Ich seh, Ich seh (Goodnight Mommy) (2014)

Directors: Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala
Writers: Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala
DOP: Martin Gschlacht
Cast: Susanne Wuest, Elias Schwarz, Lukas Schwarz
Language: German

Twin boys move into a new home with their mother after she has a face changing cosmetic surgery, but under her bandages is someone whom they don't recognise.

The German title of the film translates as 'I see, I see' but they went with Goodnight Mommy for its overseas release. An obvious comparison to be made is with Michael Haneke's 'Funny Games', with it being an Austrian film and the nature of its genre. The trailer of the film, which I didn't watch prior and was proclaimed as quite scary, would leave you with an impression as to who is going to be the dangerous character in it but the film subverts that expectation by the midway point. There is something that could come across as a twist if you don't pay much attention to it but the filmmakers thankfully does not make any effort to hide it and it was obvious from the get go for me. It doesn't even qualify as a twist because you have to be pretty dim if you miss it.

It ends up as a quite straight forward film about grief and related struggles. Another subtext that could be read is regarding celebrity cosmetic surgeries and the reaction to it from the fandom if it doesn't quite work out. We had a recent experience of it in Kerala when Mohanlal decided to go plastic. The film really worked for me even though some had problems with the sudden turn it took around the hour mark. I really had to hide my eyes during some of the scenes.

PS: The director duo has an interesting backstory on how they met and eventually ended up working together. Severin used to babysit Veronika's kid as a 14 year old while she was working as a film journalist. Their English language film, The Lodge, will get released this year.

Rating: 4.5/5

La isla mínima (Marshland) (2014)

Director: Alberto Rodriguez
Writers: Alberto Rodriguez, Rafael Cobos
DOP: Alex Catalan
Cast: Raul Arevalo, Javier Guiterrez, Nerea Barros
Language: Spanish

In the Marshland a serial killer is on the loose. Two homicide detectives who appear to be poles apart must settle their differences and bring the murderer to justice before more young women lose their lives.

Film is set in 1980 Andalusia, Spain as it is transitioning to a democracy after the end of Franco's regime. The older detective is the product of the previous regime while the younger one is from the present times with little respect for authority. The film has been compared with first season of True Detective and you can see that the comparison is not only coming because of the surreal marshy settings but also because of the dynamics between the two leads. To add to the similarities, it also ends with some loose ends not tied up together. The village in which the killings took place and the local police are a bit antagonistic towards the detectives and they are not very forthcoming in terms of divulging what they know. The film is not really about the plot or how ingenious their solving of crime is but rather about the atmosphere and mood it conveys.

It is a great watch overall with excellent performances from the two lead actors. The color tone and camera angles are such that you won't get the full glory of its cinematography on a small screen but you still can feel that it was very well done. Several of Sergio Leone's Western classics were set in Andalusia and you do get a feel of that even though the location is marshy and not a desert. It is a pretty cool watch.

Rating: 4/5

ഒരാൾപ്പൊക്കം (Six Feet High) (2014)

Director: Sanal Kumar Sasidharan
Writer: Sanal Kumar Sasidharan
DOP: Indrajith
Cast: Prakash Bare, Meena Kandasamy
Language: Malayalam

Mahi and Maya share an apartment and are presumably in a living in but open relationship. The film begins with both of them breaking up their living arrangement over an argument about the open nature of their relationship. After a few days, Mahi gets a phone call from Maya from Kedarnath and they patch things up but the call gets cut abruptly. Next day, Mahi wakes up to the news about Uttarkhand floods and he can't reach Maya again. He embarks on a journey to find Maya again.

Sanal's  Ozhivudivasathe Kali was one of the best films from last year and his latest one 'Sexy Durga' got premiered at Rotterdam international film festival yesterday with a very good reception. I was quite desperate to watch this film, which is his major one and was a crowd-funded affair. He had posted yesterday about the films being available via www.moviesaints.com where you can pay Rs. 150 for a film. However, the payment didn't get through as the bank declined it for some reason but the good people from the site sent me a link for free screening and I promise to pay later when the payment issue gets sorted.

Coming back to the film, while ODK had quite austere ambitions on the technical front, irrespective of the single take second half, Oraalpokkam is quite impressive on that front with the stunning post-apocalyptic settings of the Himalayas being the backdrop for much of it. The name 'Maya' translates as illusion and we're not sure whether the character is an imaginary one as well. There are plenty of sequences which suggests so and there is also that shower scene which suggests that most of it is happening inside Mahi's head. That kind of undermines the film as you've to walk a very tight rope of ambiguity to keep your audience invested in the character. At one point of the film, when they show them during the initial days of their relationship, Maya tells Mahi that he is pretending to be something he is not. The film is essentially about Mahi's identity crisis.

It is overall a very good watch without achieving the great heights of ODK. The sequences in the Himalayas are breathtaking and it reminded me of 'Stalker' and 'Eyes Wide Shut' in some places. The main drawback is that it went too far on the ambiguity front, to the point you really don't care. Never go full retard. Performances are really good and the sound design is stunning as well. 

Rating: 3.5/5

Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (2014)

Director: David Zellner
Writers:  David Zellner, Nathan Zellner
Cast:       Rinko Kikuchi, Nobuyuki Katsube, Shirley Venard
Language: Japanese, English

A jaded Japanese woman discovers a hidden copy of Coen Brothers' film Fargo on VHS, believing it to be a treasure map indicating the location of a large case of money.

