Contact (1997)

Director: Robert Zemeckis
Writers: James V. Hart, Michael Goldenberg, Based on Contact by Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan
DOP: Don Burgess
Cast: Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, James Woods, John Hurt

Dr. Ellie Arroway, after years of searching, finds conclusive radio proof of extraterrestrial intelligence which had send plans for building a mysterious machine.

The film covers a lot of ground in two and half hours of its running time taking the intelligence of its audience for granted. I especially liked the fact that they dropped eminent domain there without explaining it. Matthew McConaughey's character is sort of a new age spiritual Czar for the White House and the conflict between science and faith is portrayed with his relationship with Jodie Foster's scientist character. From an aging standard point of view, even though it is not set on a future timeline, what it got very correct is the presence of private players in space science with a very Elon Musk like billionaire funding Ellie's SETI project when the Govt pulled the plug.

The film had got renewed interest on the wake of release of Christopher Nolan's 'Interstellar' and not just because of the Mathew McConaughey connection. The supposed scientific accuracy of Interstellar had various scientists citing Contact as the one which captured the working of a scientist in the most accurate manner even though the time dilation at the end doesn't make much sense from a scientific point of view. But what works for Contact is that it gets emotional part of the story right and is a good mix unlike Interstellar, whose emotional scenes managed to get laughs out of the audience. In that sense, it is a rich man's Interstellar. I ended in the same feel good state that I had with Ridley Scott's Martian. I do think it is quite an underrated film and it is the less well known Zemeckis films, Flight being the other one, that I liked much more than his famous ones like Forrest Gump and Back to the Future.

Rating: 4.5/5

Good Will Hunting (1997)

Director: Gus Van Sant
Writers:  Ben Affleck, Matt Damon
Cinematographer: Jean-Yves Escoffier
Cast: Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Stellan Skarsgård, Ben Affleck

Film follows 20-year-old south Boston laborer Will Hunting, an unrecognised genius who, as part of a deferred prosecution agreement after assaulting a Police officer, becomes the client of a therapist and studies advanced mathematics with a renowned professor. Through his therapy sessions, Will revaluates his relationships with his best friend, his girlfriend and himself, facing the significant task of confronting his past and facing the future.

In general I'm not a fan of feel good films. That is more of a reflection on the films that come out of this genre. But when done well, they can be amazing, uplifting and shit like that. Good Will Hunting is one such example. I've seen it 4-5 times and it has been as fresh as when I saw it for the first time. The basic premise of it is something that can be really torn apart by the honest trailers guys. One could also say that many of the Matt Damon characters are essentially the same, reluctant geniuses, be it Rounders or the Bourne series. Guess he can pull it off easily maybe because he reportedly has a genius level IQ.

The film is basically a collection of several set-piece monologues delivered by Williams and Damon and one especially good one from Ben Affleck. It won all three of them their first Oscars. The set piece nature of these conversations are masked because of the goodness of what happens between those scenes. Robin Williams is playing his best role which couldn't have been more against his type. It is great uplifting watch and will be a case of a film living up to expectations. It was also a big commercial success, surprisingly enough, collecting more than 200 million on a $10 million budget.

Rating: 5/5

Wag the Dog (1997)

Director: Barry Levinson
Writers:  Larry Beinhart, Hilary Henkin, David Marnet
Cast:       Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Anne Heche

Shortly before an election, a spin-doctor and a Hollywood producer join efforts to fabricate a war in order to cover up a presidential sex scandal. Robert De Niro plays the role of spin-doctor while Dustin Hoffman is the Hollywood producer. The film was released one month before the outbreak of the Clinton-Monica Lewinsky sex scandal and the subsequent bombing of the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Sudan by the Clinton administration prompted the media to draw comparisons between the film and reality. It is a loose adaptation of Larry Beinhart's novel 'American Hero'.

I read somewhere that when Tarantino screened Reservoir Dogs somewhere, he warned the audience that those who enjoyed Rain Man among them are advised to leave since his film is not for them. I don't know if there is any truth to that story but I do enjoy Tarantino films and I did enjoy Rain Man when I saw it some years back. That one was also directed by Barry Levinson and is the right kind of feel-good film that I actually enjoyed watching. He had also directed Sleepers which also featured both Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro and was a decent watch. But I found it really difficult to finish this film of his which was quite well-received upon its release. It did have a fortunate timing due to the events after its release. The film is like a cynical take on how things are spun and presented in American politics and it does so with the subtlety of bashing someone's head repeatedly with a baseball bat. It is like Disney version of 'In The Loop'. It got academy awards nomination for its screenplay and maybe the element of it being a film depicting some Hollywood producer swung it for them. They do have a habit of conferring things on such kind of films and films like Argo and The Artist are examples for the same. Dustin Hoffman also got nominated and it must have been a poor year. Then again, one shouldn't take academy awards too seriously.

