This Is the End (2013)

Directors: Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen
Writers:   Seth  Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Jason Stone (Novel)
Cast:        Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill

While attending a party at James Franco's house, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel and many other celebrities are faced with the apocalypse. They initially think it was just an earth-quake but gradually realize that it is indeed the Apocalypse as described in Book of Revelations and they have to be good to each other to get sucked up into heaven.

After watching many contemplative films recently, I thought I would watch something that doesn't need you to involve your brains much and give you some cheap laughs. As expected, 'This is the End' served that purpose without being a comedy classic or anything. The film is cleverer than you think with the characters playing themselves in a self-deprecating manner. There is also an element of spoof in it with there being the token black man in this group of American friends. It is not exactly Bro-mance and the film is not as good as the sum of its parts but it is worth a watch for some mindless laughs.

Edgar Wright's 'The World's End' and 'This is the End' came out quite close together and similarity of their apocalyptic nature was apparent with some preferring the latter. In my opinion 'The World's End is a far superior film despite it being not as good as other films in the 'Cornetto Trilogy'. Among the 'Frat-Pack' films, there have been quite a few over the last decade, the one I like most is 'Superbad' which starred Jonah Hill, Michael Cera and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, though one could fret whether it counts as belonging to the genre but you get the idea.

Rating: 2.5/5

Üç Maymun (Three Monkeys) (2008)

Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Writers:  Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Ebru Ceylan, Ercan Kesal
Cast:       Yavuz Bingol, Hatice Aslan, Ahmet Rifat Sungar, Ercan Kesal
Language: Turkish

A politician gearing up for election kills someone in a car accident. He persuades his driver to take the blame for it in return for a lump-sum amount of money when he gets released apart from his regular salary that will go to his family which consists of his wife and a jobless son. When he is in the jail, communication breaks down between the members of the family.

The title of the film is based on 'Gandhi's Three monkeys'-which is depicted usually by the sculpture of three monkeys conveying- "See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil".  

It actually originated in Japan in the seventeenth century but became famous as a visual metaphor for Gandhi's non-violent fight against colonialism, oppression and injustice. The other side of this tolerant and peaceful society is one which chooses a head in the sand approach and this is what Nuri Bilge Ceylan explores in the this film. Even as driver's wife enters into an adulterous relationship with the politician, the members of the family chooses to bury their heads in the sand since they can tolerate the disturbing status-quo and is quite happy with the monetary reward. Out of all the Ceylan films I have seen, 'Three Monkeys' is the most plot driven one and it works out as a noir genre piece. It is also the only one in which Ceyan has got writing partners which might explain the tonal difference when compared with his other films. 

I don't know whether the print I got was bad because there wasn't much color in the film and it looked like a grim greyish hell. It could be intentional as well considering the subject matter. Overall the film is a great watch but I think the story is much more relatable for people from the developing world because of the power distance between the characters which the Western audience might find unusual. I didn't particularly like the ending bit where the driver is seen persuading a poor acquaintance to take the blame for a crime that his family committed. Thought it was a half-arsed attempt by the director to shoe-horn a message that people from all classes behave in similar manner when they are in a position of relative power. It is definitely the weakest Ceylan film I have seen but still a very good one.

 Rating: 3.5/5

ഇയോബിന്റെ പുസ്തകം (Iyobinte Pusthakam) (2014)

Director: Amal Neerad
Writers:  Gopan Chidambaram, Syam Pushkaran
Cast:       Fahadh Faasil, Lal, Jayasurya, Padmapriya, Isha Sharvani
Language: Malayalam

Film tells the story of Iyob and his three sons who gets control of a Tea Plantation in Munnar through the power of attorney of the original English owner. Elder two sons are ruthless like their father while the youngest one, Aloshi, takes after his pious mother. He flees his town and join British Indian Navy and end up being involved in second world war. Upon returning from war he gets back to his home and ends up in conflict with his family leaving him almost dead at film's interval. The second half sees him getting back to his feet and proceeds like a normal Indian revenge film.

The title of the film translates as 'Book of Job' but the film is not really an adaptation the Biblical story. Instead of being righteous like Job from Bible, Iyob in the film is an unscrupulous guy. The English man character's name is Harrison but the film is not connected to the tea company Harrison's Malayalam. The story seems to be completely fictional. You more or less get what you expect from Amal Neerad (Technical excellence-visuals, soundtrack and Tarantinosque violent florishes) with the only novelty being that it is a period film. I have seen his debut film 'Big B', which is a modern cult film in Malayalam, and the utterly forgettable 'Sagar Alias Jackey Reloaded'. 