Coen Brothers made their names known worldwide with Fargo, even though their films prior to that were also absolutely great. It is not a wild theory to think that they would have really buried a case (with fake bills probably) and left it there for some enterprising film fan to find it. In that film, it was Steve Buscemi's character who buries the case in the snow-laden landscape next to a fence, only for the marker that he left to be buried in the snow. You kind of know that the protagonist Japanese lady would discover it in the end, but the ending alludes that the last sequence is a dream/vision that she is having just before her death during the severe snow-storm. The presence of her rabbit, which she had abandoned in a subway train in Japan, makes the ending not even ambiguous. I would have preferred a real ending like that as a hopeful one wouldn't have been misplaced. They had a very cheery song during the end-credits anyway, maybe to trick some viewers.

Kumiko is kind of a social outcast who doesn't have any friends and is kind of unhinged. Her only hobby is finding treasures and that is how she stumbles upon the hidden VHS copy of Fargo. One can draw some existential interpretation of the movie and even some religious ones. People who take films too seriously, like me, could find it rather disturbingly close to home. It is basically a un-romanticized version of 'Amelie'. First half of the film is set in Japan and the second half in USA as she travels to 'The New World', looking for the treasure, like a Spanish Conquistador. There she meets some rural characters that could be described as stereotypical, but that can be excused because of the nature of the film, and also, stereotypes exist for a reason. 

It is very different and a great watch. It is an international film with names like Alexander Payne attached to it. The film is based on an Urban Legend related to the death of Takako Konishi, who died of hypothermia in outside Detroit Lakes, in Minnesota. The film made its debut at the Sundance film festival and has been received very positively. Would love to hear the reaction of Coens to it.

Rating: 4/5

ഞാൻ സ്റ്റീവ് ലോപ്പസ് (Njan Steve Lopez) (2014)

Director: Rajeev Ravi
Writers:  Santhosh Aechikannam, Ajithkumar, Rajesh Ravi, Geethu Mohandas
Cast:       Farhaan Faasil, Alancier Lay, Sujith Shankar
Language: Malayalam

A moody and confused college going teenager witnesses a gang attack and as his curiosity behind the encounter starts to get the better of him, he realizes that his DYSP dad and the Police are also involved. 

I was slightly put off by the above synopsis as it sounds like some cliched shit. That was before I had watched Rajeev Ravi's debut film- 'Annayum Rasoolum'. It was a film which I was able to finish on my third try only because of the poor sound quality of it on small screen. It had sync sound and the TV broadcast of Malayalam channels is such that you get really terrible output from it. Rajeev Ravi films are ones which you cannot really go by a simple synopsis of the plot because it happens to be much more than about a plot per se. H goes for extreme realism and rich characters and it worked out well for him in his debut film, which was surprisingly a box office success. One fault I found with that one was its running time and he rectifies that in 'Njan Steve Lopez, which is around two hours long. It is also a better film than 'AR' with a a very ambiguous plot and the director deciding to not spell it out for the audience. Unsurprisingly, this time, it was a box office disaster.

The greatest thing about the film is its ambiguity. It is not out of the shock of learning some undesirable things about his father that he decides to act out. His father, played by the excellent Alancier Lay, is a rough character from the beginning. There was not much love lost between them because of the incident. He is just confused and is going with the flow of things as per what he can understand about the situation. There is a certain amount of naivety in how he perceives things and it is not as if the actions of the Police, from what we can decipher, are all that bad. The gangster (Sujith Shankar), with whom he bonds over his own kidnapping (Stockholm Syndrome), was the one who killed a gangster in front of him. It could be that the Police was just facilitating the rival gangsters to restore order by giving them opportunity to exact their revenge. One could even make another film telling this tale from the perspective of his father. 

Overall it is a great watch in the style you would expect from Rajeev Ravi. He even managed to sneak in a wanking scene in what I figure to be a 'U' rated film. It didn't get a DVD release and was made available for streaming through Reelmonk. The film marked the debuts of Alancier Lay and Sujith Shankar in a significant sense and both of them star in very good roles in the recent release 'Maheshinte Prathikaram'. It was also the feature film debut for Farhaan Faasil, in the titular role, and what I heard about him was that his performance was very one note. I am not a big fan of nepotism in Malayalam film industry but his performance was quite good and it was exactly what was required for this film. I just wish I could see this film on a big screen. 

Rating: 5/5

Eden (2014)

Director: Mia Hansen-Love
Writers:  Mia Hansen-Love, Sven Hansen-Love
Cast:       Felix de Givry, Pauline Etienne, Vincent Macaigne
Language: French

Paul, a teenager in the underground music scene of early 90s Paris, forms a DJ collective with his friends and together they plunge into the nightlife of sex, drugs, and endless music.

The film is magnificent and different in terms of what it doesn't do. Is it the story of an underdog or under-appreciated DJ who overcomes things with a great resolution at the end?, Is he a famous guy?,  Does his life takes drastic turns due to random things happening? Is it Boggie Nights for DJs? - Answer to all of that is- Hell No!!! Film is basically an adaptation of Mia's brother Sven life and he helped in writing the screenplay for it. It is not a job with which you can plan your life around and despite warnings from his mother- he plunges into it with the genre being Garage- which he describes as electronic music meeting disco. It basically revolves around his life and try to portray what happens after music is turned off and lights are out or, in this case, sun has come up. Despite the cool soundtrack and sexy settings, it is a slow burner and still a very cool watch. An obvious comparison for this one would be with Michael Winterbottom's masterpiece- '24 Hour Party People'. Unlike 24HPP, it doesn't concentrate much on the business side of things but they play a significant role in the Part-2 portion of the film- which is significantly shorter than the first. The central character is played in a very toned down manner by Felix de Givry and it is left to the viewer to decipher what is going on in his mind and life. Changes are quite subtle as the years go by. The power play in his relationships are also quite subtly told and everything is done without any accompanying bells or whistles.