To sum up, the film is a terrible watch despite boasting a stellar cast list. It did have an interesting theme which should resonate because of things like how consensus was built for Iraq-War but the whole planned thing of planting stories with great perfection didn't really do it for me. The humor in it is also not the kind I like and I prefer much more of sweary darkness. The film's success proves that there are plenty of people who enjoy the kind of humor that is there in this film. The performances from the cast are nothing spectacular to write home about and it is filmed in a very 90s Hollywood style (Think Natural Born Killers, JFK etc) of which I am not a big fan of.

Rating: 1.5/5

                                                                        

Jackie Brown (1997)

Director: Quentin Tarantino
Writers:  Quentin Tarantino, Elmore Leonard (Novel)
Cast:       Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster, Robert De Niro, Michael Keaton

Jackie Brown is a crime-drama film adapted for screen by Tarantino from Elmore Leonard's 1992 novel 'Rum Punch'. The story is about a flight attendant, Jackie Brown (Pam Grier), who becomes a key figure in a plot between the Police and an arms dealer (Samuel L. Jackson). 

The rights for the novel was acquired by Tarantino and his writing partner, Roger Avary, after completing Pulp Fiction. They changed the ethnicity of the protagonist from white to black and the treatment they went with for the film was like a homage to Blaxploitation films from the 70s in which Pam Grier herself starred. They didn't inform Elmore of all the changes till a week was left for start of the shoot and the author was extremely happy with the screenplay calling it one of the best he had ever read. This is the only film in which Tarantino has worked with someone else's material and it works well for the film since he kind of went full retard on the self-indulgence quotient in his films that came after this, starting with Kill Bill. I enjoy all his films but in terms of perfection, his first three films are a class apart compared to rest of the films that came after Jackie Brown. 

Like in most of the Tarantino films, it is a comeback of sorts for its lead actors- Pam Grier and Robert Forster. One could possibly say the same for Michael Keaton as well. Maybe the fact that it is adapted from a literary work helps in having lead characters with real depth which cannot be said for the typical Tarantino characters. Film is quite linear with the only major trick that Tarantino used was during the pivotal shopping mall scene where it is shown thrice from the point of view of three different characters one after the other. Plot is kind of complicated but the expositions are done in an expert fashion and they trust the audience to figure out how the plan evolved over the course of unexpected events. This reliance on plot is also a novelty in Tarantino films and one could say that it makes it less re-watchable compared to other films of his since mystery is lost after the first watch. That might be true but the dialog is typical Tarantino and holds up very well on re-watch. I saw it for the first time some seven years back and have rewatched it again once before this. Some people were disappointed with the film, as can be seen from the mixed critical reception, and all the hype after his first two films might have contributed to that. I also didn't like it very much first time round but have come round to appreciate it as one of Tarantino's very best work.

Overall it is a great watch with a terrific soundtrack which is not at all a surprise in Tarantino films. Tarantino tropes like foot fetishness, boot-cam shot etc comes pretty early in the film itself. Robert De Niro's against the type role is a joy to watch. Robert Forster is just magnificent in his understated way and the love story at the center of it the most tender that Tarantino will ever manage to do. As far as my rankings of Tarantino films, 2-4 subject to changes depending on the mood, here it goes:

1) Pulp Fiction

2) Jackie Brown

3) Inglourious Basterds

4) Reservoir Dogs

5) True Romance

6) Kill Bill Vol: 1

7) Kill Bill Vol: 2

8) Deathproof

9) Django Unchained

Rating: 5/5

Gummo (1997)

Director: Harmony Korine
Writer:    Harmony Korine
Cast:       Nick Sutton, Jacob Sewell, Lara Tosh

Lonely residents of a tornado-stricken Ohio town wander the deserted landscape trying to fulfill their boring, nihilistic lives. The loose narrative follows several main characters who find odd and destructive ways to pass time, interrupted by vignettes of other denizens of the town. 

Gummo marked the directorial debut for Harmony Korine and the only other film I have seen of his is 'Spring Breakers'. I didn't like Spring Breakers even though it got some sort of critical success. I get that it is meant to be a portrayal of some obnoxious characters but it doesn't help if you find the acting by most of the actors in it to be below-par. That is what you get when you've people like Vanessa Hudgens and Selena Gomez in the film. Then again  if you see the film as a meta-look at the careers of people like them, it kind of works but that doesn't make it any better to watch. But you got to admit it is really a mad mad film with some exquisite shots, like that twilight piano scene. 

