Cloud Atlas (2012)

I was left wanting more out of this film. Very rarely have I seen films do justice to 3 hrs of screen time (Oliver Stone's might be the only exception). This one was no different. Would it have made sense to have 3 connected period pieces in half the screen time. Perhaps.

Too many unnecessary distractions as well. Kitschy costumes, labored facial prostheses, invented tongues and gruesome violence. I still liked the film for stirring me like the time I read 'Brave New World'. But it fails as a movie, on too many levels.

Snitch (2013)

Dwayne Johnson (or 'Samoan Hulk' as Roman in Furious 6 rightfully christened him) is fast becoming my favorite actor with potential. He was able to pull off the concerned father willing to go the distance to save his son, quite admirably.

Which is not to say that the rest of the acting performances weren't as good. The screen time was allocated quite judiciously and the lesser known actors playing the families of the protagonists did quite well. There was even a conscious attempt to make John Mathews (Dwayne's character) as civvie as possible despite his rippling muscles. Well, he had his shirt on at all times. Susan Sarandon makes for a hot corrupt district attorney. Agent Cooper's (Barry Pepper) metal-head goatie did not come in the way of well-rendered restrained performance.

The failing of the movie was that it was not the tight plot that it could have been and the production quality was abysmal. There was a half-baked attempt to build an aura around the cartel lord and some of the twists in the narrative were confusing. For example, I did not understand why Daniel (Jon Bernthal) had to take out Malik's smalltime gang around the same time that the big cartel cat was about to be apprehended. It did seem like the movie had a hurried end considering the buildup till the second act. The visuals left a lot to be desired with mostly flat medium shots and not-so-gripping action.

I'm more than glad if this can be Dwayne Johnson's ticket to the mainstream.

Flight (2012)

The opening scene of this movie immediately makes you loath the protagonist, Whip Whitaker (played by Denzel Washington). Nothing too riling about the scene. In fact, there's a gratuitous dose of nudity for those looking for it. It's a suitable character introduction considering what the rest of the movie will unravel about the man. The gripping event that follows this opening scene sets the tone for the rest of the film. Thank heavens I won't spoil that for you.

I'm not one to trump up directors for the flaws of a Holllywood film. No, that stuff should be reserved for the auteurs. I think the film is an honest attempt to potray a man with a problem. It's shot and edited well enough to make you watch it till the end. The soundtrack is indulgent but entertaining still. Here's what I think is the biggest problem with this movie. The protagonist is made larger than life and other characters are hardly developed. It's a point-of-view (POV) film and likely viewers with alcoholics in their family will be more appreciative of this approach. But Nicole (Kelly Reilly), Chip's love interest, is almost caricatured as this junkie waif. John Goodman's caper, Harling Mays might well have walked into the set for 'The Big Lebowski'. Hugh Lang (Don Cheadle), the defendant's lawyer could have been a strong anti-thesis of the main man but no. This movie could have just been called 'Whip'.

Given that it's a POV film, another suitable title for the film could have been 'Denial'. The movie does a very good job of showing us how a man let's his denial snatch everything he holds dear from him. And it takes just that for him to see his problem in true light. The conclusion of the film is an appropriate one that leaves the viewer with a sense of closure.

One last nit. Is someone going to replace Denzel Washington as Hollywood's slickest nigga already? He's getting old, you know.

The Wrestler (2008)

I'm loaded in all six compartments with prejudice on this one. Be ready to bite the bullet. So, Darren decided to make it more real for us than we know it is. Half an hour into this film, and I was still watching the gratuitous violence and wondering. Wait, let me summon up the right American phrase? Guts and Glory? A world weary, slow- witted, once successful wrestler who has to put up with the vagaries of creativity in the world of pro-wrestling. Blades, staples, forks, what have you. Beats me why I have to watch and sympathize with a third of screen time about this medieval sport. Oh no, not a sport, but a show - that the performer puts up for his followers. The blood he purposefully gushes for his fans. This shit he puts up with just because it's the only thing knows to do for a living. The only respite being the cheering he gets in the ringside and back in the wings from fellow performers. What the bleep. Him trying to apologise and get back into his daughter's life after god knows how long is the so not convincing middle of the film. I don't know about this being the Mickey Rourke performance of a lifetime. It's not even the accurate working class hero that we try so hard to make out to be - what with his binges of drinking and sex with a girl his daughter's age. He does'nt come across as a hercules of the human condition. And because he can't even pick up the pieces in his life, he reconciles to being the fading star carrying the burden of WWF. And goes on to live his death wish in the end. I don't mean to be a prissy prude and this might have been a cockle-warming candidate for the bleeding heart non-critic that I once was, but this movie made me want to puke the beer and glazed chicken wings I had for dinner.