It also includes appearances by two actors who portray Daft Punk at various points in their career. Since we don't know how they look like, it is quite possible that they were indeed the Daft Punk duo. Film is a very good one and is recommended for people who love this sort of music and like the films that they watch to be subtle. It can also be classed as a companion-piece to 'Inside Llewyn Davis'.

PS: I feel like watching '24 Hour Party People' again on the back of that and these two films would make an excellent double bill.

Rating: 4.5/5

The Mend (2014)

Director: John Magary
Writers:  John Magary, Russell Harbaugh, Myna Joseph
Cast:       Josh Lucas, Stephen Plunkett, Lucy Owen

A comic drama about rage, doubt, lust, madness, and other brotherly hand-me-downs. 

It is quite a hard film in terms of figuring out what exactly it is about in the first 30 minutes or so and that part is quite a slog. I was reminded of the Charles Bukowski films that I have seen during those parts since one of the character is like him. But from then on, you realize that it has got two protagonist brothers at its center and it is in fact a comedy. One of the brothers is kind of a drifter and the other one has got a more stable life and is on the verge of proposing to his girlfriend during a trip to Canada. When they leave, his brother ends up in their house and he invites his girlfriend and her kid in. It turns out that the house-owning couple had a breakup during the trip and the brother is back at his house and he is cool with the situation he finds when he is back. It proceeds from there. The middle portion of the film really worked for me and there are plenty of laughs in it. The ending was kind of tame but its still a very good watch overall. What it basically portrays is the differences and commonalities in personalities of the two brothers. Both of them have relationship issues but one is more comfortable in his skin. The treatment is quite different in the sense that the audience is not spoon-fed at all and you have to really pay attention to figure things out in the initial segment of the film. 

So, the film is a very good watch it you are patient enough and give it a chance. It can also be considered as a watered down version of 'Naked' as well, I guess. It is set in New-York and the performances are really good. It is funny how you start noticing a particular word frequently after you figure out its meaning. Psychologists call it the Baader-Meinhoff phenomenon. I don't think I have heard the word 'Moxie' prior to me watching 'Mistress America' last week and this film was produced by Moxie Pictures. It is an American slang word for describing someone who has got guts/nerve etc...  

Rating: 3.5/5

Good Kill (2014)

Director: Andrew Niccol
Writer:    Andrew Niccol
Cast:       Ethan Hawke, January Jones, Zoe Kravitz

Major Thomas Egan (Ethan Hawke) is a US Air Force fighter pilot who transitions to UCAV (Drones) duty when demand drops for manned aircraft. As a drone pilot, with limited ability to control collateral damage during airstrikes, Egan becomes disillusioned. He begins to deeply question the morality of his job after his unit begins running missions for CIA.

I don't think you can limit collateral damage if you are flying a mission when compared with drone strikes on an individual mission basis. But the former will happen on a less frequent basis because of the risks involved and thus will reduce the overall collateral damage. The main issue for the protagonist is that he doesn't have any 'Skin in the Game' when he is piloting a drone and he wants to go back into flying combat. He is stationed in Las Vegas and is conducting airstrikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen from there. It is another one of those films where you get the feeling that West is playing the victim after being the aggressor. You get the white protagonist who grows a conscience due to the atrocities he is being made to commit and the film is told from his perspective entirely. I am not saying that it is not a relevant subject but that it is a bit disingenuous to make a film ignoring the kind of life that people are having in those places where they can get killed without any warning by a drone that they cannot see. That is especially so when this is one of the first film to be made on the drone strikes program that Obama administration is conducting as part of its never ending 'War on Terror'. To be fair, the film does go into the war-crime aspect of it and other things but they come across as monotonous lectures and a bit awkward in terms of scripting. Tonally it is as if faceless CIA as the villain is making the poor air force guys do bad things. 

Overall, it is a decent watch if you are interested in the very relevant issue of drone strikes from the perspective of the perpetrators. Just that I think it would have been better if they also showed it from the other side as well. Drone pilots having emotional and marital problems might be a real issue for them but it is not the first thing that comes to our mind when we think of drones. It all seems a bit tasteless like the film 'Hurt Locker' was when it came out. At least this one doesn't act as as a propaganda film for US Air Force.

Rating: 2.5/5

Buzzard (2014)

Director: Joel Potrykus
Writer:    Joel Potrykus
Cast:       Joshua Burge, Joel Potrykus

Paranoia forces small-time scam artist Marty to flee his hometown and hide out in Detroit. With nothing but a pocketful of bogus checks, his power glove and a bad temper, the horror metal slacker lashes out.

Marty work as a temp in a bank and he is an expert in making small money by arbitraging various offers. First scene of the film shows him closing a checking account, withdrawing all his money, and immediately opening a new one to make use of the introductory offer of free $50. You can also see him returning things that he requisitioned from his office and making money off it. When his manager gives him a set of checks to find the addresses of their recipients, he cashes some of them by signing it on to his name. He flees when he finds out that it can be traced back to him and he is in a state of paranoia. He first hangs out with his work-friend, Derek, and later flees to Detroit.