So I didn't have much hopes with Gummo but decided to watch it to see if I missed something with Spring Breakers. It is like an anti-film with the director trying to go against all conventions. The characters that it portrays are the ones which most other films don't take a look at and I was reminded of the fringe poor characters from 'True Detective'. I didn't find it interesting in any way whatsoever and watching it was a masochistic exercise. Compared to Spring Breakers, the acting in it looked genuine even though most of them are local non-actors and that could very well be its only saving grace. Some of it is darkly funny but most of it is just plain boring.  At least, Harmony Korine is not romanticizing poverty in America.

Overall it is quite a difficult watch and you need to go there only if you're interested in the director's filmography for some reason. Film was done with a budget of $1 million and didn't make much money on its release but have gained a cult following subsequently with the likes of Werner Herzog being a fan. Korine's next film is titled 'The Trap' and it is supposed to have Al Pacino, Idris Elba, Robert Pattinson, James Franco and Benicio Del Toro. I must be really missing something here.

Rating: 2/5

                                                                        

இருவர் (Iruvar) (1997)

Director: Mani Ratnam
Writers:  Mani Ratnam, Suhasini
Cast:       Mohanlal, Prakash Raj, Aishwarya Rai
Language: Tamil

Iruvar is Mani Ratnam's take on the real-life rivalry between M.G. Ramachandran and Kaurnanidhi. The idea to make a film on this particular topic was sparked by a conversation Mani Ratnam had with renowned Malayalam author, M.T. Vasudevan Nair. 

Previous to this, I had only seen Roja and bits of Bombay from Mani Ratnam's filmography. I really didn't like those films and the flag burning/hugging scene from Roja was so bad that it was good. A.R.Rahman's music is a fixture in Mani Ratnam films and while the songs maybe really good independently, I really can't sit through a film with five or six songs when they really don't play an efficient role in moving the story. In Iruvar, it is not the case and since the film's characters come from cinema background, Mani Ratnam was able to use the songs in relevant contexts and they do actually help move the story forward. Still he could have made it more efficient by not filming many of the songs in their entirety and it kind of hampered the film during its middle third. Still it kind of works in the sense that the characters age considerably over the course of the events shown in film and we also feel ourselves aging due to the length of the film. 

The characters are not named with their actual names in real life due to understandable reasons and you got Anandam- instead of MGR- played by Mohanlal, Tamil Selvam-instead of Karunanidhi-played by Prakash Raj and Kalpana-instead of Jayalalitha-played by Aiswarya Rai who is making her feature film debut. Anandam is a struggling actor whilst Selvam is a poet/screenplay writer and they meet on set and form a strong friendship. Selvam is part of the Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu which aims  at changing the caste equations in the state to make the society more equitable. He introduces the movement to Anandam who also joins the party whilst pursuing his acting career. Both of them become heavyweights in their own fields and the party uses Anandam's popularity to gain votes. At the time of a crucial election, Anandam gets injured by an accidental gunfire during a shoot, and the sentiments are utilized by the party to win the election and Selvam becomes the chief minister. Over the course of the term, the relation between the two stalwarts breaks down leading to the ouster of film star from the party. Anandam proceeds to form another party of his own and wins the election by running a campaign against corruption and thus becoming the CM. During all these he is attracted to his co-star Kalpana, who resembles his first wife who died young, and introduces her in to politics.

The films works as a vehicle for Mohanlal and Praksah Raj to exhibit their acting skills. The motivation for Selvam to prevent Anandam from entering his ministry is quite obvious as he is skeptical about the intellectual capability of actors from the beginning itself. We get a real perspective on Anandam's personal life but the reasoning for his political actions is not clear cut. It may very well be his ego getting hurt on getting brushed aside. The politics portrayed in the film is quite shallow and maybe that is fair since Tamil Nadu politics is actually quite shallow with it being hogged by stars from silver-screen. Film works better as a story about two characters' transformation after getting power in their respective fields rather than as a political film. Performances from both the lead characters are excellent, particularly from Mohanal whose character at the beginning and end are like chalk and cheese. The role of Selvam was offered to actors like Mammootty and Kamal Hasan who all declined it and Mani Ratnam decided to go with Prakash Raj, a relative unknown at that point of time. The title of the film translates as 'duo' and it is very much a story of both of them even though Mohanlal's character gets considerably more screen-time.

Overall it is a great watch whilst not being perfect. The songs from A.R. Rahman are excellent as is the not so subtle background score. Santosh Shivan handles the camera and there is one particular scene where Mohanlal is delivering a pivotal speech with Prakash Raj in the background and the camera circles the stage quite a few times over the course of which Prakash Raj grows more and more insecure. Not surprisingly, film was a box office failure but garnered universal critical acclaim. As for political films having similar kind of theme, 'Lal Salam' is a pretty good watch and it works better on a political level.

Rating: 4/5