!
the ambiance created by the director..the BM music,the brilliant camera angles,the creation of those really dark and mysterious situations and places,the plot(or the lack of it,which was absolutely perfect,the presence of a solid plot would have spoiled the experience) ,the screenplay(brilliantly done,specially the dreams)...
the premise of the movie is 'smoking'..the protagonist K,is a chain smoker and his wife leaves him for that,then provoked by two of his friends he joins a organization to leave his smoking...but then his suffering starts..now i wont move any further...because i will be spilling spoilers!!
it provokes a deep anti-smoking sentiment in the viewer....
if this movie had been promoted properly it would have made it to the IMDb 250....
Rashômon (1950)
a classic
this is the 2nd Kurosawa movie i am seeing in two days,after dreams this... and i must confess that i have become his ardent fan...his style of movie making is so grass root,so natural,so immaculate!!
this movie is a thriller and also has a deep psychological meaning!two gruesome crimes- a rape and a murder has taken place and four people give four contradictory accounts of the events taken place that day!if it would have been any other director the whole movie would have been left in suspense of knowing what is the 'truth',but Kurosawa didn't show us the truth..and herein lies the essence of the movie ....;the point is not to decipher the truth from the facts given but rather to see how the facts has been twisted by each witness to lie to themselves that they are not guilty!!and this is the thing that is to be learned from this movie...that we subconsciously twist facts to suit ourselves!!
the movie may be repulsive to some new movie watchers..i would not recommend it to them!but for all cinema lovers its a MUST WATCH
10/10
Yume (1990)
live this movie
i have been hearing about Akira Kurosawa's movies for a long time,but was not able to lay my hands on one till today!and his reputation did precede him...
dreams is a collection of eight short dreams which was said to be dreamed by Kurosawa himself !most of the dreams is a beautifully pictured social commentary on modern life,and how science is destroying the beauty of the actual lives and the small little things that are really important! the peach orchard gives the message on deforestation and cutting of trees,the blizzard and the tunnel(two nightmares) gives different concepts of death and defeat,mount Fuji in red and the weeping demon gives the message about modern nuclear weapons and their ill effects... crows is the most beautiful dream,in which the dreamer travels through the paintings of artist van Gogh(played by martin Scorsese)...the transformation from painting to real life is really brilliant but my favorite dream is the last one village of the watermills,which makes u realize that technology and science necessarily do not bring a happy and full life!the two most important things in life is clean water and clean air!
most of the dreams do not have any plot,actually they do not need one...they are very strong by themselves!
it will seem that they are surreal dreams dreamed by a socially responsible person...and leaves a deep impression on ones mind!!
it may be a little slow,but if u see through it,the way u view your life may change!
9.5/10
Watchmen (2009)
truly a piece of art!
watchmen, i am writing this review in the middle of watching this movie for the 3rd time....this movie i have got to say is one of the most beautifully made movies of all time...this film has everything in it..romance,action,political interpretations..this movie should not be viewed only as a superhero movie ...it is rather a piece of art...the dialogs are intense,the acting is emotional,the direction is brilliant..the characters are very well defined and are in no way one dimensional... i have read the watchmen graphic novel after watching the movie and i must say that the the movie is in no way lesser in magnitude than the novel...the scenes are beautifully shot and some of them are so powerful that they will leave an everlasting impression on one's mind..hats off to zack snyder...he has got so much diversity..after an epic like 300 he gives another epic 'watchmen'...the bob Dylan song 'times they are changing' and the some beautifully shot scenes that are shown during the opening credits deserves a special mention...specially the scene which shows a girl putting a flower in the gun and the flower crumble into petals when the gun is fired has got a metaphorical meaning in it that war destroys love...there are many such metaphors in this movie..you just have to think! .in many places in the movie two separate situations are shown simultaneously and that is has really impressed me...the acting by actors are really commendable...the ending is also very well made and it takes the movie to new heights....the background music throughout the movie is very aptly put... this movie may not appeal to superhero movie lovers in general but this is absolutely a must watch for cinema lovers!