The film is basically a character study on Marty and the plot is just incidental to it. It does get in under your skin and generates uncomfortable laughs since it can boil over to serial killer territory at any point of time. I was reminded of Todd Solondz films while watching it and you can certainly check it out if you are a fan of his work. The two main characters in it are certainly pathetic and unlikable but the proof that film works lie in the fact that you still care for the central character. There is one long sequence where Marty is having a plate of Spaghetti in his hotel bed and its excruciating to watch. That scene kind of sum up the film as it is a study on loneliness in a capitalistic setup.

Rating: 3.5/5

Seconds (2014)

Director: Aneesh Upasana
Writer:   Aneesh Upasana
Cast:      Jayasurya, Vinay Forrt, Aparna Nair, Vinayakan
Language: Malayalam

The film is a multi-narrative, told in a non-linear format, which revolves around a murder that happens in the elevator of a city apartment. Four unrelated persons of which one was a ruffian was in the lift; two were left seriously injured and one dead. 

Film was recommended to me by a friend, whose taste doesn't always match with me, and this one proved to be a bad suggestion. To be fair, the first half of the film is quite good when it follows the lives of characters leading up to the incident in the lift. One of them is from middle class background, while two others can be classed as from lower middle class. The last one is a from the lowest rung of the society. Their life is portrayed quite well with good humor. But the second half of the film is ludicrously bad with a very convoluted plot. It is not that just the plot is bad, but the way expositions are done is in the too bad it is good category (Salim Kumar character). 

So, it is a film of two halves with a very watchable first half and a stinking latter half. It does have a very low-budget feel in terms of production quality but it kind of suits the story though. It seems the story was written, starting from the central incident, and they just tried to make it as contrived as they possibly could. There are several clever mis-directions but the ending is just too ludicrous and laughable. Why would an assassin plan such a convoluted method to kill someone when there are more things that can go wrong than right. 

Rating: 1.5/5

Gangster (2014)

Director: Aashiq Abu
Writer:    Ahamed Siddique
Cast:       Mammootty, Sekhar Menon, John Paul
Language: Malayalam

Akbar (Mammootty) is a powerful figure of Mangalore underworld who got an understanding and shares profits with Mani Menon (Kunchan) and Uncle Sam (John Paul), two other prominent gangsters ruling the city. The city remains calm under them, until Anto (Sekhar Menon), grandson of Uncle Sam comes up with a new business proposal which Akbar refuses to be a part of. War breaks loose. 

Gangster is a film which makes 'Sagar Alias Jackey: Reloaded' look like 'Godfather'. And SAJ: Reloaded was an average film that made 'Big B' look like 'Godfather'. The only good thing about Gangster is the fifteen seconds or so of Sorrentino's 'The Great Beauty' that we get to see on Akbar's laptop. The film begins with a quite well done animated sequence (Kill Bill style) explaining Akbar's background and his rise in gangster world. Whatever good that is achieved by the animation is spoiled by the pathetic narration. It is then followed by the opening credits which is also quite good. Then it is downhill from there. Like all mafia films, it also contains some cringy references to Godfather. Characters like Akbar's girlfriend/wife are airdropped to be disposed off quickly to serve as a plot point only. The dialogues are so poorly written that the actors themselves look uncomfortable delivering it, especially Mammootty. It is so poor that I think I would've enjoyed it more if all the narration and talking parts were taken out. 

The film is technically quite good but the flip side of that is Aashiq Abu seems to have forgotten the hard part of creating characters that we give two shits about or a semi-interesting plot. He tries in vain to recreate the Big B's Bilal character in terms of mannerisms and style but what he ends up with is a 'Pavanai' version. Film ends with the following line delivered by Akbar: 'I will kill you in such a way that you will always remember your death'...Err, what? WTF!!!

Rating: 0.5/5

                                                                             

കൂതറ (Koothara) (2014)

Director: Srinath Rajendran
Writer:    Vini Vishwa Lal
Cast:       Sunny Wayne, Bharath Srinivasan, Tovino Thomas, Mohanlal
Language: Malayalam

Koobrin, Tharun and Ram are three students from Kerala who end up as roommates while studying a course (Electronics & Communication Engineering like many of us) in which they don't have much interest in. They end up getting dismissed from college and the start-up IT firm that they launch only helps in increasing their debt. Not knowing where to go and what to do, they meet a mysterious man in a Bar who starts influencing them. 

It is very common in Malayalam cinema these days to lecture us about moral and social lessons relating to motivation and responsibilities and the film is kind of a genre-bender by doing it in a very different way by adding some magical surrealism to it. Predictably, it bombed at the box office because the audience just can't accept films that surprise them in a good way. It is the same phenomena that happened to 'Double Barrel', whose box office returns is a sad indictment on the so-called intelligence of Malayalee film audience. Koothara has not yet been broadcast on TV channels and when it finally does, I expect people to wonder, in an ironic fashion, why it didn't do well during its theatrical run.