Riding in Cars with Boys (2001)

This is a sensitive and entertaining piece de resistance from Columbia Pictures. Based on the real life story of Beverly D'Onofrio adapted from her book/memoir by the same name. Drew Barrymore plays Beverly who becomes a teenage mother against her wishes and decides to marry the errant father. 

Now it might be easy to define this movie in terms of the vocabulary that critics have developed to describe family dysfunction. But it would be unfair to describe this film only as "the trials and tribulations of an ambitious teenage girl who chases her dreams despite her loser husband, cribbing parents, teething son and a host of other circumstances working against her". 

The movie, which could easily be passed off for a chick flick, has layers of emotional information, unraveled through its richly delineated characters. Beverly is clearly the protagonist fighting to gain control of her life throughout the film. She has to watch her contemporaries enjoy their last high school year culminating in the prom. And then they move on to their Berkeleys and NYU's while she's left wanting. She has respite in her best friend Fay (Brittany Murphy) who also becomes pregnant and partners her through her teen momhood. Ray, her husband, in a wonderfully restrained performance by Steve Zahn, was never meant to fit the successful baby boomer stereotype. He barely manages to bring the bread home but absolutely adores his wife and son. An unshakable heroin habit finally separates him from them. The son, Jason, played delightfully by three young actors and an adult, expresses a range of emotions from feeling like a reject and being miserable on his father going away to being very patient and empathetical with his mother. He assumes the role of the parent after a while since Beverly never really grows up - her past being a constant reminder of what her future was not going to be. The film however does have a happy ending with Beverly and Jason coming to terms with their personal truths while being glad they had each other all along.

Well, thats the plot overview. See the film to enjoy the carefully crafted dialogue, picture perfect performances, period detail, and music. Quite the telling of a universal story that inspires everyone to go on and achieve success and experience love no matter what goes wrong.

Further reading:

Popkorn junkie's two cents

Pluggedinonline's unique review format replete with a conclusion

BBC's bored blip with boldised text offering special insights!

Neil Young's (?) pejorative review on Jigsaw Lounge

Mad Max (1979)

About Max and why he goes mad. I was curious about this cult film for a long time. Little did i know that its cult value was derived from tasteless violence and speed fetishism. The dialogue as well as acting is pasty and uninspired. At best, a B-grade revenge drama involving fast cars and bikes, and related crashes and pyromania. It seems loosely inspired by The Clockwork Orange, which is brilliant and wonderfully nuanced by far despite its Ultraviolence. One would expect atleast an expounding of biker culture but this film's wheeler dealers are subhuman morons with a leader who tries pathetically at enigmatism. Don't watch this film unless you enjoy beholding the beauty of the early 80's australian roadways.

Oasis (2002)

The film depicts a tender romance that grows between a socially maladjusted 29 year old man and a very perceptive spastic woman but which gets plundered by the misgivings of their families and the police. 

The film warmed my heart by showing the depth of love between two individuals who have always lived on the fringes - never been accepted by their families or society. I felt strange because I tried to sympathize with their love as being incomplete without accepted forms of communication and exchanges of endearment. The film made me realize, to my dismay, how over-communication kills most relationships or often feeds the illusion that there is even a relationship in the first place. The tagline of the film really does bring the point home - "Have you really loved someone?"

You can find a plot synopsis here. 

Filmic observations:

• The director probably uses winter, the season the film is shot in, as a device to show how cold society has become. 
• The film is shot with wonderful restraint consisting mostly of documentary feel shots, POV shots and some amazing quirky shots (like the one in which the spastic woman looks out of a train window and city's buildings mirror on it). 
• The editing is minimalist and unobtrusive in order to retain the dreamy quality of the film. If you are a carefree person yourself, you will enjoy the way in which the film flows.
• The music in the film is sparse and slips into certain scenes and slips out unnoticed. There are also beautiful songs which they sing to each other.
• The acting performances by Kyung-gu Sol as Jong-du Hong, the maladjusted man and Moon So-ri as Gong-ju Han, the spastic woman are so convincing that you can't imagine them as normal. They both won awards in various festivals for their work (Moon So-ri won the the Marcello Mastroianni award for best "first time" actress at the Venice Film Festival)

Some metacritic reviews if you care.