Kids (1995)
truly thought provoking
this is not one movie from which one can expect a good time rather this is one of those movies which will eat you away for the next few days..the movie is outright SHOCKING to say the least..the desperation in the characters crosses all boundaries..the boundary of 'that you can't do that,this is the limit' is mercilessly broken in this movie....it will provoke a strong thought provoking process culminating in your thinking that the teenage life sucks..and thats exactly what Larry Clark wanted...it also made me wonder whether these things really happens in real in the western countries because i have never been there...it would therefore be wrong for me to comment whether this movie is the correct portrayal of the American teenagers.. there are a few scenes in this movie which i think deserves special mention for its immense shocking value..the nudity shown in this movie is nothing compared as the nudity shown in Larry Clark's later works namely 'ken park'..but as a whole i think it is much more shocking..the guys do drugs until they are almost dead..they rape 13 year old girls..the ogle at the breasts of their friends mother in front of their friend and also comment on it...the main protagonist knowingly spreads AIDS by luring young virgin girls to have sexual intercourse with him,they mercilessly beat up a black guy due to some very minor reason,and never bother to feel bad later,they make fun of the Asian man in the shop...and one cannot miss that the protagonists also has a very humane side to them..they give alms to the poor and also take time to see a performance at the station...this indicates that they would have turned out to be perfectly fine if they were under proper guidance and love.. altogether they lead a lifestyle which many teenagers may idolize to lead,but at the same time as many teenagers will try their best not to become like them.....this is exactly the reason why i liked this movie and gave a 10/10 rating...it will provoke some thinking or the other ..you just can't ignore it ...any movie which has this capability can be considered great..
Disturbia (2007)
good thriller
if you watch this movie you cannot stop comparing it with rear window...both the movies are similar in many ways...protagonist stranded in a room(in this case a house),a parallel love affair,a helpful friend,dangerous murderer,killing of pets etc.etc...but the modernization done is very very clever and well done!!...though it would be grossly unfair to say that it is a complete rip off of rear window...this movie has its own moments..the love story is very well put in the backdrop of suspense ...even when Kale is peeping through his window to see Ashley in her swimsuits a considerable amount of suspense is created (though it is of a much lighter ton)....Shia Lebouf acting was really good as the exciting ' good for nothing turned hero' young man !!... Other than this i think the movie lacked in many aspects..or rather to be rightly put the movie could have been better in numerous ways..example. ..the suspicion of murder also shouldn't have been given away before the last moment..the revelation of the fact that the suspected murderer is actually the murderer much before the end of the story dilutes the story and eases the suspense considerably...then there is the ending ..which could have been much much better ...the whereabouts and the origins of the murderer has been completely skipped...
otherwise this movie is a very decent one..a mix of humor ,suspense and of course love...this has an appeal for all kinds of audiences..of all age groups...
Fargo (1996)
not the kind of thriller one would look for
if you watch this movie thinking that this would be another of those jaw dropping thrillers in which you would sit at the edge of your seats throughout,it certainly won't be your piece of cake..But because you know that this movie is strictly based on actual events..you would really want to see what happens next,because its the things which actually happened..i think the Coen brothers have been very successful in portraying the varied emotions of the characters..from the confused husband,to the foolish wife.. ,to the emotionless 'big man',and the 'hard to miss' role by Steve Buscemi,and how could one forget the brave pregnant policewoman...everything has been perfectly done...and of course the real high point of this movie is that wood chipper incident..that was really gruesome...you would really get chills down your spine when you think that this has actually been done in real!!....
THE ENDING
you would be waiting for the ending .that here i can expect something interesting ..you wait ,you wait...but thats it you just wait ...nothing happens..the culprit does't try to escape and thats it ,neither does he murder anyone ,neither anyone gets the money..it just ends! just like 'no country for old men'..
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
a very good thriller
the story starts out very simply ..so simple that one may even presume the movie to turn out as a lacklustre and boring movie...but as the plot thickens this movie gets very interesting ..the acting by Matt Damon is more than impressive..this is one movie in which if you get to know the spoilers before seeing ,the whole point of watching the movie would be lost..there are moments in this movie in which you would actually be rooting for Mr. Ripley that he is not found out..Gwyneth Paltrow is awesome and turns out an awe inspiring performance..and the role of Jude Law as a rich and carefree man is also very well played..all in all it is a must watch for all thriller fans.