The common feedback that I got from people who had seen it was that the first half of the film was good but second half is terrible starting from the introduction of Mohanlal as the 'Mer-man'. I thought the first half was rather average with some good laughs to go with some terrible acting from Bharath. Bad dubbing can always spoil an otherwise good film and I don't know why they couldn't do it well or cast someone who is comfortable in Malayalam. College and hostel life is portrayed with quite good authenticity but overall it is inferior in every way compared to what was done in 'Premam'. I like the second half of the film and especially Mohanlal's cameo as the mysterious 'mer-man'. I am quite sick of Mohanlal and Mammootty giving us life lessons through their larger than life roles and this is how they can do it in an enjoyable way. Another annoying feature from recent films is the way they refer to older Malayalam classics and most of the time I find it obnoxious. This one does it in a subtle enough manner in sync with the story to make it enjoyable. There is even a throwaway reference to director's debut film, Second Show, which he did with Sunny Wayne. 

Overall it is a good watch and the makers should be applauded for their bravery to do an experimental film. Performances on the whole is quite good and I enjoyed Mohanlal's deliberately hammy performance. Cinematography is gorgeous, especially in the second half with boat scenes. The CGI, when it is used, was also quite good considering the industry it is in.  It is a good second film from the writer-director duo. I'll certainly check out their next feature when it happens.

Rating: 3/5

                                                                              

Comet (2014)

Director: Sam Esmail
Writer:    Sam Esmail
Cast:       Justin Long, Emmy Rossum

Set in a parallel universe, Comet bounces back and forth over the course of an unlikely but perfectly paired couple's six-year relationship. 

The parallel universe part doesn't really have a bearing on the story and this is something that has been done in a not so different fashion prior to it in '500 Days of Summer'. I saw it after being impressed by Sam Esmail's TV series Mr. Robot. Like that one, Comet also wears its references on its sleeves but it does so as a ruse to give some sophistication to the film when in fact it is a very simple story told in a non-linear fashion. You get the typical Lynchian concept he used in his LA/Dream trilogy, which is the story happening inside the head of someone just before their death. In Comet, Esmail plugs this through the Sixth Sense reference. During one of their conversations, the girl exasperates about time based art like films, theater, concerts etc stating that it requires viewer to watch it through beginning, middle and to end whereas art-forms like Painting doesn't require you to do so. That is said during a point in the film where up till then, segments were very short and you think that is what he trying to do by being all over the place in terms of chronology so that you can watch the film from any point of it. But, later on, the segments become quite long and sort of traditional. So it basically ends up as a very talky minimalist version of 500 Days of Summer.

Overall, it is a good watch with clever enough conversations but is the kind that you will forget about in no time. I am not saying that as a negative thing but that is how these kind of films always end up as. That is unless, I missed some of its cleverness if he actually did put some conversations across different timeline segments instead of containing each of them in a particular segment. Chemistry is good between the lead actors and performances engaging. Justin Long looks like Tony Leung in extreme close-ups. It had a very limited theatrical release and went for VoD.  

Rating: 3/5   

                                                                            

Le meraviglie (The Wonders) (2014)

Director: Alice Rohrwacher
Writer:    Alice Rohrwacher
Cast:       Alba Rohrwacher, Maria Alexandra Lungu, Sam Louwyck, Monica Bellucci
Language: Italian

Nothing will be the same at the end of this summer for Gelsomina and her three younger sisters. It is an unusual family which includes their father and mother along with another woman helper and they are a farming family with Honey being their main source of income. To this struggling group, a 14 year old juvenile boy is added and then there is this banal reality show, hosted by Monica Bellucci, in which they can participate with some attractive money on offer for the winners. 

It is really an unusual film which depicts the family in a very non-glamorous and realistic manner. It is quite common to make films in such settings with a very romanticized depiction and our Malayalam industry is replete with such (Ivide Swargamanu). Despite its grittiness, it turns out to be such a sweet film with nuanced performances. Toward the end, it does get a bit more serious in a very non-hammy way and even goes into the surreal territory. It works as a coming of age story of its protagonist teenager, Gelsomina. The basic story of struggling farming family is quite universal these days but participation from even the little kids in the activities is quite rare to see. This must be a really alien concept in Europe and that in itself might be its primary attraction.

It is a great and unique watch. It won the 'Grand Prix' award at Cannes. I would assume it to be semi-autobiographical for the director, going by her bio on wiki. I guess that authenticity is reflected in the film. It kind of reminded me of 'The Broken Circle Breakdown' in terms of its farming settings.

Rating: 4/5  

                                                                       

Bangalore Days (2014)

Director: Anjali Menon
Writer:    Anjali Menon
Cast:       Dulquer Salman, Nazriya Nazim, Nivin Pauly, Fahadh Faasil
Language: Malayalam

The plot revolves around three cousins from Kerala who hangs out together in Bangalore. One of them (Dulquer), a rebellious biker, was already there. The second one (Nivin Pauly), a typical village type Malayalee, gets a job in a software firm and moves to the Software capital of India.The third one (Nazriya Nazim), Nazriya playing a typical Nazriya role, gets married to a very reserved guy (Fahadh Faasil) with a high-salaried job in Bangalore. It is intended as a coming of age romantic comedy drama film and was hugely successful at the box office and stands now as the third highest grosser from Malayalam, not adjusted for inflation. It even had some crossover success with people from other south Indian states watching it, God only knows for what.

