The Social Network (2010)

Director: David Fincher
Writers:   Aaron Sorkin, Ben Mezrich
Cast:       Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake

Film tells the story of creation of facebook as it is recounted during two lawsuits against Mark Zuckerberg, one by the Winklevi twins and the other by facebook's cofounder Eduardo Saverin.

When I saw it for the first time I was not using facebook and found the film to be great. You don't need to give a fuck about facebook to enjoy the film like is the case with Formula One and 'Senna'. The use of lawsuit to do the narration is extremely clever and they manage to make it very enjoyable even for people who are not clued upon internet start-ups, VCs and the importance of leaving monetizing late for such companies to succeed. Sean Parker's perfect analogies also helps. Jesse Eisenberg is perfect to play Mark Zuckerberg. Neither Zuckerberg nor any of the other facebook staff were involved during the production of the film but Saverin had cooperated for the Ben Mezrich book from which it is largely adapted. Fincher was also supposed to direct the Steve Jobs film but dropped out due to differences with Sony Entertainment. It is a shame because Jobs story had all the potential and the film that they finally ended up making looked disastrous based on the reviews.

I was searching for the spelling of Winklevi on Google and it turns out that the expression is in urban dictionary meaning coming second or not being quite good enough. Hehe. Also loved the Larry Summers  character portrayal and the stuff about him being a treasury secretary. Anyways the film is great even though it might be a bit Hollywodized, but who cares, it is the best film about silicon valley so far. HBO's TV series 'Silicon Valley' is also quite good.

Rating: 4/5

New World (신세계) (2013)

Director:Hoon-jung Park
Writer:   Hoon-jung Park
Cast:      Jung-Jae Lee, Min-sik Choi, Jeong-min Hwang
Language:Korean

The boss of Goldmoon crime syndicate is dead and choice for succession is in between two of his underlings. The cops want to influence the succession using one of their undercover cops who has been on this assignment for ten years but wants out now.

It is Eastern Promises meets Infernal Affairs meets Donnie Brasco meets Godafther. One would expect with this many possible influences it will be uneven with jarring cliches. It is anything but. Stylishly shot with subtle performances to go with some great set-piece sequences, it is a really ambitious project. Normally I find East Asian languages to be not very subtle sounding but since this film has lesser amount of dialog compared to other films of this genre, it was really fine. Jung Jae-Lee gives a Michael Corleonesque performance and other male characters are also well written and developed. Twists are kind of predictable but the film is not really about them.

I was not at all surprised to see that it is part of a planned trilogy and I wouldn't be surprised if one of them is a prequel and the other a sequel to the events in New World. Something similar was done with Infernal Affairs but with not so good results. Lets just hope these guys make a better fist of it. 

Rating: 5/5 

Salinui chueok (Memories of Murder) (2003)

Director: Joon-ho Bong
Writers:  Joon-ho Bong, Kwang-rim Kim, Shim Sung-bo
Cast:       Kang-ho Song, Sang-kyung Kim, Roe-ha Kim
Language:Korean

Film is based on the true story of South Korea's first known serial murders, which took place between 1986 and 1991 in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi province. The film follows two detectives who are trying to solve the crimes.

Quentin Tarantino had included this film in his top twenty films since 1992 (Reservoir Dogs). I recently saw Joon-ho Bong's futuristic sci-fi action film Snowpiercer which was a great watch with some over the top action and concepts but in an extremely enjoyable way. When a foreign director does a film in a language foreign to him you don't expect much subtlety which was the case with Snowpiercer. I was expecting Memories of Murder to be much more of a brooding thriller considering the subject matter but it is done with some deadpan humor especially at the beginning. As the film progresses it sheds that style and become much more about how the investigation is affecting the two detectives. Some of it is quite camp with the line uttered by the more sophisticated detective from Seoul becoming from 'Document is the truth' at the start of the investigation to 'Document is a lie' by the end. Some of that might be a case of lost in translation and it is quite a great watch. 

Obvious comparison is to be made with David Fincher's 'Zodiac' which came later in 2007. The endings are similar and both are based on true stories. Don't know whether the Korean film influenced Fincher film in any way but Zodiac is much more of a character study done with much more subtlety.  But Memories of Murder is much more fast paced and both films have their own place.

Rating: 4/5

The Sopranos (1999–2007): Season One

Creator: David Chase
Cast:     James Gandolfini, Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli

'Family-Redefined'- That is the tagline and it kind of explains it. The first season of the series centers on New Jersey Mob Boss Tony Soprano, who is facing an existential crisis and is seeing a shrink to come to terms with it. His Uncle who is their boss albeit in name only, is having a power struggle with him and his mother is pulling the strings.

So I have finally started watching The Sopranos. When it comes to naming the best TV series of all time, it is usually a tossup between 'The Sopranos' and 'The Wire' for most people whose opinion I respect. Breaking Bad also comes up but I think its recency is a cause for it. I found it to be overrated and binned it after completing three seasons.

 The mafia stories and crime families have been done to death in many films and there is even one character in this series who models himself as Al Pacino. For it to standout the treatment should be different and it is so. In mob films like Godfather the importance is given more to how macro-events in their business dealings affect their family, in 'The Sopranos' it is all about micro level feelings that the characters feel, especially the main protagonist and mob activities happen largely around the periphery. Same thing can be said about the film Donnie Brasco which is also a favorite of mine. Him seeing a shrink helps to convey the same to the audience and it is not just an exposition device since it also influences the plot in a great way. 