The first half of the film is more than good with the story being set up by the director taking ample time. The stylized violence set to breathtaking locales is a win win and if at all you are gonna watch the film, it should be on a big screen. The set pieces and character entrances are made for the theatrical audience who are still in the 'Actor's Official Fans Association' mode. The saving grace is that it is not Mammootty or Mohanlal and therefore the director doesn't prolong the slow-mo walks for which he is famous for. The songs in first half of the film are quite well used with the opening credits set to WW2 and 'Maane' song being the highlight. I have been hearing the latter one on radio for quite some time and was surprised when it came up because of the familiarity.

The second half of the film is quite lame as expected. It is totally predictable and you are just waiting for all the killings to be done with a happy ending, because you don't get anything else from commercial films these days-be it from India or Hollywood. There are two completely useless songs which does not add anything to story and it seems they are just there to make film's length symmetrical relative to its interval point. Almost all the characters are binary and the only interesting one in the film is Padmapriya's 'Rahel'. Jayasurya's turn as Angoor Rawther is very stylish with some punch dialog but he does not have anything much to do apart from that. The cast perform well with the material that they have been given to work with. 

Amal Neerad who began his career as a cinematographer for several Ram Gopal Varma's 'Factory' productions, is always dependable to produce films with great technical excellence. I think for 'Big B', which is a remake of 'Four Brothers', he just stumbled across a very good script. He doesn't look capable of making another film that good anymore unless he gets such a script. 'Iyobinte Pusthakam' is a bit like Urumi, it is worth a watch on its theatrical run because of its technical excellence and a passable story which is interesting only because of its period setting. 

Rating: 3/5

İklimler (Climates) (2006)

Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Writer:    Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Cast:       Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Ebru Ceylan, Nazan Kesal
Language: Turkish

A dowdy university professor Isa is an inattentive husband to his younger, TV-business wife Bahar. Self-absorbed and selfish, Isa only communicates in the most rudimentary way, while she, similarly, detaches into crying jags and juvenile behavior.

The real life couple of the director and his wife plays the roles of Isa and Bahar in the film. It starts off when they are on vacation in a beach-town during the summer. The break-up happens over there with Isa returning to Istanbul and Bahar moving to Eastern Turkey for her TV project. Lonely Isa gets into a relationship with Serap, who seems to have more in common with him than Bahar, and we are led to believe that their relationship have a prior history. Isa then goes back to Eastern Turkey during the winter in order to make a final attempt to get back with Bahar and it seems both of them are still not sure about what they want.

Out of the three films of Ceylan that I have watched so far, Climates is the one that makes you reminisce most about Antonioni films. Like L'Avventura, it begins with a couple on a vacation over the course of which they get separated. Film is shot exquisitely and much of it is conveyed by expressions and subtle gestures. There are many instances where audience is deceived by the imagery and scene edits. There is one long continuous shot of a sex scene which begins as a rape that reminded me of 'A History of Violence'. 

Like Antonioni films, it might not be suitable to everyone's taste but I loved it. Antonioni leaves the audience to figure out everything by pure observation whereas Ceylan uses dialog also to convey what is going on through the actors' minds. Having said that, I found that some of what they were saying were not exactly what I was figuring out based on the gestures. I don't know whether this is intentional from the director, but the deceptions based on mirrors, edits etc would suggest that. Ceylan's films are highly recommended for fans of Michelangelo Antonioni. 

Rating: 5/5  

Jodorowsky's Dune (2013)

Director: Frank Pavich
Stars:      Alejandro Jodorowsky, Michael Seydoux, H.R. Giger, Nicolas Winding Refn

The story of cult film director Alejandro Jodorowsky's ambitious but ultimately doomed film adaptation of the seminal science fiction novel.

I haven't read 'Dune' or seen David Lynch's adaptation of it. Actually, I saw about twenty minutes of that film before turning it off. It is something Lynch has distanced himself from and in the documentary, Jodorowsky says that he was happy after seeing it because it was atrocious. Jodorowsky teamed up with drawing artists/special effects people like Dan O'Bannon, Moebius, Chris Foss and Giger to create a story board for the film which is literally a cinematographer's view on how to make it. They designed everything keeping in mind the feasibility of realizing it. He had planned to include Pink Floyd and Magma for the music, Orson Welles, Salvador Dali, Mick Jagger, David Carradine, Gloria Swanson, Amanda Lear and his own son as actors for the film. They required a total budget of $ 15 million of which they were $5 million short and approached the studios in LA for it. The suits there thought the film was too ambiguous and didn't particularly trust Jodotowsky to helm the project. Ultimately it didn't take off though many in the Jodorowsky worked in other projects like Alien, in which the traces of Dune are evident. As the film puts it, if it was not for Jodorowsky's Dune, Alien would not be the same and that trickles down to Bladerunner and films like Matrix and Prometheus. 

Out of Jodorowky's films I have only seen 'Holy Mountain' so far even though 'El Topo' and 'Santa Sangre' have been on my watch-list for a while. Jodorowsky hadn't made a film for 23 years and after teaming up with Michael Seydoux for the making of this documentary, they made a film again called 'The Dance of Reality' which I am planning to watch. 'Holy Mountain', which was produced by Beatles manager Alan Klein, was totally weird and so out there. Jodorowksy is like more obscure, weirder version of David Lynch and it is evident from the documentary that Jodorowsky also have huge respect for Lynch. 