I was never compelled to watch this film as I found Anjali Menon's previous effort, 'Ustad Hotel', to be terrible manipulative bullshit. I finally decided to give it a go today as my broadband FUP limit is up and this one came on TV. It is marginally better than 'Ustad Hotel' but that is not saying much. It is quite watchable for about first hour of the film as it introduces various characters and their interactions. After that, it tries to shoe-horn sappy manipulative story arcs for all the three characters in a typical Indian fashion aimed at brain-dead Indian middle class audience, who tend to get inspired by 'Obvious' philosophical musings from Robin Sharma and are susceptible to shit like 'Art of Living'. We have Dulquer falling for a disabled RJ, Nazriya having difficulties in her marriage (seems issues like sex life can be brushed under the carpet for the film to be in the non 'new-gen' mould) and Nivin Pauly's story-line is supposed to be comic relief. He is supposed to be a middle-class guy with an entry level job in a software firm and he has got a house all for himself in Indira Nagar. That in itself should prompt you to call bullshit on it. Film is around three hours long and it is quite an excruciating watch. Occasional laughs manages to take you to the end which features a dirt track bike race in a typical sports film fashion with the cliched setback in the middle of it, only for the protagonist to comeback against all odds and win it in a photo-finish. 

Overall, it is a non-offensive watchable shit but the success of it itself is offensive. It doesn't go to the terrible level that Ustad Hotel manages to get, and for that, I will put it as marginally better. As far as performances go, Dulquer and Nazriya are playing their usual selves and rest of them are alright. I can't stand Anjali Menon's films which I find to be terribly manipulative, having an artificial sense of sophistication while being very old school.

Rating: 2/5   

                                                                         

Karma Cartel (2014)

Director: Vinod Bharathan
Writer:    Vinod Bharathan
Cast:       Vinay Forrt, Sabumon Abdusamad, Joseph Chakola
Language: Malayalam

A multi-award winning, avant-garde Indian indie set in a southern city of India (Kochi). It starts with following a reporter's search for a missing actor, leads to revelation of multiple lives connected to it through greed and bad choices. It is the first Indian film to be made following the Dogme 95 Manifesto set by Danish directors Lars Von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg.

Dogme 95 rules were made to create films, putting emphasize on traditional values of story, acting and theme, excluding the use of elaborate special effects or technology in the hope that it will give power back to the artist as opposed to the studio. As far as Dogme 95 films go, Thomas Vinterberg's 'Festen', which was in fact the first Dogme film, is the high watermark receiving wide acclaim from all quarters, not just for its Dogme sensibilities. It ushered in a new era of film-making with its use of handy-cam, giving all new freedom  for the cameraman in terms of movement as well as scope for innovation. Festen was a big milestone in the whole Film Vs Digital debate that played out since then, with digital winning out in the end for all intends and purposes as of now. 

Karma Cartel follows the rules 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 of the Dogme 95, which has ten rules in total. The second rule that it doesn't follow, involves usage of extra music. It also doesn't follow rules 8, 9 and 10 since it is a genre movie with the director credited and the aspect ratio is not the academy 35mm standard. It is essentially a comedy featuring mostly unknown actors. Generally you don't feel Dogme 95 films to be a visual treat, since the whole idea behind it is to make it as raw as possible. But I actually thought Karma Cartel was quite great to look at and maybe it being set in Kochi during its Biennale  and me watching it at cinemas might have contributed to it. Film does have some quality comedy moments in it but it does lose its steam during the second half. Two short films were made by the director as part of his Karma series, and this being his first feature length film, you do get the feel that the transition has not been quite smooth. Vinod Bharathan is based out of Copenhagen and it was filmed in just ten days during a Kerala visit. Considering those constraints as well as the novelty of seeing an Indian film following Dogme 95, it is quite good and a worthy effort. I don't know how well-versed he is in Malayalam but some of the scenes that are supposed to be comedic did linger on longer than it was needed and the pacing is a bit off, especially in the second half. 

Overall, it is a decent enough watch and all the more interesting because of its adherence to Dogme 95, which is out of fashion even for its founders. There is a Style over Substance feel to the film and it is as if they didn't quite know how to get to the ending in a credible manner. The references to culture of facebook film reviews with ratings worked well initially but later on in the second half, the whole commentary on film making et al did seem a bit much. Vinay Forrt is good as usual and the other actors also did a very good job. The limitations that the film have is to do with the threadbare plot and there is a comedy skit feel to it. The whole Fort Kochi setting is a bit cliched these days but it worked well for the film and they did capture some of the stunning graffiti that were made during the Biennale. It is well-worth a go at the cinemas considering the crap that are generally getting released these days. I must go and checkout the other short films in the Karma series.

Rating: 3/5

Clouds of Sils Maria (2014)

Director: Oliver Assayas
Writer:    Oliver Assayas
Cast:       Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart, Chloe Grace Moretz

A veteran actress, Maria (Juliette Bincohe), comes face-to-face with an uncomfortable reflection of herself when she agrees to take part in a revival of the play that launched her career twenty years earlier. The play depicts the exploitative lesbian relationship between a 40-year-old businesswoman, Helena, and her 20-year-old personal assistant, Sigrid. Maria had made her debut playing Sigrid and now, 20 years later, she is being persuaded to take up the role of Helena, with whom she says she couldn't identify at all which is her taking a heads in the sand approach. Also, the relationship between Sigrid and Helena is kind of loosely reflected in the relationship between Maria and her assistant Val, played excellently by Kristen Stewart.