The first season has been good but there is some episodic nature to it especially during the 5-9 episodes I think.  I guess I have been spoiled by 'The Wire' which treated its audience with great respect and the motto for it was 'Every pieces matter'. Something minute  that happened in one episode could come significant episodes or even seasons later. What I mean by episodic nature about Sopranos is that there are things that happen all of a sudden in one episode without any build up to it serving just as a plot device for that particular episode. The example for this would be Meadow Soprano's suicidal friend who apparently spends a lot of time in their house but that episode is practically the first time she is shown in it. I think we could forgive this since it is just the first season and I hope it changes over the subsequent seasons.

The late James Gandolfini carries the show and surprisingly enough he plays a vulnerable character unlike in the films that I have seen of him (True Romance, In the Loop, Killing Them Softly). Looking forward to watching the next season which I will start pretty soon.

Rating: 4/5 

Les salauds (Bastards) (2013)

Director: Claire Denis
Writers:  Jean-Pol Fargeau, Claire Denis
Cast:       Vincent Lindon, Chiara Mastroianni, Julie Bataille
Language:French

Marco returns to Paris after his brother-in-law's suicide, where he targets the man his sister believes caused the tragedy- though he is ill prepared for her secrets as they quickly muddy the waters.

I haven't seen any Claire Denis films prior to watching this and from what I have read, this film also has her characteristic style in the sense that she won't spell it out for the audience what the character's are feeling and expositions are minimal. So we are to figure it all out by paying attention and watching closely even the gestures. Film uses flash forwards and most of them come again in the chronological order as the film progresses but some are left hanging, like the kid's bicycle getting found in the woods by the Police.

It is a very atmospheric film with original soundtrack and unlikeable characters. It was screened at the Cannes in the 'Uncertain Category' which I think is a good criterion to get your hands on films that are unconventional. It is a good one time watch and I will be certainly seeking out other Claire Denis films.

Rating: 3.5/5  

Calvary (2014)

Director: John Michael McDonagh
Writer:    John Michael McDonagh
Cast:       Brendan Gleeson, Chris O'Dowd, Kelly Reilly

A priest (Brendan Gleeson) is threatened during a confession by a man who claims to have been abused by some priest when he was 7 years old. He thinks killing off a good priest will make more of a statement and asks the father to get his affairs in order and that be ready to die on next sunday. The film then follows his activities over the next one week.

It is now very common to have films dealing with the abuses perpetrated by church and its priests and unlike those films John Michael McDonagh tells the story in which the priest is the good character trying help the community which has a great deal of cynicism about the Church. The church has only itself to blame for its shenanigans in Ireland and 'Philomena' is another recent film which dealt with similar subject matter. By having character like Father James who is not a bigot and deals the matters that he encounters in a realistic manner, the director is not trying to portray the whole Church in similar light. He is a man who was once married and is father to his daughter, but then decided to become a priest after the death of his wife. He is trying to stay relevant to those he serves unlike most of the church. Film might not be realistic in the sense that all the cynics are shown to be extremely faithful when it comes to their confessions. That doesn't matter because it is a black comedy. 

Film is also highly self aware with constant references to the roles they are playing and some of the characters echoing what we think as an audience. There is one scene in the film where the atheistic doctor played by Aidan Gillen (Littlefinger from GoT) tells the following story to the father in a pub: 

I can't find the fucking quote but is a about a three year old boy who became deaf, dumb, blind and paralyzed after an anesthetic mishap. He goes onto to say how the boy must have felt upon regaining consciousness with all the darkness thinking his parents would turn on the light. When that doesn't happen, he must have cried but he won't be able to hear his own screams and it must be like entombed inside your own body.

Similar to reaction given by the father I was also going What the fuck and why is he telling this now and in what context. It is really fucked up. 

John Michael McDonagh's first film 'The Guard' was a good watch and this film is much better. Both the McDonagh brothers are doing great.

Rating: 5/5

Pranchiyettan and the Saint (2010)

Director: Renjith
Writer:    Renjith
Cast:       Mammootty, Jesse Fox Allen, Priyamani
Language: Malayalam

Cherremmal Eenashu Francis, a.k.a. Pranchiyettan (Mammootty) is a successful businessman based in Thrissur. He longs for social recognition since he has poor educational background and in all other aspects of life he so far had disappointments. Film is narrated in a flashback mode with him having an imaginary conversation with St. Francis in his church. 

The flashback mode helps the film in making the episodic nature of the story feel palatable. Pranchi is incredibly naive and prone to falling for bad advice from his friends circle. The character is in some sense similar and in contrast with the character he played in 'Azakiya Raavanan' which is a much better film when it comes to the comedic aspects of it. Both films have really weak third act. In Pranchiyettan, the third act was potentially good but is let down by really poor script and acting which might be a case of both influencing each other. I don't know if it is a case of older film-makers  not able to make script for child/teenage actors or the latter simply not having the necessary skills or it could just be both. 

When I saw it for the first time I was not convinced by the lazy episodic feel of it which felt like comedy routines. This time round I didn't mind it so much because I was multi-tasking by browsing the net also. Mammootty is the best when portraying rich loser/arrogant characters and this is a very good version of it. He also adds some subtlety to the character with his mannerisms and not just relying on the slang aspect of the dilaogs.  It is a good watch and could have been a great film but for the third act.

Rating: 3/5