Director: Todd Solondz Writer: Todd Solondz Cast: Jordan Gelber, Selma Blair, Christopher Walken
Romance blooms between two thirty somethings in arrested development: an avid toy collector who is the dark horse of his family and a depressed woman on the rebound.
The problem with the film is that there isn't the freshness for the theme that I felt when I watched Solondz's Happiness. Its kind of already been done, albeit the unlikableness of the protagonist is almost unreal in this case.
Director: David Cronenberg Writers: David Cronenberg, Don DeLillo Cast: Robert Pattinson, Sarah Gadon, Paul Giamatti, Kevin Durand
Riding across Manhattan in a stretch limo in order to get a haircut, a 28 year old billionaire asset manager's day devolves into an odyssey with a cast of characters that start to tear his world apart.
I saw it twice in the space of two days. First time i got a general idea about its theme but didn't have a clue about the last thirty minutes due to combination of being sleepy and the film being too demanding. It is not a film that one should watch in cinemas as you need to rewind some of the dialogues to truly understand what the fuck is going on. The film is really very contemporary as the current feeling towards capitalism and the antagonism towards the top one percentile is depicted in the film. The first 70 minutes of the film is showing the stale nature of existence of the super rich and the next 40 minutes balances it out by showing the worthlessness, thoughtlessness and helplessness of the people who protest against the so called capitalists. In effect it mocks everyone.
It is not a film that people would like and it is not meant to be. It is a must watch though. Two great limo films in 2012-Cosmopolis and Holy Motors. Both of them difficult watches but great nevertheless.
Director: Ang Lee Writers: Ang Lee, James Schamus, Wang Jui-Ling Cast: Sihung Ling, Yu-Wen Wang, Chien-lien Wu
A senior chef lives with his three grown daughters; the middle one finds her future plans affected by unexpected events and the life changes of the other household members.
The film felt like the feel good Malayalam family films of the 90s. Ang Lee could have taken intelligence of the audience for granted and made the film much more subtle. As it stands it looks a bit cliched. I saw it being compared to Edward Yang's 'Yi Yi' http://pulpfictionfilms.blogspot.in/2011/07/yi-yi-2000.html. Yang's effort is a far superior work and a must watch.
Director: Gabriel Rojas Vera Writer: Gabriel Rojas Vera Cast: Angela Carrizosa, Juan Manuel Diaz Oroztegui, Diego Galindo Language: Spanish
Karen discovers, after 10 years of marriage, she has left behind her dreams devoting herself to home chores and realizes it has been a mistake that cost her youth.
It is set in Bogota, Colombia and is a good watch.
Director: Zack Snyder Writers: David Hayter, Alex Tse, David Gibbons, Alan Moore Cast: Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Malin Akerman, Jackie Earle Haley
In an alternate 1985 where superheroes exist, the murder of a colleague sends active vigilante Rorschach into his own sprawling investigation, uncovering something that could completely change the course of history as we know it.
The film is good in parts and the ending is also very unexpected in a good way. But the cast and the script is not good enough to fully justify sitting through the almost three hours length of it. It just felt like a B grade director doing an A grade story. The films to compare with would be 'Sin City' and Nolan's Batman Trilogy and in both these cases the caliber of directors and cast involved take them to a different level compared to Watchmen.
Anyways got to watching some Alan Moore interviews after watching the film. He never endorses any of the film adaptations of his graphic novels. V for Vendetta was also written by him. Would have been better off reading the novel rather than watching the film.
Director:Andrey Tarkovskiy Writer: Andrey Tarkovskiy Cast: Erland Josephson, Susan Fleetwood Language: Swedish
At the dawn of WW3 a man searches for a way to restore peace to the world and finds he must give something in return.
This is Tarkovskiy's last film and was shot in Sweden while he was battling with cancer. He was a great admirer of Swedish Director Ingmar Bergman and you can see that influence in this film. The first hour can be an ordeal and would need multiple viewing to fully appreciate it. Didn't find it as compelling as his other films like Stalker, Solyaris, Nostalghia etc.
Director: Asif Kapadia Writer: Manish Pandey
A documentary on Brazilian Formula One racing driver Ayrton Senna, who won the F1 world championship three times before his death at age 34.
The documentary uses only archival footage and there is no after the fact interview about Senna or anything like that. We see the character of Senna develop from his early days, then his rivalry with team mate Alain Prost, his world titles and then his switch to Williams from McLaren and then his tragic death at Imola. Senna comes across as a very likeable and passionate character with a tremendous drive to win. The main thing that attracts people towards sports is the fact that it is unscripted and many times you get dramas that are far better than anything that is scripted. Senna is a must watch documentary even if you are not at all interested in Formula One or any sport for that matter.