The play in question in the film is titled 'Maloja's Snake' and refers to a meteorological/geographical cloud formation between Maloja Pass between Swiss and Italian Alps border. The film is set in the Swiss side of the Alps in a remote town called Sils Maria near the pass. Film can be described an one which deals with 'getting-old-existentialism' and it is more pronounced for people in the acting business especially if you are a woman. Maria is not someone who thrived purely on looks but still she is finding it hard because getting offered to play the role of Helena symbolically means that she is now officially old. She tries in vain to make excuses like the character being weak, unlike her, and she cannot identify at all with Helena, which is her being in Denial stage under Kübler-Ross model. After she finally accepts the role, when she is practicing her lines with Val, they are in constant conflict regarding their respective interpretation of the play, which also reflects the difference in ages between them. This, along with Maria's growing insecurities and vainness, makes Val exasperated by her and leads to her quitting immediately after they see the 'snake'. This happens suddenly and we are not shown what exactly happened to Val and I even thought that Maria might have killed her.

Apart from Val, the third major character in the film is the 19-year-old actress, Jo-Ann Ellis (Chloe Grace Moretz) slated to play the role of Sigrid. The revival of play is supposed to attract headlines concerning Maria playing the role of Helena but by the time play is about to start its run, it gets superseded by events in Jo-Ann Ellis private life. Val leaving and her being not the center of attraction, finally hits it home for Maria as she accepts her reality by the end of the film. Film also takes potshots at Hollywood, not too different from Birdman, and there is one scene in which Val and Maria debates about the quality of films like X-Men and I am on Maria's side. I cannot take such comic book films seriously and find it quite amusing the hoopla surrounding that among the fanboys. One could even consider this film to be a companion piece to Birdman, coming from a female angle. Another film I was reminded of was Paolo Sorrentino's 'The Great Beauty', but that one had a kick-ass central character who was self-aware and assured about where he was at at that age, albeit with some regrets.

Clouds of Sils Maria is a fantastic watch. Kristen Stewart was amazing in the role of assistant and received the César Award for Best Supporting actress (French industry award) for it. This is the first time I had seen her playing a major role, not surprising since she is famous for her involvement in Twilight saga, and looking through her filmography 'Panic Room' and 'Into the Wild' are the only films that I have seen her in. Even though she got most of the plaudits, Binoche was also excellent playing the role of Maria and lack of love for her must be to do with our own exasperation with the character. The central element of the film is of course the relationship between Maria and Val, which is played with enormous amount of subtlety. It is filmed in a very modern way with a minimalist aspect to it. The story idea for the film came from Bincohe who approached the director with it and the latter wrote the screenplay. Bincohe is said to have accepted her role in 'Godzilla', just to do justice to her line that she delivers in Sils Maria about acting in blockbusters. Even though the film is from 2014, it got released in UK and US in 2015 only, and so, I will reserve it for my 'Best of 2015' list.

Rating: 5/5  

                                                                            

끝까지 간다 (A Hard Day) (2014)

Director: Seong-hoon Kim
Writers:  Seong-hoon Kim, Kim Seong-hun
Cast:       Sun-kyun Lee, Man-shik Jeong, Jin-woong Jo
Language: Korean

Detective Go Geon-soo is having a hard day, and the following events happen to him in less than 24 hours: he receives a divorce notice from his wife. His mother passes away. He and his coworkers are being investigated by Internal Affairs police inspectors over alleged embezzlement. Then on his way to his mother's funeral, he drives recklessly and commits a fatal hit and run. He tries to cover up the accident by hiding the man's corpse in his deceased mother's coffin. But someone has been watching this all along and he starts getting blackmail calls from this guy soon enough. 

The concept of a detective having a terribly bad day is explored in the first forty minutes of the film and culminates with the burial at cemetery. This portion of the film is a laugh riot and amazingly great and it reminded me of Michael Douglas starring 'Falling Down', which had gone a totally dark way towards the end.. What follows after the initial comedy portion of the film, when it takes a mystery thriller mode, is comparatively average. Still the great cinematography, which included a kick-ass overhead shot of a chase sequence, and plenty of twists and turns make even that portion of the film an enjoyable watch nevertheless. There were some lazy expositions and connecting-the-dots falshbacks which were not at all needed. Also there are just too many happy coincidences like the detective spotting his caller outside the police headquarters. 

Overall it is a good watch with some solid performances. It was selected to compete in the Director's fortnight section of the Cannes 2014. It was a big box office success, collecting close to $24 million, even though it had a tepid opening in Korea. It can best described as a fun action film in the mould of films like 'Lethal Weapon'. I was expecting 'New World' level of amazeballs and it didn't even come close after the enormously promising first half hour, but that shouldn't be a problem for people who enjoy good action thrillers.

Rating: 3/5

                                                                             

Haider (2014)

Director: Vishal Bhardwaj
Writers:  William Shakespeare (Based on Hamlet), Basharat Peer, Vishal Bhardwaj
Cast:       Shahid Kapoor, Tabu, Kay Kay Menon
Language: Hindi

A young man returns to Kashmir after his father's disappearance. As he seeks answers for his father's disappearance, he ends up being tugged into the politics of his state which is reflected in his family as well with his uncle being on the other side of it. It is a modern day adaptation of William Shakespeare's 'Hamlet', set amidst the insurgency-hit Kashmir conflicts of 1995 and civilian disappearances.

I haven't read Hamlet or, in fact, any other works of William Shakespeare and my only familiarity with his works is through the film adaptations that I have seen. To be honest, I don't remember many of them either because of my unfamiliarity with Shakespeare's work and the only one I can say for sure is Akira Kurosawa's 'Ran', which is supposed to be an adaptation of 'King Lear'. Haider is supposed to be the third one in Vishal Bhardwaj's Shakespearean trilogy with the other two being 'Maqbool' and 'Omkara', both of which I have not seen. In fact I haven't seen any of the films from the director prior to this.