 It is was good to see Nicolas Winding Refn in the documentary because someone like him could realize Jodorowsky's vision, if not as a feature film maybe on TV with support from someone like HBO. The energy that an 85 year old Jodorowsky exhibits is amazing and I have decided to buy the Frank Herbert book and read it. The claim that Jodorowsky's 'Dune' would have been better than '2001: A Space Odyssey' and that it would have altered the future of Hollywood blockbusters had it released before 'Star Wars' is not that outrageous.

Rating: 4/5

Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night) (2014)

Directors: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Writers:    Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Cast:         Marion Cotillard, Fabrizio Rongioni, Pili Groyne
Language: French

Sandra, a young Belgian mother, who is recovering from depression after an accident, discovers that her workmates have opted for a significant pay bonus in exchange for her dismissal. She has only one weekend to convince her colleagues to give up their bonuses so that she keep her job.

It is yet another master-piece from Dardenne brothers who are adept at making profound cinema out of simple premises. For Sandra (Marion Cotillard), it is as much a battle to overcome her depression as it is to keep her job. Because of the state of mind she is in, she is resigned to her fate and is not willing to contact her co-workers to change their mind. She doesn't want to go beg for her job and draw pity but her husband and a co-worker who supported her in the previous vote advises her that there is nothing wrong with asking since the foreman at her workplace is working actively against her to swing the vote. It is something that we see when it comes to people's reactions to various events-when you are far removed from feeling the effect of a tragedy, you are not bothered by it. That is why the shrug reaction to famines in Africa and concern when something that can affect you also like Ebola comes up. Same can be said about ISIS, the developed world started reacting only when they started beheading Western journalists making empty threats about terrorist strikes. By making herself visible to people who are going to decide on her job, she is making them feel affected by the choice that they are making. The whole exercise had a tinge of '12 Angry Men' vibe to it in terms of reversing what appears to be an insurmountable odds. One can rightly question whether any manager would be stupid enough to put such a scenario for vote since it is a recipe to create workplace problems. But it is based on several such incidents happening in places like USA and Italy along with Belgium.

By the end of the film she is able to win only one of her battles-the important one of overcoming her depression. The film can be at times manipulative and feel-goodish but it is in good taste. For a Dardennes film, it has got plenty of dialogs and it is another great performance from Marion Cotillard who is among my favorite actors. Her character arc is not too dissimilar from the one in 'Rust and Bone' but this time it is a much simpler story. Incidentally, Dardennes met her on the set of 'Rust & Bone' which they were set to co-produce and the the conversation led to them offering her a role which she accepted without reading a script. This is the first time Dardennes are working with a non-Belgian actor-let alone an A-list star. The film was set in French speaking part of Belgium where the Dardennes where born and raised. 

Rating: 4.5/5

Uzak (Distant) (2002)

Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Writer:    Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Cast:       Muzaffer Ozdemir, Emin Toprak
Language: Turkish

After his wife leaves him, a photographer has an existential crisis and tries to cope with his cousin's visit, who comes to Istanbul in search for a job.

Nuri Bilge Ceylan has cited Michelangelo Antonioni as one of his biggest influences and it is pretty much evident in his films. He recently won Palme d'Or for his most recent release, Winter Sleep, and I I had only seen the magnificent 'Once Upon a Time in Anatolia' from his filmography before this. Whilst OPaTiA was set in rural Turkey, Uzak is set in Istanbul where two characters-one veteran migrant from a village and a recent migrant are contrasted even though both of them are going through alienation. The former, Mahmut, is an intellectual photographer while the latter, Yusuf, is uneducated and unsophisticated. Both of them are not capable of engaging in a healthy romantic relationship and are summed up in an earlier scene in the film- Mahmut is watching Tarkovsky's Stalker on TV and Yusuf gets bored and leaves for bed. As soon as he goes, Mahumt switches to watch a porn film, not that there is anything with it. The story of the film is told visually as we go through Istanbul's winter season (I didn't know that it snowed in Istanbul). 

Having unwanted guests who are not at all compatible with you and invade your privacy is something that we have all faced some point of time. That arc is very well captured in the film with the initial accomodative stance moving towards, annoyance and finally resentment. Films ends with Yusuf leaving without notice and Mahmut contemplating by staring at a ship that has sailed. It is much more accessible film than OPaTiA and is something we, in the developing world, can relate to very well. It is really a pleasure to watch a contemplative film that tells its story through relatively small things that we encounter in life.

Film might not be as visually ambitious as OPaTiA was but it is still fantastic to watch. Emin Toprak, who played Yusuf, died tragically in a car crash at the age of 28 immediately after the filming was completed.

Rating: 5/5