The film doesn't shy away from showing what happened/is happening in Kashmir and doesn't try to portray Indian state and its army in a good light. I was pleasantly surprised by the frankness with which it dealt with those issues without having to add caveats everywhere. The only time that it does is during the end credits where it says it has been relative peace there during recent times and Indian Army did great work during the recent Kashmir floods. It is a testament to the democratic credentials of Indian state that we allow such films even though there were some twitter campaign asking for the boycott of this film. I also doubt whether such films will be tolerated in the immediate future under the current right-wing regime as they have installed people from their nationalistic/jingoistic fold into the film certification board since. 

Coming back to the film, the first two-thirds of it is just great up till the wedding scene of Haider's mother and his conniving uncle. Then the director decides to go full Bollywood on us using a song sequence in which Haider dances to a song, whose lyrics tells the tale of betrayal in a laughably melodramatic fashion. From then on the film involves too many twists and turns, all of which leaves us feeling a bit jarred by the experience. Still, there are some great scenes during that as well. I don't know if the director decided for all these convolutions to stay true to the original play but it doesn't feel like a tragedy at the end.   

I read up a bit on the character 'Hamlet' from wikipedia and it seems he is someone with philosophical & psychological complexity. You don't expect all of that in a film adaptation which is constrained by other factors like making it work in a modern sense. Still, the director manages to add things like iconic dialog of 'To be or Not to be' and the Oedipal relationship between Hamlet/Haider and his mother. The latter is quite subtle in the initial stages of the film but reveals itself fully prior to the wedding when the mother (Tabu) reminisce that when he was younger, he used to say that he would marry her when he grows up. Freud had analysed these aspects in Hamlet by stating that Hamlet's hesitation in killing his uncle was due to his desire for his mother and was sub-consciously thankful to his uncle for getting rid of his father. To that level, the film doesn't go since Haider is shown to be too fond of his father and some silly religious reasoning is given in that scene where he spares his uncle. 

Overall, Haider is a pretty good watch even though its first half is much superior to its rather average second half. Cinematography is excellent, capturing the beauty of Kashmir well in a realistic fashion without resorting to 'tourist post cards' kind of methods, and is well-acted on the whole. Tabu's character is given the most complexity and she carries it well. Haider/Hamlet is quite binary. Irrfan Khan has an extended special appearance and the first instance when he arrives on screen, just before interval, is kick-ass. They have used/stole the initial bit from Moby's 'Extreme Ways', from the Bourne Series, during couple of pivotal scenes which didn't work at all because of my familiarity with that piece of music. There is also a nice reference to 'The Godfather' with the hiding of pistol behind the flush tank scene. Prakash Jha could learn something from that scene because that is how you do it in a subtle manner in stead of his 'References Overload' in 'Rajneeti'. Haider was on the whole a financial and critical success, earning five national awards as well as some international ones. Good to see a mature Indian film set in Kashmir dealing with the politics of it without being manipulative at all.

Rating: 3.5/5

                                                                              

Housebound (2014)

Director: Gerard Johnstone
Writer:    Gerard Johnstone
Cast:       Morgana O'Reilly, Rima Te Wiata, Glen-Paul Waru

Kylie Bucknell is forced to return to the house she grew up in when the court places her on home detention, Her punishment is made all the more unbearable by the presence of her blabbermouth mum, who thinks the house is haunted. However, when she too becomes privy to unsettling whispers and strange bumps in the night, she begins to wonder whether she's inherited her overactive imagination, or if the house is in fact possessed by a hostile spirit who's less than happy about the new living arrangement. 

So, this is just the second film from New Zealand that I have ever watched with the other one being the excellent 'What We Do In The Shadows', which also came out last year. It was only after seeing this film getting compared with that one did I actually came to know about it and both films are comedy ones. While WWDITS was more in a spoof documentary style, extended out of a short film, Housebound mixes several genres expertly giving it a very unique feel to it. It starts off as a supernatural horror film and then proceeds to psychological thriller category and ends up as a mystery thriller while navigating through all this by using acid comedy. One could also make comparisons to films in 'Cornetto Trilogy' but Housebound works more on a scary level with the style of humor being very different as well.

The role of main protagonist is played expertly by Morgana O'Reilly who seems stuck into her teenage self with the attitude that rest of the world is too stupid for her liking. It works very well. The humor in it will surprise you and there are portions in the film in which it works entirely in the thriller mode. We care sufficiently for the characters to really feel worried about their safety. There are plenty of gory scenes but the ending is a bit on the cheesy side. I felt very happy at seeing a scene where a mobile rings for an extended time and the ringtone turned out to be 'Hello Moto', which is also the same one that I use. It actually made me feel more appreciative of the ringtone since I kind of hate hearing it in real life as I hate attending phone calls. 

Overall it is a great watch and the running time of 110 minutes, slightly on the higher side, is used to navigate through the different genres. That kind of thing is very risky to do since you can very easily lose the audience but they manage to pull it off effortlessly. The film also reminded me of the ones from the McDonagh brothers (In Bruges, Calvary) and is a definite watch for those who like those kind of films. I will be adding this one into my 'Best of 2014' list. There is gonna be an American remake for this film and I can't see the fucking point since it is in the same fucking language, albeit with accents.

Rating: 4/5